Austen, Eliot, Charlotte Bronte and the Mentor-Lover

This study uses the motif of the mentor lover embodying diverse permutations of sexual love, power and judgement to explore, evaluate and compare the works of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot as they contend with issues of sexuality, family, selfhood, freedom, conduct and gender. The figure also provides a means to probe their relationship to the reader as they become mentor-lovers through authorship, each eliciting a different form of love and electing a different style of instruction.