Patrick Brontë (1777–1861) was the father of the famous "Brontë Sisters"—Anne, Charlotte, and Emily—three of Victorian England"s greatest novelists, but he was also a fascinating man in his own right, and not nearly as unsympathetic a character as Elizabeth Gaskell"s Life of Charlotte Brontë would have us believe. Born into poverty in Ireland, he won a scholarship to St. John"s College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Church of England. He was perpetual curate of Haworth in Yorkshire for 41 years, bringing up four children, founding a school, and campaigning for a proper water supply. Although often portrayed as a somewhat forbidding figure, he was an opponent of capital punishment and the Poor Law Amendment Act, a supporter of limited Catholic emancipation and a writer of poetry. Dudley Green"s scrupulously researched biography reveals the man behind the myths.