The Bronte Sisters
Bronte, Anne (1820-1849)
Anne Bronte was the sister of both Charlotte, and Emily Bronte. As the
youngest of the family, Anne was heavily home taught, though she briefly
attended school at Roe Head in 1836-1837. Together, the Bronte's came up
with the imaginary word Gondal, which became the setting for several poems
and an important characteristic in their lives. Than either Charlotte or
Emily, Anne had the most experience as a governess. She worked for the
Ingham family at Blake Hall in 1839 and the Robinsons of Thorpe Green Hall
in 1841-1845. She was followed there by Branwell (her brother) but he was
later dismissed due to his fixation with Mrs. Robinson, so he followed
him home. Anne's quasi-autobiographical story, Agnes Grey based on her
experiences as governess. It was published under the alias Acton Bell as
were Poems by Currer, and Ellis-her 1846 collection. The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall, being her second novel, was published in 1848. Despite the fact that
Anne's work included lucid and powerful portrayals of description in her
text, it didn't budge sociey's collective opinions that her novels didn't
measure up to her sisters'. In 1849 she died on a visit to Scarborough
in May 1849 and was buried there.
Bronte, Charlotte (1816-1855)
The acclaimed novelist and poet, Charlotte was the sister of Anne and Emily
Bronte and born to a Yorkshire clergyman. After the death of their mother
in 1821, their aunt Elizabeth Branwell took care of them. Charlotte attended
school at Cowan Bridge, where her eldest sisters contracted the tuberculosis
from which they died. She was governess to the Sidgwick family in 1839
and then in 1841, the White family. She and Emily went to Brussels in 1842
to study languages, but were forced to return form their excursion due
to the untimely death. The following year Charlotte returned to Brussels
and formed a deep friendship and passion for her tutor M. Heger. He was
fictionalized in both The Professor (1857) and Villette (1853). In 1845,
she discovered her sister's (Emily) poetic works and decided to include
her and Branwell's childhood imagination of Angria in Poems by Currer,
Ellis and Acton Bell. Unfortunately the book had only sold two copies.
Her first two novels The Professor and Jane Eyre were instantaneous successes.
In 1848, both Branwell and Emily died from tuberculosis, followed by Anne
in 1849. None the less, Charlotte continued to write Shirley and Villette.
Only after a few short months after her marriage to A.B. Nicholls, she
too died from tuberculosis in her early stages of pregnancy. She was accredited
to being an "extraordinarily powerful and talented writer in her day,"
though she was accused by some critics as being a 'strong-minded' woman
and of writing 'coarse' novels.
Bronte, Emily (1818-1848)
Like her sister Charlotte, Emily was a novelist and poet. Most of her life
was spent living in Haworth, Yorkshire, briefly attending Cowan Bridge
school. She went back to Roe Head in 1835 because she was homesick. She
only left home while being a governess at Law Hill and going on that short
expedition to Brussels with Charlotte. She, along with Anne Bronte, created
imaginary world of Gondal, and she adopts the personae of Gondal characters
in many of her poems. Wuthering Heights was the only novel that overshadowed
her poetry. Her desire in writing lyrics explored "personal identity and
the poet's relationship to language and to the natural landscape. 'Loud
without the wind was roaring', 'Ah! why, because the dazzling sun' and
'I am the only being whose doom' are just one of her many better, and foremost
accomplishments. Emily's Wuthering Heights, about setting human passions
against society with exceptional violence, was initially recieved as eccentric
and too rough. Since then, it has grown in critical growth in particular
reference to structure.
Return to Nineteenth Century Home
source:
Thomas, Jane. Guides to English Literature: Victorian Literature.
London:Bloomsbury Publishing, 1994