Literature
The Brontës
Charlotte (1816–55), Emily (1818–48) and Anne (1820–49) Brontë were sisters who between them wrote the great English novels Jane Eyre (1847), Wuthering Heights (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848). They lived with their father and brother Branwell in Yorkshire, England. At the time they were writing, many publishers did not respect women’s writing as much as men’s. So Charlotte, Emily and Anne gave themselves pseudonyms (false names), becoming Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Under these names they published poetry and some of the greatest novels of the 19th century.
Early life
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë were born in the village of Thornton, near Bradford, Yorkshire. Their father, Patrick Brontë (originally Patrick Brunty) was an Irish Anglican priest. Their mother died when Anne was just a baby, so their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, came to live with the family and look after the Brontë children, including their brother Branwell and two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth.
Along with their older sisters, Charlotte and Emily began their education at a boarding school called Cowan Bridge. School life was harsh, with strict teachers and terrible food. On Sundays they walked miles across freezing fields to attend church. After a year, both Maria and Elizabeth died from tuberculosis, aged just 11 and 10. Charlotte and Emily left the school, but this painful experience would stay with them forever and find its way into their novels.
A world of stories
Living in the countryside, the sisters continued their education at home. Visiting tutors taught them music and art. They made up stories about their brother’s toy soldiers to entertain one another, and created homemade magazines. They invented their own worlds, called "Gondal" and "Glass Town", and wrote stories about them in tiny books small enough for the soldiers to read.
Teachers
The sisters were good at schoolwork, and as they grew older they took work as teachers and governesses (private teachers who looked after one or two children). In 1842 Charlotte and Emily made plans to set up their own school. In preparation, they travelled to Brussels in Belgium to improve their French. But the death of their aunt soon brought them home again, and by 1845 the sisters were living together again with their brother and father in Haworth, the village where their father was a curate.
Novels
The sisters’ first published work was a book of poetry which they published jointly in 1846: Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Charlotte was aged 30, Emily 28 and Anne 26. They had also begun working on novels. Each evening they gathered together at the table to read their work aloud to one another and exchange advice.
All three sisters had their novels published the following year. Anne’s novel Agnes Grey was about the life of a governess, and was closely based on her own experiences. Charlotte’s novel Jane Eyre was also about a governess. It told the story of Jane, who falls in love with Edward Rochester when she is sent to work for him. Jane Eyre immediately created a stir in the literary world. Though reviewers were divided, finding some parts offensive, they agreed that it was an unusual and brilliant novel.
Emily’s novel Wuthering Heights was published at the end of the year, 1847. It told the dramatic, violent love story between a young woman named Catherine and Heathcliff, an orphan who comes to live with her family. It was set in the wild landscape of the Yorkshire Moors. Many readers were shocked by the cruelty in the book and it did not sell well at first, but it has since become a classic.
In 1848 Anne published a second novel: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It was about a woman who escapes her violent husband and moves into a mansion with her child to work as a painter. Victorian readers were not used to seeing a woman portrayed with such independence in a novel, and today it is considered one of the first feminist novels. It is the least well-known of the Brontë sisters’ books, however, because after Anne’s death Charlotte prevented the novel from being reprinted, saying it had been a “mistake".
Inspiration
While other writers at the time socialized together in London in groups known as literary circles, the Brontës did not mix with any other writers. They made up their own group, living, working and exchanging ideas together in their home in Haworth. This meant that their work was quite different from other writers’ of the time. When their novels were published, many people believed that their authors were all in fact one person named "Ellis Bell". Charlotte and Anne had to travel together to London to meet their publisher and prove that they were separate writers.
Illness and tragedy
In 1848 Branwell Brontë died from tuberculosis, and within six months Emily and Anne caught the disease and died as well. They were aged just 30 and 29. After the death of her brother and sisters, Charlotte kept writing. She published two more novels: Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853). The two main characters in Shirley were based on Emily and Anne, whose deaths had come as Charlotte was writing the novel. By the time her later books were published, Charlotte had revealed her true identity as the author, and she became a literary celebrity. She married in 1854 but just one year later she died, probably from a combination of illnesses, aged 38.
Legacy
The Brontë sisters’ novels continued to be popular after their deaths. More than 200 years since the sisters were born, their novels are still in print and are among the best-loved books written in the English language. They have been adapted many times into films and plays, and inspired countless writers and artists. Today, the Brontës’ family home in Haworth, The Parsonage, has been turned into a museum for people to visit and find out more about their lives.
