Brontë sisters


The Brontës are the world’s most famous literary family.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë were the authors of some of the best-loved books in the English language.
Charlotte and Emily are ranked among the world’s greatest novelists and Anne is a powerful but underrated author.
All three of the sisters were governesses at some point during their lives. They used this experience in their novels.
All the heroines in the Brontë novels are outsiders and face difficulties in society.
The Brontës, published under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, were acknowledged at the time for their directness and powerful emotional energy, qualities which were sometimes interpreted by the critics as 'coarse' and 'brutal'.


Charlotte was born on 21 April 1816 at Thornton near Bradford.
She was the eldest of the three literary Brontë sisters and lived the longest.

In 1831 she went as a pupil to Miss Wooler’s school at Roe Head, Mirfield, where she met her lifelong friends, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor.
In 1835 she returned to the school as a teacher and stayed until 1838.
After working briefly as a governess, Charlotte went to school in Brussels to obtain qualifications with a view to opening a school.

After accidentally discovering a manuscript of her sister Emily’s poems in 1846, Charlotte persuaded both her sisters to allow their poems to be published along with her own.

The sisters hid their real identities behind false names:
Charlotte became Currer Bell, Emily became Ellis Bell and Anne became Acton Bell.
The volume of poems was a failure and only two copies were sold.

Later, she began to write the novel Jane Eyre and The Professor which was not published during her lifetime.
October 1847 Jane Eyre is published and quickly becomes a bestseller.
Charlotte continued to write and published two more novels:
Shirley (1849), and Villette (1853).

She married Arthur Bell Nicholls her fathers curate, on 29th June 1854.
Begins but does not finish a novel, Emma.

It was a short marriage, Charlotte who was pregnant died on 31st March 1855 aged 38.

In 1857 Her previously rejected novel The Professor is published posthumously.

Emily Jane Brontë
1818-1848


Emily Jane Brontë was born at Thornton on 30 July 1818 and the only one of all the Brontë children to be given a middle name.
Emily also attended Miss Wooler’s school in 1835, and then taught briefly at Law Hill School near Halifax in 1838.
Whenever she was away from Haworth, Emily suffered severely from homesickness, however she did accompany Charlotte to Brussels.
When Emily returned to the Parsonage, she became the housekeeper.

Emily’s only novel Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, it was very criticised by the press especially for its supposedly morbid outlook and inappropriate subject matter.

She died a year later from tuberculosis on 19 December 1848 at the age of 30.

Anne Brontë
1820-1849


Anne Brontë was born at Thornton on 17 January 1820.

In 1835 she replaced her sister Emily at Miss Wooler’s school and stayed as a pupil until 1837.
Anne became governess to two households.
From 1839-1840, she worked for the Ingham family of Blake Hall, Mirfield, and from 1840-1845, for the Robinson family of Thorp Green, east of York.

Anne drew greatly on her experiences as a governess when writing her two novels.
She began her first novel Agnes Grey whilst still at Thorp Green and it was published in 1847.
Her second novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was published the following year.
Anne was not to enjoy her success for long; she died of tuberculosis only a few months later on 28 May 1849 at the age of 29.


Charlotte


Emily


Anne

Jane Eyre (1847)

Shirley (1849)

Villette (1853)

The Professor(1857)

Wuthering Heights (1847)

Agnes Grey (1847)

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)