The Best of the Brontës
The story of the Brontës is one of tragedy and great literary achievement. Of the six children born to Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë between 1814 and 1820, two died in childhood and none survived into their 40s (most were taken by the 19th-century tuberculosis epidemic that ravaged Europe). And yet, three of the Brontë sisters managed to write classic literary works that have endured long after their authors’ untimely deaths.
As children in their isolated home on the Yorkshire moors, Charlotte, Emily and Anne — along with their only brother, Branwell — began writing stories and creating fictional worlds. As adults, they were occasionally employed as teachers and governesses, but they never abandoned their love of literature.
In 1846, the three sisters published a volume of poetry at their own expense. Due to the widely held prejudice against female writers, they adopted masculine pen names using their own initials: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their book of poetry sold only two copies, but the sisters were undeterred.
The Brontës shared a steadfast attitude, a trait highlighted by their family friend Ellen Nussey, who described the siblings as “resolutely single-minded, eminently courageous, eminently simple in their habits, and eminently tender-hearted.” The trio soon began writing their own novels individually, many of which eventually became English literature classics.
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was the eldest of the three sisters. Her first novel, The Professor, was rejected and later published posthumously. Her second novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847 under her pen name Currer Bell. It was a success, although many critics were thrown by the novel’s freedom of thought and expression.
With its intimate first-person narrative and psychological depth, Jane Eyre was certainly ahead of its time, and its themes of sexuality, class, and religion had a significant impact on wider society. Charlotte went on to publish two more novels, Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853). She outlived her siblings but died from complications during pregnancy at the age of 38.
Emily Brontë’s only novel, Wuthering Heights, is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written in the English language. Upholding the traditions of Romantic and Gothic fiction, the novel tells the story of the tumultuous relationships within two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons — most infamously, the fiery and passionate romance between Catherine and Heathcliff. Emily herself has been a source of much fascination. A solitary and reclusive person who loved the moors upon which her novel takes place, she was close with her sisters (especially Anne), but few other people. She died at age 30 in 1848, shortly after her brother Branwell and a few months before Anne, all of them succumbing to complications caused by tuberculosis.
Anne was the youngest of the three sisters, and her novels were less prominent yet still excellent. Her debut novel, Agnes Grey, is a semi-autobiographical work that reflects Anne’s own experiences as a governess. Her second and final novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was the most incendiary and shocking novel published by any of the sisters. In it, Anne bravely challenged the morals of the Victorian era, when married women had no legal rights independent from their husbands, including in terms of divorce, child custody, and owning property. In one Wildfell scene, the protagonist, Helen Huntingdon, slams the bedroom door against her husband — an action that sent shockwaves throughout Victorian England. Today, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is regarded as a classic and one of the first feminist novels.
Emily Brontë
Anne Brontë
