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The Best Books by Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë Ranked

charlotte sisters

Charlotte penned another three novels in total, but Jane Eyre was her magnum opus. The first copy of Jane Eyre arrived at the parsonage in October 1847. Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey followed in December, though they had clearly been published by a less-professional outfit – the volumes were full of errors that the authors had corrected many months earlier. There were no sewers, only open drains, and the water supply was insufficient.

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Despite her sadly short life, handwritten poems by the reclusive author are incredibly coveted by collectors and libraries. She enlisted in school at Roe Head, Mirfield, in January 1831, aged 14 years. She left the year after to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home, returning in 1835 as a governess. In 1839, she undertook the role of governess for the Sidgwick family, but left after a few months to return to Haworth, where the sisters opened a school but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing and they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although her first novel, The Professor, was rejected by publishers, her second novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847.

The Life of Charlotte Brontë

charlotte sisters

Agnes Gray was published as a volume adjoined to Emily's Wuthering Heights in 1847. The main character Agnes is a governess, much like the author Acton Bell (secretly Anne). Anne was easily won over to the project, and the work was shared, compared and edited.[84] Once the poems had been chosen, nineteen for Charlotte and twenty-one each for Anne and Emily, Charlotte went about searching for a publisher. She took advice from William and Robert Chambers of Edinburgh, directors of one of their favourite magazines, Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.

Which Brontë sister should I read first?

Driven by ambition, Patrick left his humble origins far behind and was accepted at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where his original family name of Brunty was dropped in favour of the more impressive sounding ‘Brontė’. Similarly, Patrick’s annual income of around £200 was twenty times more than that of the average domestic servant, but the Brontės were poor in comparison with landowners or wealthy aristocrats whose income might exceed £10,000 or even £20,000. The children’s formative years and their mature writing careers were developed in Haworth, amid the dramatic landscape of the surrounding moors. Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were born at Thornton, near Bradford, but moved to the nearby township of Haworth when Charlotte, the eldest of the famous novelists, was barely five years old.

Charlotte struggled through her third novel, but Villette was completed in November 1852. The following month, the author received a marriage proposal from her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls. They settled into a happy life at home at the parsonage, with Patrick. Charlotte was so content she was barely writing at all – she was just beginning to show an interest again when she fell pregnant.

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They were raised in a religious family.[1] The Brontë birthplace in Thornton is a place of pilgrimage and their later home, the parsonage at Haworth in Yorkshire, now the Brontë Parsonage Museum, has hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Around about 1833, her stories shifted from tales of the supernatural to more realistic stories.[15] She returned to Roe Head as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. The Brontë sisters’ novels continue to enchant readers with their timeless themes, captivating characters, and exquisite writing styles. Whether you’re new to their works or a dedicated fan, there’s always something new to discover in these literary masterpieces. I hope this guide has provided insight into the lives and works of these remarkable authors and helps you embark on your own journey through the captivating world of the Brontë sisters. The youngest of the talented Brontë siblings, Anne Brontë, was born on January 17th, 1820, in the picturesque village of Thornton, located in the beautiful county of Yorkshire, England.

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She declined quickly, refusing medical care until relenting in her last hours. Then Anne began to show symptoms, though she, after Emily’s experience, did seek medical help. Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey took Anne to Scarborough for a better environment, but Anne died there in May of 1849, less than a month after arriving.

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charlotte sisters

She published Villette, which detailed her own fervent longings for love in 1853, amidst a romantic entangled she had never anticipated. Emily's writings were initially published under the name Ellis Bell. She joined her sisters in publishing a collective volume of poetry in 1846.

With our current medical knowledge so different from that of the Victorian age, we can only guess at the combination of problems that robbed this world of these tormented, talented souls. Gifted with greater interpersonal skills, Charlotte Brontë enjoyed more social success in Belgium; aside from a visit to the parsonage after Aunt Branwell’s death, she continued her studies at the Pensionnat Heger. When she did return to Haworth a few years later, was she attempting to escape a broken heart caused by unrequited love for her teacher? There is evidence to support this conclusion, and her final novel, Villette, is thought to be autobiographical in its portrayal of the relationship between its protagonist and her teacher.

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He survived them all, eventually passing away in 1861, at the age of 84. Brontë had begun a new novel, when her brother Branwell, died in April of 1848, probably of tuberculosis. Emily caught what seemed to be a cold at his funeral, and became ill.

Jane Eyre was quickly sent to press and was an immediate sensation. The three Brontë sisters all cherished literary ambitions from an early age, and despite lives that were cut short by illness, secured a prominent place in the English literary canon. Instead, it is, for our money, the greatest of all of the books by the Brontë sisters, and an all-time classic. Anne Brontë wrote just two novels, and this was the first of them, a first-person tale published in 1847 and narrated by the title character, a young woman who takes up work as a governess to help support her family. But of course it’s the novels themselves that we should turn to find the most vital avatars of those characters. Below, we introduce the best books by the Brontë sisters, ranking them in order – controversially, perhaps, from ‘least good’ to ‘very best’.

They represented how possible and rewarding it can be to critique the normative expectations that have been placed on women historically. Charlotte was the eldest sister whose novel Jane Eyre is a true masterpiece of 19th-century literature. The novel is based on her personal experience as a governess and addresses issues such as social class disparity, female independence, morality, love and betrayal. Charlotte’s writing perfectly depicts the constraints faced by women during the Victorian era but also provided hope for female empowerment. To understand the Bronte Sisters’ path to literary success, we need to turn the pages back to their childhood and upbringing.

A lung specialist, called in to examine Anne shortly after Emily’s death, confirmed Charlotte’s worst fear, that she was likely to lose this last, much-loved sister. Charlotte’s pleasure in her new-found success turned out to be shortlived. Branwell, who had increasingly fallen back on alcohol and opium for solace, had been ailing all summer. He died suddenly on Sunday 24 September 1848, aged thirty-one, with the whole family at his death-bed.

In The Brontë Cabinet, Deborah Lutz calls attention to the mixed meanings of 19th-century housework in the sisters’ lives and novels, especially needlework, with which ladies were expected to keep their hands busy at all times. Charlotte was indignant when her first mistress demanded that she add sewing to child care, requiring her to make doll clothes and stitch hems on sheets. Caroline Helstone, in Charlotte’s Shirley, is wearied to distraction by having to embroider and mend stockings all day. And yet sewing also gives Brontë characters a pretext for thinking their own thoughts without being censured for idleness. As a governess, Jane Eyre hides behind her stitching when she wants to watch rather than talk. The title character in Anne’s Agnes Grey, another governess, is happiest sewing with her sister by the fire at home.

In the past it was incorrectly posed that Branwell must have been Wuthering Heights' author, as they believed such brutality could only have been written by a man. Anne returned to Haworth in the summer of 1845, having resigned her position. The young Mr Brontë was, it seems, seduced by the older woman, with whom he was deeply in love. Denied his heart’s desire and with ever-more dwindling hope of a reunion with her, Branwell sank into heavy depression and dependency on alcohol and opiates.

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