The Brontë Sisters, 1816-1855, 1818-1848, 1820-1849

Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848), and Anne (1820-1849) Brontë were born in Thornton, England, the three out of six children of Maria and Patrick Brontë, who was an Anglican clergyman. Shortly after Anne was born, the family moved to Haworth. Only a few months later, their mother died, and their aunt came to take care of them.

In 1824, Charlotte, Emily, and their two older sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, were sent to study at the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge. The harsh conditions affected their health, and the following year, both Maria and Elizabeth died of tuberculosis. Charlotte and Emily returned home, where Charlotte, who now became the eldest, took the mother role to her younger siblings. They were homeschooled and earned most of their education from books from their father’s library.

Being isolated from other children, the Brontës spent their time in writing and inventing an imaginary Kingdome called Glass Town. Charlotte, who wrote her first poem at 13, gathered her and her siblings’ compositions and published them in a homemade magazine called Branwell’s Blackwood’s Magazine. Over time, Charlotte and her older brother, Branwell (Patrick), created their own world called Angria. While Charlotte went to study at Roe Head school in Mirfield, Emily and Anne invented another world called Gondal.

In 1833, at 17, Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a teacher. During this time, she wrote poems to express her loneliness. In 1835, Emily joined her at Roe Head as a student but returned home after a few months. Later, Anne took her place at the school. In 1839, Charlotte and Anne began to work as governesses. That was a traumatic experience for Anne, who later detailed the event in her novel Agnes Grey.

In 1842, Charlotte and Emily traveled to Brussels to improve their French, but they had to return early than planned following their aunt’s death. Later, Charlotte returned to Brussels to teach for two more years. Two of her novels – The Professor and Villette – were inspired by her time there.

During all this time, the Brontë Sisters continued writing, and in 1846 they self-published a joint collection of their poems under the pseudonyms Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily), and Acton (Anne) Bell. Later that year, they sent to publishers in London a package containing manuscripts by each sister – Charlotte’s The Professor, Emily’s Wuthering Heights, and Anne’s Agnes Grey.

Although The Professor was not published, Charlotte sent another manuscript, Jane Eyre. All three sisters published their novels in 1847; while Jane Eyre received immediate success, Anne’s Agnes Grey was surpassed by her sister’s passionate drama.

In 1848, at 28, Anne published her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. At the time, Charlotte worked on her second manuscript, but stopped following the death of her three lasting siblings. First, her older brother Branwell died of chronic bronchitis and marasmus; then Emily died of pulmonary tuberculosis, and the following year, Anne died from pulmonary tuberculosis. Eventually, Charlotte resumed her writings, and in 1849, published her second novel, Shirley, followed by her third, Villette (1853).

She then married Arthur Nicholls, her father’s curate, and soon became pregnant. Her health declined, and she died with her unborn child only three weeks before her 39th birthday.

Despite the early and tragic deaths of the three Brontë sisters, they published together six novels (Charlotte – 3, Anne – 2, Emily – 1) and hundreds of poems, leaving a significant mark on the Victorian literature world that continues to this day. Their books were adapted into films, TV series, music, dances, operas, and stage productions.