Loved this. Anne was truly a compassionate and courageous spirit. It is an injustice that she is still so overshadowed by her siblings and yet I feel she resonates more with today's women.
I wish i could have met her, this why I love her so much thank you for your wonderful work, though I know work isn't the correct word, I think passion would be better, anyway thank you and as you say take courage.
I love reading and hearing about The Brontes especially the three sisters, Such a shame they all died in such a short space of each other if only Branwell had lived he could have drawn the pictures for his sisters books he was an artist in portraits his sisters artists in writing together they would have made a brilliant team. I find Anne was the quiet one with a true love of animals and se was right about humans being cruel. Her nature was the opposite of her hard story telling . Only 30yrs and died. Such a terrible sad way of victorians surrounded by death.
I’m not quite sure what prompted me, but in the past couple of months I have read Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and the excellent biography “In search of Anne Brontë”. The biography gives a superb account of Anne’s life and of her family. It is incredibly powerful and very moving. Anne was a truly exceptional person. Her two novels are outstanding, full of insights and wry humour. The depictions of character and emotion in “Tenant” are superb and the “no holds barred” approach to the shocking behaviour and hypocrisy of Helen’s husband and his social circle must have been absolutely shocking to Victorian readers. I was amazed to find such brilliant, brutally honest, writing in a Victorian novel. Anne was a genius, pure and simple. It’s neither useful or appropriate to compare her with her sisters but what’s beyond dispute is she is a brilliant, wrongfully neglected, writer and at the very least their equal.
That last letter is heartbreaking. Is there anything in the collection suggesting that Emily's death, and even Branwell's death, impacted Anne's writing in any way? Did she not start another novel because of her sibling's death or was she not feeling well herself at that point?
We don't really know for certain - certainly she would have been very weak in the final months of her life, though there are indications that she was still writing poetry. We'd have to go into the realms of speculation, but one might suggest that the commitment of a poem would have seemed less onerous than that of a novel. We know for certain that Charlotte's writing suffered in the wake of her siblings' deaths - she was partway through "Shirley" in late 1848, and struggled a great deal to complete the novel. Academics have suggested that certain elements of the novel may have been changed partway through the writing process, as Charlotte strived to give the character of Shirley - thought to be based on her sister Emily - a happier ending.
I'm guessing that Anne's letters to her former charges haven't survived? Such a shame, as it would have been wonderful to have more of Anne's personal writings. Did they ever record/share their memories of Anne?
The references we have regarding Anne's communications with the Robinson girls come from Charlotte's letters to Ellen Nussey. To our knowledge, comparatively few of Anne's letters survive. Mrs Robinson was not directly named in Mrs Gaskell's biography of Charlotte, but she was described in such a way that it was fairly obvious who she was, and it rapidly became an open secret, despite changes made to later editions at the behest of the remarried Mrs Robinson's lawyers. Given the threat of scandal, the Robinson girls did not speak publicly about Anne or her time with their family.
Not in the Brontës' lifetimes - they weren't written for publication, but for their own enjoyment. Several of their poems, however, were written about scenes or characters from the juvenilia, and reworked versions appeared in their 1846 collection, though with any specific references to their fantasy worlds excised. The vast majority of the Gondal writings are lost, but you can find published editions of many of the Angrian tales.
Loved this. Anne was truly a compassionate and courageous spirit. It is an injustice that she is still so overshadowed by her siblings and yet I feel she resonates more with today's women.
A lovely essay. Many thanks.
Very interesting she was a fine person sad family so many of them dying yes what a good quote Take Courage
I wish i could have met her, this why I love her so much thank you for your wonderful work, though I know work isn't the correct word, I think passion would be better, anyway thank you and as you say take courage.
I love reading and hearing about The Brontes especially the three sisters, Such a shame they all died in such a short space of each other if only Branwell had lived he could have drawn the pictures for his sisters books he was an artist in portraits his sisters artists in writing together they would have made a brilliant team. I find Anne was the quiet one with a true love of animals and se was right about humans being cruel. Her nature was the opposite of her hard story telling . Only 30yrs and died. Such a terrible sad way of victorians surrounded by death.
I’m not quite sure what prompted me, but in the past couple of months I have read Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and the excellent biography “In search of Anne Brontë”. The biography gives a superb account of Anne’s life and of her family. It is incredibly powerful and very moving. Anne was a truly exceptional person.
Her two novels are outstanding, full of insights and wry humour. The depictions of character and emotion in “Tenant” are superb and the “no holds barred” approach to the shocking behaviour and hypocrisy of Helen’s husband and his social circle must have been absolutely shocking to Victorian readers. I was amazed to find such brilliant, brutally honest, writing in a Victorian novel.
Anne was a genius, pure and simple. It’s neither useful or appropriate to compare her with her sisters but what’s beyond dispute is she is a brilliant, wrongfully neglected, writer and at the very least their equal.
she is just amazing
That last letter is heartbreaking. Is there anything in the collection suggesting that Emily's death, and even Branwell's death, impacted Anne's writing in any way? Did she not start another novel because of her sibling's death or was she not feeling well herself at that point?
We don't really know for certain - certainly she would have been very weak in the final months of her life, though there are indications that she was still writing poetry. We'd have to go into the realms of speculation, but one might suggest that the commitment of a poem would have seemed less onerous than that of a novel. We know for certain that Charlotte's writing suffered in the wake of her siblings' deaths - she was partway through "Shirley" in late 1848, and struggled a great deal to complete the novel. Academics have suggested that certain elements of the novel may have been changed partway through the writing process, as Charlotte strived to give the character of Shirley - thought to be based on her sister Emily - a happier ending.
Anne was the best Bronte writer
I'm guessing that Anne's letters to her former charges haven't survived? Such a shame, as it would have been wonderful to have more of Anne's personal writings. Did they ever record/share their memories of Anne?
The references we have regarding Anne's communications with the Robinson girls come from Charlotte's letters to Ellen Nussey. To our knowledge, comparatively few of Anne's letters survive. Mrs Robinson was not directly named in Mrs Gaskell's biography of Charlotte, but she was described in such a way that it was fairly obvious who she was, and it rapidly became an open secret, despite changes made to later editions at the behest of the remarried Mrs Robinson's lawyers. Given the threat of scandal, the Robinson girls did not speak publicly about Anne or her time with their family.
Were the stories of Angria and Gondal ever published?
Not in the Brontës' lifetimes - they weren't written for publication, but for their own enjoyment. Several of their poems, however, were written about scenes or characters from the juvenilia, and reworked versions appeared in their 1846 collection, though with any specific references to their fantasy worlds excised. The vast majority of the Gondal writings are lost, but you can find published editions of many of the Angrian tales.