BRONTE, CHARLOTTE EMILY (1818 1848) and ANNE (182o-1849), English novelists, were the children of Patrick Brontė, an Irishman, who was born at Ems dale, Co. Down, on March 17, I7 7 7. His paternal name was Brunty, but this he changed when he came to England. Although the son of humble parents, he had saved sufficient by the age of 25 to support him at Cambridge, and he entered St. John's college in 1802, then, on taking his degree four years later, he became curate of Wethersfield, Essex. At Hartshead-cum-Clifton, York shire, where he had afterwards accepted a curacy, he married Maria, daughter of Thomas Branwell of Penzance, in 1812. She was a woman of delicate constitution, and died of cancer on Sept. 15, 1821, the mother of six children. Hartshead was the birth place of her elder daughters, Maria (1813-1825) and Elizabeth (1814-1825) ; then when the family had moved to Thornton in the same county, Charlotte was born on April 21, 1816, Patrick Branwell in 1817, Emily Jane in August, 1818, and Anne in March 182o. Three months after Anne's birth, her father ac cepted the living of Haworth nine miles from Bradford, where he remained as rector for the rest of his life.
On the death of Mrs. Brontė, her husband invited his sister-in law, Elizabeth Branwell, to live with his family at Haworth and to care for the children. She taught them the simple arts, but took her meals apart and had but slight intercourse with them. Branwell was educated by his father, but the latter, again, was of eccentric personality. A man of more than average intelligence (he was the author of two volumes of verse and other works) and undoubtedly fond of his six children, yet he was unsocial in his habits, living, even taking his meals alone, in his study. Thus the children were left very much to themselves in the bleak moor land rectory. Most of their time was spent in reading and in composition, varied with walks over the moors; and their output of youthful literature was enormous. In the course of 15 months, before she was 15 years of age, Charlotte was responsible for 23 "novels" alone, and in these writings, though they are of no intrinsic value, there is ample evidence of the astonishing pre cocity displayed by the young family.
The children were educated, during their early life, at home, except for a single year which Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily spent in the Clergy Daughters' school at Cowan's Bridge. Here the fees were extremely low, and the food was correspond ingly bad, while the discipline was unpardonably harsh. The horrors experienced at Cowan's Bridge were afterwards depicted by Charlotte in Jane Eyre, the name of the school being dis guised as "Lowood"; but in this terrible picture it is necessary to allow for some exaggeration. In 1831 Charlotte was sent to Miss Margaret Wooler's school at Roe Head, Dewsbury, where she improved her drawing, French and composition; a year later, she returned home to assist in the instruction of her sisters. Al though her shyness and reserve, her ignorance in some directions and her precocity in others, were noted by her school companions at Roe Head, this year of her life was a happy one, and bore . f ruit in the lasting friendships which she made with Mary Taylor and Ellen Nussey; her correspondence with Miss Nussey, indeed, which continued until her death, has provided much of what we know of her life. The next three years at Haworth, varied with visits to one or other of these two friends, were spent in reading and composition ; but financial considerations, and especially the cost of supporting Branwell, persuaded her in 1835 to become governess with Miss Wooler, whose school, a year later, was re moved to Dewsbury. Emily, accompanying her as a pupil, suffered from home-sickness and remained only three months; her place was then taken by Anne.
When Charlotte returned, on account of ill-health, to Haworth in 1838, she received an offer of marriage from Ellen Nussey's brother Henry, who was a clergyman, but this proposal, and a second one from a curate named Bryce, she refused. Her opinion of curates, whom in one place she describes as "a self-seeking, vain and empty race," was singularly embittered especially in view of her marriage later on. At this time her literary en deavours were somewhat damped by a letter which she received from Southey ; she had sent him some manuscripts 'for his opinion, and his reply discouraged her. It was necessary to supplement the family income, and Charlotte made new plans. After serving for some months as nursery governess to the Sidgwicks of Stone gappe and to the Whites of Rawdon, Yorkshire, it occurred to her that she might attain to a greater independence if she herself possessed a school. Her aunt agreed to finance this experiment, and Charlotte proposed to visit the Continent in order to acquire a more thorough knowledge of modern languages; early in 2842 she went with Emily to Brussels as pupil in the Pensionnat Heger. The talent displayed by both his English students brought them to the special notice of the principal teacher, Constantin Heger, who was a man of unusual perception, and in whose hands they rapidly acquired a mastery of the language. After eight months, however, their studies were abruptly cut short by the death of their aunt on Oct. 29, 2842, and they both returned to England. Charlotte was on the whole happy in Brussels, but Emily pined for home and for the wild moorland air. Yet it seems clear that in Brussels, reserved as she was, Emily was better appreciated than Charlotte. Her passionate nature was more easily under stood than Charlotte's decorous temperament. Elizabeth Branwell bequeathed to her nieces a sum which carried a certain inde pendence with it, and, discarding the plan to found a school out side, the sisters now decided to take pupils at their father's house. Charlotte, however, in order to perfect her knowledge of French, accepted an invitation from M. Heger to return as instructress to Brussels, and the whole of 1843 she spent abroad. This year was not a happy one for her. She was lonely and grew depressed, her strong religious convictions were upset in a Roman Catholic coun try, while there is reason to believe that Mme. Heger became jealous of her. That the latter was unjust in her suspicions can hardly be questioned. Certainly the letters which Charlotte sent her master after she had left Brussels finally, indicate a profound and moving attachment to him, but on the other hand there is not the slightest reason to suppose that M. Heger felt anything beyond friendliness and admiration for his pupil's talents. Char lotte returned to Haworth on Jan. 2, 1844 The events which followed were not calculated to dissipate her gloom. Prospectuses were issued of the school which they pro posed to found at the vicarage, but to that distant village no pupils were attracted. Worse than this disappointment was the moral collapse of Branwell, who about this time became a con firmed drunkard. He had been a lad of great promise, and it was hoped that he would become an artist ; but his fondness for drink and for questionable companions, besides a more general feeble ness of character, had manifested themselves early in his life and with disastrous results. From his youth onwards, his life was a series of disgraces. He squandered his parent's money in futile efforts to become a painter, and turned at last to private tuition as a means of earning his living. A short period of employment with the Leeds and Manchester railway terminated with his dismissal in 2842 on account of culpable negligence, and his career closed in 1845 when he was turned out of Mr. Robinson's house at Thorp Green, justly charged with making love to his employer's wife. The last years of his life were spent at Haworth, where he loafed at the village inn, shocked his sisters by his excesses, and finally died in delirium tremens.
In 1845 Charlotte came across some poems by Emily, and this led to the discovery that all three had written verse. A year later was published jointly a volume of poems by "Currey, Ellis and Acton Bell," the initials of these pseudonyms being those of the sisters; but the book was issued at their own expense, and only two copies were sold. Yet lack of notice did not deter them from further efforts. Each had a novel completed, for which they persevered in their endeavours to find a publisher. After a long and discouraging series of refusals, Charlotte was rewarded in 1847 by a polite letter from the firm of Smith and Elder, whose reader, while rejecting her novel The Professor, expressed himself very willing to examine the three-volume romance which she had mentioned to him. This was Jane Eyre, then in process of com pletion. Written in a period of sadness consequent upon Bran well's collapse, upon the growing blindness of her father, and upon the now manifest ill-health of her sisters, it was a work of in comparably greater power than The Professor. When she sent it to Smith and Elder, their reader, W. S. Williams, was so excited that he sat up all night reading it; and on its publication in Aug. 1847, success was immediate. "Currer Bell" at once became a famous name. Although the book was full of improbabilities and often displayed a naive ignorance of the world, its characteri zation was so sure and its passion so overwhelming, that its faults were easily forgotten. Charlotte's extreme shyness induced her to keep her name secret for some time after the appearance of Jane Eyre, but when she visited London in 1848, to see her publishers her real name could no longer be concealed from them.
Her stay in London was very brief, and on her return to Haworth, fresh misfortunes were asaiting her to dissipate what ever elation she may have felt. Branwell died on Sept. 24, and hardly had Charlotte recovered from the breakdown which fol lowed this shock than Emily's health began rapidly to fail. She had been ill for some time, but now her breathing became difficult, and she suffered great pain. Yet it was only two hours before her death on Dec. '9, after she had struggled from her bed and dressed herself, that she would allow a doctor to be called. This stoicism was characteristic of her whole life. With her death the most enigmatical and perhaps the greatest of the Brontes passed away. Our record of her life is extremely meagre, for she was silent and reserved, and left no correspondence of interest, while her single novel, Wuthering Heights, darkens rather than solves the mystery of her spiritual existence. This book had been ac cepted early in 1847 by J. Cautley Newby, of London, but its publication was delayed until after the appearance of Jane Eyre. Its greatness was not soon recognized, and many years elapsed before anything beyond a clumsiness of construction and a say agery of mood were generally perceived in it. So difficult is the book to "place," and so charged with a significance which it is difficult to explain, that doubts of all kinds have grown up round it. At first it was widely :egarded as an early work of "Currer Bell," and later on as a creation of Branwell's; but there is no reason for rejecting Charlotte's statement that the novel was by her sister, while there is good evidence in Branwell's writings for not crediting him with so great a book as this. It is true that he claimed at least a share of the authorship, but this was no more, probably, than the idle boast df a drunkard. Emily's poems (she alone of the sisters possessed a true poetic gift) throw most light upon her mind and heart. From them we learn of her stoicism, her deism and of her passion for the moors which almost amounted to "nature worship" ; and there are also passages which plainly indicate that she had had mystical experiences. Besides the poems, which give some idea of her personality, there is an idealized portrait of Emily in the heroine of Charlotte Bronte's Shirley; but of external biographical material little that is of value has been preserved.
On May 26 of the next year Anne died at Scarborough, where she had gone for the sake of her health. Gentle, open and sub missive, she was in many respects the antithesis of Emily, but she was nevertheless the deepest in her confidence. Along with Wict/iering Heights, she had submitted a novel to Newby, and this, Agnes Grey, was also accepted. Both books were published in Dec. 1847, but Anne's novel achieved no more success than her sister's. Agnes Grey was succeeded by The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which was issued by the same publisher in the following June; but no outstanding merit can be claimed for either of Anne's novels, though they have perhaps suffered mainly by com parison with the work of her greater sisters. Her verses were graceful and often expressed with considerable beauty the pathos and gentleness of her personality, while some of her hymns are sung to this day.
In the interval between the death of Branwell and of Emily, Charlotte had been engaged upon a new novel Shirley. Two thirds were written, but the story was then laid aside while its author was nursing her sister Anne. She completed the book after Anne's death, and it was published in Oct. 1849. The following winter she visited London as the guest of her publisher, Mr. George Smith, and was introduced to Thackeray, to whom she had dedicated Jane Eyre. The following year she repeated the visit, sat for her portrait to George Richmond, and was consider ably lionized by a host of admirers. In Aug. 1850 she visited the English lakes as the guest of Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, and met Mrs. Gaskell, Miss Martineau, Matthew Arnold and other interesting men and women. During this period her publishers assiduously lent her books, and her criticisms of them contained in many letters to Mr. George Smith and Mr. Smith Williams make very interesting reading, though she could never separate artistic and moral values. In 1851 she received a third offer of marriage, this time from Mr. James Taylor, who was in the em ployment of her publishers. A visit to Miss Martineau at Amble side, Westmorland and also to London to the Great Exhibition made up the events of this year. On her way home she visited Manchester and spent two days with Mrs. Gaskell. During the year 1852 she worked hard on Villette, which was published in Jan. of 1853. In Sept. of that year she received a visit from Mrs. Gaskell at Haworth; in May 1854 she returned it, remain ing three days at Manchester, and planning with her hostess the details of her marriage with her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls (1817-1906), who had long been a pertinacious suitor but had been discouraged by Mr. Brontė. The marriage took place in Haworth church on June 29, 1854. Charlotte and her husband spent their honeymoon in Ireland returning to Haworth, where they made their home with Mr. Brontė, Mr. Nicholls hav ing pledged himself to continue in his position as curate to his father-in-law. After less than a year of married life, however, Charlotte Nicholls died of an illness following on childbirth, on March 31, 1855. She was buried in Haworth church by the side of her mother, Branwell and Emily. The father died in 1861, and then her husband returned to Ireland, surviving until 1906.
The bare recital of the Brontė story can give no idea of its undying interest, its exceeding pathos. Their life as told by their biographer Mrs. Gaskell is as interesting as any novel. Their achievement, however, will stand on its own merits. Anne Bronte's two novels, it is true, though constantly reprinted, sur vive principally through the exceeding vitality of the Brontė tradition. Emily is great alike as a novelist and as a poet. Her "Old Stoic" and "Last Lines" are among the finest achievement of poetry that any woman has given to English literature. Wuth ering Heights stands alone as a monument of intensity owing nothing to tradition, nothing to the achievement of earlier writers. It was a thing apart, passionately sincere, unforgettable, haunt ing in its grimness, its grey melancholy. Emily Brontė has a sure and certain place in English literature. As a poet or maker of verse Charlotte Brontė is undistinguished, but there are passages of pure poetry of great magnificence in her four novels, and particularly in Villette. The novels Jane Eyre and Villette will always command attention whatever the future of English fiction, by virtue of their intensity, their independence, their rough individuality. It is essential to realize the early Victorian atmosphere in which Emily and Charlotte Brontė wrote their novels if the greatness of their achievement is to be realized. They shocked their contemporaries by showing their heroines consumed by naked passion, and made a breach in the then con ventional theory that woman was merely the loved and not the lover. The problem that has tormented all their biographers, and critics is how they learned to know passion as they did when their lives were spent in the Haworth parsonage so familiar to all their readers. Their world was built up in their own imagination, and it is this which makes its truth and its universal appeal.