Bronte

In 1846, Charlotte, Emily and Anne pub lished jointly a volume of under the names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The little volume was hardly noticed, though it contained Emily's fine stanzas on the

The next year appeared Anne's second novel, the

curate at Haworth. Her married life, which promised much happiness, was brief. She passed a few months on her husband's estates in Ireland and then returned to Haworth to die on 31 March 1855. She was buried in the church by the side of Emily and Branwell. Two years after her death, the

A glamour rests over these children of an Irish clergyman who had strayed to the York shire moors. What Charlotte said of Emily and Anne may be said of herself also: For strangers they were nothing; for superficial observers less than nothing; but for those who had known them all their lives . . . they were genuinely good and truly great" In them all, except perhaps Charlotte, lurked consump tion; and they all died young. Two were en dowed with unusual talents and two were geniuses. Much, no doubt, that has been re ported of Branwell is legendary, but he cer tainly possessed the Bronte taste for art and letters. A beautiful reproduction of his por trait of Emily was engraved from a photograph for the Haworth edition of