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BRONTE, CHARLOTTE (1816–1855), EMILY ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 639 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRONTE, See also:CHARLOTTE (1816–1855), EMILY (1818-1848) , and See also:ANNE (182o-1849), See also:English novelists, were three of the six See also:children of See also:Patrick Bronte; a clergyman of the See also:Church of See also:England, who for the last See also:forty-one years of his See also:life was perpetual See also:incumbent of the See also:parish of See also:Haworth in the See also:West See also:Riding of See also:Yorkshire. Patrick Bronte was See also:born at Emsdale, Co. Down, See also:Ireland, on the 17th of See also:March 1777. His parents were of the See also:peasant class, their See also:original name of Brunty apparently having been changed by their son on his entry at St See also:John's See also:College, See also:Cambridge, in 1802. In the intervening years he had been successively a See also:weaver and schoolmaster in his native See also:country. From Cambridge he became a See also:curate, first at See also:Wethersfield in See also:Essex, in 18o6, then for a few months at See also:Wellington, Salop, in 1809. At the end of 1809 he accepted a curacy at See also:Dewsbury, Yorkshire, following up this by one at Hartshead-cum-See also:Clifton in the same See also:county. At Hartshead Patrick Bronte married in 1812 Maria Branwell, a Cornishwoman, and there two children were born to him, Maria (1813–1825) and See also:Elizabeth (1814–1825). Thence Patrick Bronte removed to See also:Thornton, some 3 M. from See also:Bradford, and here his wife gave See also:birth to four children, Charlotte, Patrick Branwell (1817–1848), Emily Jane, and Anne, three of whom were to attain See also:literary distinction. In See also:April 182o, three months after the birth of Anne Bronte, her See also:father accepted the living of Haworth, a See also:village near See also:Keighley in Yorkshire, which will always be associated with the romantic See also:story of the Brontes. In See also:September of the following See also:year his wife died. Maria Bronte lives for us in her daughter's See also:biography only as the writer of certain letters to her " dear saucy Pat," as she calls her See also:lover, and as the author of a recently published See also:manuscript, an See also:essay entitled The Advantages of Poverty in Religious Concerns, full of a sententiousness much affected at the See also:time.

Upon the See also:

death of Mrs Bronte her See also:husband invited his See also:sister-in-See also:law, Elizabeth Branwell, to leave See also:Penzance and to take up her See also:residence with his See also:family at Haworth. See also:Miss Branwell accepted the See also:trust and would seem to have watched over her See also:nephew and five nieces with conscientious care. The two eldest of those nieces were not See also:long in following their See also:mother. Maria and Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily, were all sent to the See also:Clergy Daughters' school at Cowan See also:Bridge in 1824, and Maria and Elizabeth returned See also:home in the following year to See also:die. How far the See also:bad See also:food and drastic discipline were responsible cannot be accurately demonstrated. Charlotte gibbeted the school long years afterwards in Jane See also:Eyre, under the thin disguise of " Lowood," and the See also:principal, the Rev. See also:William See also:Carus See also:Wilson (1792–1859), has been universally accepted as the counterpart of Mr Naomi Brocklehurst in the same novel. But congenital disease more probably accounts for the tragedy from which happily Charlotte and Emily escaped, both returning in 1825 to a prolonged home life at Haworth. Here the four surviving children amused themselves in intervals of study under their aunt's guidance with precocious literary aspirations. The many tiny booklets upon which they laboured in the succeeding years have been happily preserved. We find stories, verses and essays, all in the minutest See also:handwriting, none giving any indication of the See also:genius which in the See also:case of two of the four children was to add to the indisputably permanent in literature. At sixteen years of age—in 1831—Charlotte Bronte became a See also:pupil at the school of Miss See also:Margaret Wooler (1792–1885) at See also:Roe See also:Head, Dewsbury.

She See also:

left in the following year to assist in the See also:education of the younger sisters, bringing with her much additional proficiency in See also:drawing, See also:French and See also:composition; she took with her also the devoted friendship of two out of her ten See also:fellow-pupils—Mary See also:Taylor (1817–1893) and Ellen Nussey (1817–1897). With Miss Taylor and Miss Nussey she corresponded for the See also:remainder of her life, and her letters to the latter make up no small See also:part of what has been revealed to us of her life story. Her next three years at Haworth were varied by occasional visits to one or other of these See also:friends. In 1835 she returned to Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head as a governess, her sister Emily accompanying her as a pupil, but remaining only three months, and Anne then taking her See also:place. The year following the school was removed to Dewsbury. In 1838 Charlotte went back to Haworth and soon afterwards received her first offer of marriage—from a clergyman, See also:Henry Nussey, the See also:brother of her friend Ellen. This was followed a little later by a second offer from a curate named See also:Bryce. She refused both and took a situation as nursery governess, first with the Sidgwicks of Stonegappe, Yorkshire, and later with the Whites at Rawdon in the same county. A few months of this, however, filled her with an ambition to try and secure greater See also:independence as the possessor of a school of her own, and she planned to acquire more proficiency in " See also:languages " on the See also:continent, as a preliminary step. The aunt advanced some See also:money, and accompanied by her sister Emily she became in See also:February 1842 a pupil at the Pensionnat Heger, See also:Brussels. Here both girls worked hard, and won the See also:goodwill and indeed admiration of the principal teacher, M. Heger, whose wife was at the head of the See also:establishment.

But the two girls were hastily called back to England before the year had expired by the announcement of the See also:

critical illness of their aunt. Miss Branwell died on the 29th of See also:October 1842. She bequeathed sufficient money to her nieces to enable them to reconsider their See also:plan of life. Instead of a school at See also:Bridlington which had been talked of, they could now remain with their father, utilize their aunt's See also:room as a classroom, and take pupils. But Charlotte was not yet satisfied with what the few months on Belgian See also:soil had done for her, and determined to accept M. Heger's offer that she should return to Brussels as a governess. Hence the year 1843 was passed by her at the Pensionnat Heger in that capacity, and in this See also:period she undoubtedly widened her intellectual See also:sphere by See also:reading the many books in French literature that her friend M. Heger See also:lent her. But life took on a very sombre shade in the lonely environment in which she found herself. She became so depressed that on one occasion she took See also:refuge in the See also:confessional precisely as did her heroine See also:Lucy Snowe in See also:Villette. In 1844 she returned to her father's See also:house at Haworth, and the three sisters began immediately to discuss the possibilities of converting the vicarage into a school. Prospectuses were issued, but no pupils were forthcoming.

Matters were complicated by the fact that the only brother, Patrick Branwell, had about this time become a confirmed drunkard. Branwell had been the idol of his aunt and of his sisters. Educated under his father's care, he had See also:

early shown See also:artistic leanings, and the slender resources of the family had been strained to provide him with the means of entering at the Royal See also:Academy as a pupil. This was in 1835. Branwell, it would seem, indulged in a glorious See also:month of extravagance in See also:London and then returned home. His See also:art studies were continued for a time at See also:Leeds, but it may be assumed that no commissions came to him, and at last he became See also:tutor to the son of a Mr Postlethwaite at See also:Barrow-in-See also:Furness. Ten months later he was a booking-clerk at See also:Sowerby Bridge station on the Leeds & See also:Manchester railway, and later at Luddenden See also:Foot. Then he became tutor in the family of a clergyman named See also:Robinson at Thorp See also:Green, where his sister Anne was governess. Finally he returned to Haworth to See also:loaf at the village See also:inn, See also:shock his sisters by his excesses, and to fritter his life away in painful sottishness. He died in September 1848, having achieved nothing reputable, and having disappointed all the hopes that had been centred in him. " My poor father naturally thought more of his only son than of his daughters," is one of Charlotte's dreary comments on the tragedy. In early years he had himself written both See also:prose and See also:verse; and a foolish story invented long afterwards attributed to him some 'See also:share in his sisters' novels, particularly In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

But Charlotte distinctly tells us that her brother never knew that his sisters had published a See also:

line. He was too much under the effects of drink, too besotted and muddled in that last year or two of life, to have any share in their intellectual enthusiasms. The literary life had, however, opened bravely for the three girls during those years. In 1846 a See also:volume of verse appeared from the See also:shop of Aylott & See also:Jones of Paternoster See also:Row; " Poems, by Currer, See also:Ellis and See also:Acton See also:Bell," was on the See also:title-See also:page. These names disguised the identity of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte. The venture cost the sisters about 50 in all, but only two copies were sold. There were nineteen poems by Charlotte, twenty-one by Emily, and the same number by Anne. A consensus of See also:criticism has accepted the fact that Emily's verse alone revealed true poetic genius. This was unrecognized then except by her sister Charlotte. It is obvious now to all. The failure of the poems did not deter the authors from further effort. They had each a novel to dispose of.

Charlotte Bronte's was called The See also:

Master, which before it was sent off to London was retitled The See also:Professor. Emily's story was entitled Wuthering Heights, and Anne's See also:Agnes See also:Gray. All these stories travelled from publisher to publisher. At last The Professor reached the See also:firm of See also:Smith, See also:Elder & Co., of Cornhill. The " reader" for that firm, R. Smith See also:Williams (1800-1875), was impressed, as were also his employers. Charlotte Bronte received in See also:August 1847 a See also:letter informing her that whatever the merits of The Professor—and it was hinted that it lacked " varied See also:interest " —it was too See also:short for the three-volume See also:form then counted imperative. The author was further told that a longer novel would be gladly considered. She replied in the same month with this longer novel, and Jane Eyre appeared in October 1847, to be wildly acclaimed on every See also:hand, although See also:enthusiasm was to receive a counterblast when more than a year later, in See also:December 1848, Miss See also:Rigby, afterwards See also:Lady See also:Eastlake (18o9-1893), reviewed it in the Quarterly. Meanwhile the novels of Emily and Anne had been accepted by T. C. Newby.

They were published together in three volumes in December 1847, two months later than Jane Eyre, although the See also:

proof sheets had been passed by the authors before their sister's novel had been sent to the publishers. The dilatoriness of Mr Newby was followed up by considerable See also:energy when he saw the possibility of the novels by Ellis and Acton Bell sailing on the See also:wave of Currer Bell's popularity, and he would seem very quickly to have accepted another manuscript by Anne Bronte, for The See also:Tenant of Wildfell See also:Hall was published by Newby in three volumes in See also:June 1848. It was Newby's See also:clever efforts to persuade the public that the books he published were by the author of Jane Eyre that led Charlotte and Anne to visit London this summer and interview Charlotte's publishers in Cornhill with a view to establishing their See also:separate identity. Soon after their return home Branwell died (the 24th of September 1848), and less than three months later Emily died also at Haworth (the Igth December 1848). Then Anne became See also:ill and on the 24th of May 1849 Charlotte accompanied her to See also:Scarborough in the See also:hope that the See also:sea See also:air would revive her. Anne died there on the 28th of May, and was buried in Scarborough See also:churchyard. Thus in exactly eight months Charlotte Bronte lost all the three companions of her youth, and returned to sustain her father, fast becoming See also:blind, in the now desolate home at Haworth. In the See also: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 See also:nursing her sister Anne. She completed the See also:book after Anne's death, and it was published in October 1849. The following See also:winter she visited London as the See also:guest of her publisher, Mr See also:George Smith, and was introduced to See also:Thackeray, to whom she had dedicated Jane Eyre. The following year she repeated the visit, sat for her portrait to George See also:Richmond, and was considerably lionized by a See also:host of admirers.

In August 1850 she visited the English lakes as the guest of See also:

Sir See also:James See also:Kay-Shuttleworth, and met Mrs See also:Gaskell, Miss See also:Martineau, See also:Matthew See also:Arnold and other interesting men and See also: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. In 1851 she received a third offer of See also:marriage, this time from Mr James Taylor, who was in the employment of her publishers. A visit to Miss Martineau at See also:Ambleside and also to London to the See also:Great See also: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 with a new novel, Villette, which was published in See also:January of 1853. In September of that year she received a visit from Mrs Gaskell at Haworth; in May 1854 she returned it, remaining three days at Manchester, and planning with her hostess the details of her marriage, for at this time she had promised to unite herself with her father's curate, See also:Arthur Bell Nicholls (1817-1go6), who had long been a pertinacious suitor for her hand but had been discouraged by Mr Bronte. The marriage took place in Haworth church on the 29th of June 1854, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Sutcliffe Sowden, Miss Wooler and Miss Nussey acting as witnesses. The wedded pair spent their See also:honeymoon in Ireland,returning to Haworth, where they made their home with Mr Bronte, Mr Nicholls having 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 incidental to childbirth, on the 31st of March 1855. She was buried in Haworth church by the See also:side of her mother, Branwell and Emily.

The father followed in 1861, and then her husband returned to Ireland, where he remained some years afterwards, dying in 1906. The See also:

bare See also:recital of the Bronte story can give no See also: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, survive principally through the exceeding vitality of the Bronte tradition. As a hymn writer she still has a place in most religious communities. Emily is great alike as a novelist and as a poet. Her " Old Stoic " and " Last Lines " are probably the finest achievement of See also:poetry that any woman has given to English literature. Her novel Wuthering Heights stands alone as a See also:monument of intensity owing nothing to tradition, nothing to the achievement of earlier writers. It was a thing apart, passionate, unforgettable, haunting in its grimness, its See also:grey See also:melancholy. Among women writers Emily Bronte has a sure and certain place for all time. As a poet or maker of verse Charlotte Bronte 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 See also:

attention whatever the future of English fiction, by virtue of their intensity, their independence, their rough individuality. The Life of Charlotte Bronte, by Mrs Gaskell, was first published in 1857. Owing to the many controversial questions it aroused, as to the identity of Lowood in Jane Eyre with Cowan Bridge school, as to the relations of Branwell Bronte with his employer's wife, as to the supposed peculiarities of Mr Bronte, and certain other See also:minor points, the third edition was considerably changed. The Life has been many times reprinted, but may be read in its most satisfactory form in the Haworth edition (1902), issued by the original publishers, Smith, Elder & Co. To this edition are attached a great number of letters written by Miss Bronte to her publisher, George Smith. The first new material supplied to supplement Mrs Gaskell's Life was contained in Charlotte Bronte: a Monograph, by T. See also:Wemyss See also:Reid (1877). This book inspired Mr A. C. See also:Swinburne to issue separately a forcible essay on Charlotte and Emily Bronte, under the title of A Nate on Charlotte Bronte (1877). A further collection of letters written by Miss Bronte was contained in Charlotte Bronte and her Circle, by See also:Clement Shorter (1896), and interesting details can be fathered from the Life of Charlotte Bronte, by See also:Augustine See also:Birrell 1887), The Brontes in Ireland, by William See also:Wright, D.D. (1893), Charlotte Bronte and her Sisters, by Clement Shorter (1906), and the Bronte Society publications, edited by See also:Butler See also:Wood (1895-1907).

Miss A. See also:

Mary F. Robinson (Madame See also:Duclaux) wrote a separate biography of Emily Bronte in 1883, and an essay in her Grands Ecrivains d'outre-See also:Manche. The Brontes: Life and Letters, by Clement Shorter (1907), contains the whole of C. Bronte's letters in See also:chronological See also:order. (C. K.

End of Article: BRONTE, CHARLOTTE (1816–1855), EMILY (1818-1848)

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