The Brontës

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-47423994-1', 'fortunecity.ws'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> <center> <br> <div> <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.broadcaststation.net/ads/show_ad.php?width=728&height=90"></script> </div> </center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=205 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="03ccdc00dduajq.jpg"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="70" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 76 WIDTH="66"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="76" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="66" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>The Brontës</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ccffff00.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">The Brontës</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bibliography"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ccffff00.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Bibliography</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Web Links"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ccffff00.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Web Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Haworth"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ccffff00.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Haworth</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sources Consulted"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ccffff00.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Sources Consulted</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700c8ccffff00.gif" HEIGHT="13" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Contact Us</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>The Brontës</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bibliography"><U><B>Bibliography</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Web Links"><U><B>Web Links</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Haworth"><U><B>Haworth</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sources Consulted"><U><B>Sources Consulted</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B>Contact Us</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Charlotte Brontë:  A Biographical Sketch</B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="7" COLOR="#993333" FACE="Old English Text MT" ><B>E</B></FONT><B>nglish writer Charlotte Brontë</B>, most prominently known for her novel <I>Jane Eyre,</I></div> <div> achieved literary success alongside her sisters Emily and Anne in the 19<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >th</FONT> century.  Born April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, Charlotte moved to Haworth in West Yorkshire at the age of four.  Her father, Patrick Brontë (1777-1861) was a clergyman who had served in several parishes.  An award he received as rector to the town caused their move to Haworth.    It then became necessary for Mr. Brontë, along with his wife, Maria Branwell Brontë, and their six small children to leave Thornton to live amid the West Yorkshire moors.   Less than two years after the move to the small, remote village, Charlotte lost her mother and two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, to illness, which left Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and her brother, Branwell, to be cared for by their father and an aunt, Elizabeth Branwell.</div> <bR> <div> In 1824, at the age of eight, Charlotte attended Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire where the living situation was harsh and unappealing; she returned home the following summer.  Charlotte condemned the school many years afterward in <I>Jane Eyre</I> under the disguise of Lowood.  The principal, Rev. William Carus Wilson, has been accepted as the counterpart of Mr. Naomi Brocklehurst in the novel.  Charlotte put a great deal of thought into the story of <I>Jane Eyre</I>.  In Elizabeth Gaskell's book, “The Life of Charlotte Brontë”, she retells something Charlotte said concerning the character of Jane Eyre.  “She once told her sisters that they were wrong - even morally wrong in making their heroines beautiful as a matter of course.  They replied that it was impossible to make a heroine interesting on any other terms.  Her answer was, `I will prove to you that you are wrong; I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours.'   </div> <bR> <div> For the next several years, the Brontë children were taught at home.  They invented games and told imaginary stories to each other.   In 1826, Mr. Brontë brought home a box of wooden soldiers for Branwell to play with. Charlotte, Emily, Branwell, and Anne, playing with the soldiers, conceived of and began to write in great detail about an imaginary world which they called Angria.  A hundred tiny handwritten volumes (started in 1829) of the chronicles of Angria survive.  The relationship of these stories to the later novels is a matter of much interest to scholars.  </div> <div> In 1831, at the age of 15, Charlotte attended Roe Head where she made lasting friendships and returned as a teacher in 1835.  Due to ill health and melancholia, however, she resigned her post in 1838 and returned home with the idea of opening her own school.   It was at Roe Head that Charlotte met her life long friend Ellen Nussey.  Her many letters to Nussey have served as the best documentation of her life.  To prepare for the opening of the school, Charlotte and Emily decided to go to Brussells in 1842 in order to improve their French and acquire some German. This was done at the expense of their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell.  It was in Brussels where Charlotte developed a romantic attachment to the headmaster, Constantin Héger.  The attachment later became the idea behind Charlotte's first novel, <I>The Professor, </I>which was rejected and not published until 1857, two years after her death.  In fact, <I>The Professor </I>was rejected by several publishers until a Mr. Williams of Smith, Elder and Co. was sufficiently impressed to encourage Charlotte to continue writing.  The result was <I>Jane Eyre</I> and her subsequent novels.  Some aspects of <I>The Professor</I> were incorporated into <I>Villette </I>and both incorporate aspects of the author's own life.</div> <bR> <div> Charlotte's attempt to start a school in Haworth parsonage upon her return from Brussells in 1844 was unsuccessful.  Although the sisters posted several advertisements, no pupils registered.  The following summer, Charlotte, Emily and Anne gathered verses for the publication of <I>Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell </I> (1846), which was not only issued at the Brontë's expense, but sold just two copies-- another disappointment for the Brontë sisters.  (The pseudonyms, Currer, Ellis, and Acton stood for Charlotte, Emily and Anne respectively.  They were used until 1848 when Charlotte and Anne made a visit to their publisher in London and revealed the true entity of the `Bell's'.)  In 1848, circumstances for Emily and Anne would decline dramatically.  After the success of Charlotte's <I>Jane Eyre</I> in 1847, Emily, Anne, and Branwell, would all die within a years time.  Charlotte was in her early thirties at the time her first novel was published and her siblings passed away.  Soon after, she completed <I>Shirley</I> in the empty parsonage, and it appeared in 1849.  Shirley was an attempted ideal portrait of Emily and was perhaps the first fully developed independent, brave, outspoken heroine.  When Charlotte started to write the book, the four Brontës were all alive and together at the parsonage.  Before it was finished, a family tragedy shadowed the work.  The death of Charlotte's last remaining sibling, Anne Brontë, left Charlotte heartbroken.  After her death, she wrote a poem entitled, <I>On the Death of Anne Brontë</I>.  Charlotte's last complete novel, <I>Villette</I>, was published in 1853. </div> <bR> <div> In 1854, Charlotte married her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls.   The Rev. A. B. Nicholls, curate of Haworth since 1845, originally proposed marriage to Charlotte in 1852.  Mr. Brontë objected violently, and Charlotte, who is thought more so to have pitied Rev. Nicholls than loved him, refused marriage. Nicholls left Haworth in the following year, the same in which Charlotte's <I>Villette </I>was published.  By 1854, however, Mr. Brontë's opposition to the proposed marriage had weakened, and Charlotte and Nicholls became engaged.  Nicholls returned as curate at Haworth, and they were married.  In 1854 Charlotte, expecting a child, caught pneumonia.  It was an illness, which could have been cured, but she seemed to have seized upon it (consciously or unconsciously) as an opportunity of ending her life, and after a lengthy and painful illness, she died, probably of dehydration in 1855.  At the time of her death, Charlotte was working on a novel entitled <I>Emma</I>, which was never completed.  In fact, many of her works were left incomplete and were not known until long after her death.  In an attempt to pull together these writings, the <I>Unfinished Novels</I> by Charlotte Brontë was published by scholars many years afterward. </div> <div> Devoted Brontë readers are probably wondering if there are any more Charlotte Brontë works to read other than her four main novels (<I>The Professor, Jane Eyre, Shirley, and Villette)</I>.  Only recently, within the last 30 years, have several of Charlotte's essays and unfinished works been published, including those written as a child.  Those who have read Charlotte's major works will find her older materials fascinating, as they provide a great deal of insight about her life and growth as a writer in general.   Perhaps the wonderful thing about Charlotte is the fact that there were so few novels published.  In a sense, prolific writers can be more complicated and difficult to study.  Where there is limitation, one can scrutinize the details more closely and form an intimate relationship with the writer.  Her surviving manuscripts and letters have proven to be valuable resources for scholars.  Most of her work has already been well documented and the Haworth Parsonage Museum continues to collect lost letters and manuscripts on her behalf, many of which were auctioned off right after her death.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>    </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>