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T H E B R O N T Ė S I S T E R S
 Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontė, known together as the Brontė sisters, are amongst the most famous English writers of the mid 19th century. Though having written a comparitively smaller number of novels, the sisters were a sensation during their lifetimes and remain influential to this day. Their novels are considered part of the canon of classical English literature.
The sisters lived in the village of Haworth in West Yorkshire, an area now dubbed 'Brontė country'. Initially among six children to their parents Patrick and Maria Brontė, they survived their elder sisters Maria and Elizabeth into young adulthood together with their brother Patrick Branwell.
There have been many adaptations of the sisters' novels, most notably the abundant film and television productions of Charlotte's Jane Eyre (arguably the most famous Brontė novel), Emily's Wuthering Heights and two television adaptations of Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
 Charlotte Brontė
"Life appears to me to be too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrong."
Charlotte Brontė was born on 21st April 1816 in the village of Thornton, Yorkshire. She was the third eldest Brontė child, after Maria and Elizabeth. After her mother's death in 1821, she was sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, Lancashire alongwith Maria, Elizabeth and younger daughter Emily. This school would later become the inspiration for Lowood School in her most famous novel, Jane Eyre. Charlotte blamed the poor conditions at the school for the demises of her two elder sisters due to tuberculosis in 1825.
Charlotte and Emily were soon removed from the school and returned to Haworth Parsonage, the family home. There, she and her siblings brother Branwell, Emily and youngest sister Anne continued to write with a fervour. Charlotte continued her education at Roe Head, Mirfield in 1831-1832, where she met lifelong friends Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. In 1833 she wrote her first novella, The Green Dwarf under a male penname. She then became a teacher and a governess, and in 1842 travelled to Brussels with Emily to teach English. This time was cut short when their aunt and guardian, Elizabeth Branwell, died suddenly. The following year Charlotte returned alone to the school, where she became increasingly homesick and developed tortured feelings for the headmaster, Constantin Heger.
In 1844 she returned to Haworth and later used her time at the boarding school as inspiration for her novels The Professor and Villette. Though at first her writing was scorned by critics as coarse, Charlotte achieved great success with the novel Jane Eyre, in which the title character Jane closely resembled her. Fearing persecution for her womanhood, Charlotte used the penname Currer Bell. In 1848 her brother Branwell and sister Emily died of tuberculosis, and Anne the following year; leaving Charlotte and her father alone at Howarth. Charlotte wrote a further novel, Shirley.
Following the success of Jane Eyre, Charlotte revealed her identity, becoming friends with such authors as Harriet Martineau, Elizabeth Gaskell, William Makepeace Thackeray and G. H. Lewes. In 1854 Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate, and later died in childbirth alongwith her unborn child in 1855, at the age of 39. Her life story was later documented by her friend Elizabeth Gaskell.
 Emily Jane Brontė
"I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind."
Emily Jane Brontė was the fifth of the six Brontė children, born on 30th July 1918, in the village of Thornton. As a child she wrote widely; together with her siblings she wrote stories of imaginary lands, of which little save poetry remains to this day. In 1842 Emily became a governess at Miss Patchett's Ladies Academy at Law Hill School in Halifax, leaving six months later due to homesickness and then accompanying her elder sister Charlotte to a private boarding school in Brussels, where she taught music.
Emily's first published work was a joint poetry anthology together with Charlotte and her youngest sister Anne, released under the androgynous pennames Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell. In 1847, Emily published her only novel, Wuthering Heights, which was part of a three-volume set containing the novels Jane Eyre by Charlotte and Agnes Grey, by Anne. Receiving mixed reviews on publication, Wuthering Heights was originally printed under Emily's penname, Ellis Bell. In 1850 Emily rereleased her novel under her real name.
Emily suffered from a weak constitution for most of her life. Catching a cold at the funeral of her brother Patrick Branwell in 1848, she contracted tuberculosis and succumbed to the disease on 19th December of that year.
 Anne Brontė
"While on my lonely couch I lie,
I seldom feel myself alone,
For fancy fills my dreaming eye
With scenes and pleasures of its own."
Anne Brontė, born on 17th January 1820, was the youngest of the Brontė children. Like her sisters, Anne was born in the village of Thornton in Bradford, Yorkshire. Shortly after Anne's birth, her father Patrick took a perpetual curacy in Haworth. The family moved into the Haworth Parsonage and remained there for the entirety of the children's lives. Barely a year old when her mother Maria died, Anne was raised with the assistance of her mother's sister, Elizabeth Branwell. Elizabeth fostered respect rather than love in her charges, but was close to Anne in particular. This attachment is said to have influenced Anne's literary development as well as her personal beliefs. While her elder sisters wrote in the Romantic style, Anne preferred realism in her work and has been likened to Jane Austen in style.
Following the deaths of her eldest sisters, Anne's father was reluctant to part from his children. Thus, Anne was schooled at home and mixed very little with children other than her immediate family. At this early age Anne was concerned with the creation of her own fantasy world, Gondal, the creation of which she shared with her elder sister Emily. Receiving early tuition from her sister Charlotte, Anne later attended Miss Wooler's School at Roe Head in Huddersfield, where she was a quiet and hard-working student. At some time in 1837 Anne became seriously ill with gastritis, underwent a religious crisis and was sent home to recover. In 1839, Anne became a governess for the Ingham family of Blake Hall near Mirfield. Charged with troublesome children and made unable to discipline them, Anne found the experience so traumatic that she later reproduced the experience in her novel Agnes Grey.
On her return, Anne developed a keen friendship and admiration for young curate William Weightman, who is said to be mirrored in the character Edward Weston, the love interest of Agnes Grey. However, William died in 1842 of Cholera and Anne's feelings, though never proved, were never requited. Anne's next position was as a governess with the Robinson family at Thorp Green near York, which eventually bore fruit through her perseverence. Anne, like her siblings, continued to write poetry and in 1847 published her first novel, Agnes Grey, the third of a set of three released by the sisters. Similarly to Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey was inspired very strongly by Anne's own life experiences.
Agnes Grey was followed in 1848 by Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This novel was controversial at the time for its frank description of alcoholism and debauchery, but was an immediate success. Its influence spread wildly throughout Victorian England. Anne's future as a writer looked promising until the sudden untimely deaths of her brother and sister Emily. These tragedies affected Anne's own health, and in 1849 following a brief recovery, she died and was buried in the seaside town of Scarborough, where she spent her final days.
Official website: http://www.bronte.info/
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