What You Should Know About The Brontës: 10 Facts About The Most Interesting Literary Family
[via Book Riot]
1. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne All Went by Pen Names, and They Were Suspected of Being the Same Person. Like many Victorian women publishing at the time, the sisters chose male pseudonyms, going by the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.
2. The Brontës Changed Their Last Name to Disguise Their Irish Heritage. The Brontës come from an Irish background, and their surname was originally Brunty. Patrick Brunty — Charlotte, Emily, and Anne’s father — was from a poor, illiterate Irish family, and he was embarrassed of his past.
3. The Brontë Siblings Were Prolific Writers in Their Childhood. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, along with their brother Branwell, were educated at home for much of their childhoods. And so they grew up playing together and creating imaginary worlds that they would all write about.
4. The Brontë Siblings Later Attended a School that Would Later Become the Inspiration for Lowood in Jane Eyre. In 1824, Charlotte and Emily, along with their sisters Maria and Elizabeth, were sent away to a school for daughters of the clergy. When Typhoid Fever swept through the school in 1825, both Maria and Elizabeth fell ill and died of tuberculosis. Charlotte was not shy about blaming her sisters’ deaths on the conditions at the school.
5. Emily Brontë Preferred Animals to People. Emily preferred spending her time in nature and around animals rather than with people. Following her death, it’s said that her dog Keeper mourned Emily’s loss, howling outside of her bedroom door for weeks after her death.
6. Charlotte Brontë Had Her Fair Share of Crushes. When she was a young girl, Charlotte was obsessed with Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. Charlotte spent almost two years being educated in Brussels, and after returning home, wrote four letters to her teacher confessing her love for him, though he was already married. The schoolmaster’s wife later found them, and published them after Charlotte’s death.
7. Branwell Brontë Struggled With Depression and Addiction. Branwell’s struggles with depression, alcoholism, and opium addiction became a source of distress for his sisters. Branwell wanted to be a poet and an artist, and he was frustrated with his lack of success.
8. Anne Brontë Was the Feminist of the Family. Anne’s novels openly challenge the concept of a woman’s place in traditional Victorian England. Anne Brontë’s second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, is considered to be one of the first feminist novels. A woman leaving an abusive husband to make a life for herself on her own terms? Revolutionary!
9. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights Was Not Successful During her Lifetime. Emily Brontë’s only novel is now considered one of the greatest novels of the Victorian era, but following its publication, Wuthering Heights was not a commercial or critical success. At the time, critics believed the story was too dramatic and too dark. Emily Brontë died a year after the novel was published.
10. All of the Brontë Siblings Died at a Tragically Young Age. Patrick Brontë was the father of six, and none of his children would live past the age of 40. He survived them all, eventually passing away at the age of 84. Maria and Elizabeth, died of tuberculosis at ages 11 and 10. Anne died at age 28, Branwell at 31, also of tuberculosis. Emily caught a chill at Branwell’s funeral and died a few months later at age 30. Charlotte was the last of the siblings to die. She died due to pregnancy complications on March 31, 1855, less than a month before she would have turned 39.
