Anne Brontë

The youngest of five children born to Patrick and Maria Brontë, Anne and her siblings grew up in the Haworth Parsonage where their father worked as a curate. When her mother died suddenly, Maria’s sister, Elizabeth, moved into the parsonage to help take care of the children. Anne was Elizabeth’s favorite and the two shared a room. A devout woman, Elizabeth helped shape Anne’s religious education, while her sister Emily fueled her creative ambitions. As a teen, Anne attended Roe Head School where her oldest sister, Charlotte, was a teacher. In her second year at the school, Anne grew gravely ill and was sent home to recover. A year later, she became a governess at Blake Hall, which served as the inspiration and model for Wellwood House in her first novel, Agnes Grey. The children under her care were unruly and even cruel, and Anne was traumatized by the experience and dismissed from her position after less than a year. Her second stint as governess for the Robinson family at Thorp Green Hall was more successful. She grew to love the family and even secured a position tutoring the Robinson’s son for her brother, Branwell. Anne resigned her post when it was discovered that Branwell and Mrs. Robinson were having an affair. Anne moved back home to the parsonage where Charlotte and Emily were likewise unemployed. The three sisters decided to work together to produce a book of verse. Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell was a failure, but Agnes Grey, Anne’s biographical novel chronicling her years as a governess, sold well, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, with its unflinching look at alcoholism and unhappiness in marriage, caused a sensation when it was published in June 1848. Soon afterward, though, Branwell died of tuberculosis, and, three months later, Emily died as well. Anne was heartbroken and soon became ill herself. Six months after Emily was buried, Anne died in Scarborough at the age of 29.