Brontë Parsonage Museum
Encyclopedia
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
, Emily
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother...
and Anne Brontë
Anne Brontë
Anne Brontë was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. For a couple of years she went to a...
– in their old home located in Haworth
Haworth
Haworth is a rural village in the City of Bradford metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is located amongst the Pennines, southwest of Keighley and west of Bradford. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope...
, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
, an area of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
covered in much open, expansive moorland
Moorland
Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
. It is popular with those seeking to find the source of the sisters' inspiration, and is of particular interest as the Brontës spent most of their lives here and wrote their famous novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s in these surroundings.
The Brontë Society is open to everyone to join. It is one of the oldest literary societies in the English speaking world, and is also a registered charity. The Society welcomes new members to support the preservation of the museum and library collections for future generations and to tell the story of the Bronte's lives and works.
Ruth Pickering reviewed her visit to the Museum, explaining how "The Bronte Parsonage Museum is beautifully maintained and packed full of family memorabilia, original furniture and facts and information for visitors to guide themselves around".
The Brontë Family
In 1820, Patrick BrontëPatrick Brontë
The Reverend Patrick Brontë was an Irish Anglican curate and writer, who spent most of his adult life in England and was the father of the writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, and of Branwell Brontë, his only son....
was appointed as incumbent of Haworth
Haworth
Haworth is a rural village in the City of Bradford metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is located amongst the Pennines, southwest of Keighley and west of Bradford. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope...
, and arrived in the township with his Cornish-born wife, Maria, and their six children. Although Haworth remained the family's home for the rest of their lives, and the moorland setting had a profound influence on the writing of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, the family history began not in Yorkshire, but in Ireland, where Patrick, the first of ten children, was born in County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
, on 17 March 1777.
Driven by ambition, Patrick left his humble origins far behind and was accepted at St. John's College, Cambridge, where his original family name of Brunty was dropped in favour of the more impressive sounding "Brontë
Brontë
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family associated with Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte , Emily , and Anne , are well-known as poets and novelists...
." The hard work and commitment which had won him a place at Cambridge carried him through several curacies, mainly in the North of England, until he arrived at Haworth. By this time Patrick Brontë was a published author of poetry and fiction, so that his children grew up accustomed to the sight of books carrying their name on the parsonage shelves.
On 15 September 1821, Mrs. Brontë died of cancer, and her unmarried sister, Elizabeth Branwell, came to take charge of the running of the parsonage, exchanging her comfortable home in Penzance for the harsh climate of a bleak northern township. In 1824 the sisters made their first venture into the world outside Haworth, to attend the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, near Kirkby Lonsdale. The experience, which provided Charlotte with a model for the infamous Lowood School in her novel Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
, ended in disaster when her eldest sister, Maria, was sent home in ill health. Maria died at the parsonage in May 1825, aged eleven. Ten-year-old Elizabeth was returned home shortly after, only to die at Haworth on 15 June.
Toy soldiers and 'little books'
For the next few years the surviving children remained at home together, creating a rich imaginary world, sparked by their father's gift to Branwell of a set of toy soldiers. Because of the important role education had played in his own life, Patrick encouraged his children in their pursuit of knowledge. Any books that came their way were eagerly devoured, and the children produced their own tiny illustrated books, designed to be small enough for the toy soldiers, with minuscule handwriting to deter the prying eyes of the parsonage adults.Their father's lack of a private income meant that the sisters needed to acquire the accomplishments that would enable them to earn a living as governesses - the only career option socially acceptable for genteel young ladies with no fortune. To this end, Charlotte was sent to Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head, Mirfield, in 1831. There she met her lifelong friends, Ellen Nussey
Ellen Nussey
Ellen Nussey , was a lifelong friend and correspondent of British author Charlotte Brontë and, through more than 500 letters received from her, was a major source for Elizabeth Gaskell's 1857 biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë.-Early years:Nussey was the twelfth child of John Nussey , a cloth...
and Mary Taylor. She eventually returned to the school as a teacher, taking first Emily then Anne as pupils.
Branwell, the only boy of the family, when not receiving lessons from his father, was often left to his own devices. Eventually his brilliant conversation earned him what Elizabeth Gaskell considered 'the undesirable distinction of having his company recommended by the landlord of the Black Bull to any chance traveller who might happen to feel solitary or dull over his liquor.' Branwell took art lessons in Leeds, but a plan to apply to the Royal Academy of Arts in London never came off, and after a short stint as a professional portrait painter in Bradford, Branwell was back in Haworth, in debt.
In 1839, after one brief attempt as a teacher at Miss Patchett's School at Law Hill, Halifax, where she was reported to have told her pupils she much preferred the school dog to any of them, Emily was also back at Haworth. Although often unhappy, Anne seems to have been the best able to cope with life as a governess. Her second post, as governess to the Robinsons at Thorp Green Hall, near York, lasted five years, and her success enabled her to secure the post of tutor to the family's only son for Branwell.
Branwell — cause for concern
Branwell was proving to be a cause for concern — an earlier post as tutor, and a position as clerk-in-charge on the Leeds-Manchester railway, had both ended ignominiously, and this new situation was to be no exception. Anne decided to leave her employment at Thorp Green and came back to Haworth in June 1845, followed shortly after by Branwell, dismissed in disgrace for "proceedings bad beyond expression" — allegedly a love affair with his employer's wife.In an attempt to escape the hated life of a governess, the sisters planned to set up a school of their own at the parsonage. In order to acquire the language skills which would attract pupils and secure the school's success, Charlotte and Emily spent a year studying in Brussels, funded by their aunt. It was Aunt Branwell's death in 1842 which brought the sisters back to Haworth. Emily remained at the parsonage as housekeeper, whilst Charlotte returned to Brussels. Charlotte returned to Haworth permanently in 1844, suffering the pains of unrequited love for her teacher, Monsieur Heger. A prospectus was circulated but pupils could not be found.
The sisters had continued to write, and in 1846 Charlotte, Emily and Anne used part of their Aunt Branwell's legacy to finance the publication of their poems, concealing their true identities under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Poems was published by Aylott and Jones, but despite some favourable reviews, only two copies of the book were sold. Undeterred, the sisters absorbed themselves in their next literary venture — novel writing.
Charlotte's first attempt at writing a novel for publication, The Professor
The Professor (novel)
The Professor was the first novel by Charlotte Brontë. It was originally written before Jane Eyre and rejected by many publishing houses, but was eventually published posthumously in 1857 by approval of Arthur Bell Nicholls, who accepted the task of reviewing and editing of the novel.-Plot...
, was rejected by several publishing houses, before it arrived at the offices of Smith, Elder & Co. Although the firm declined to accept the novel, their response was sufficiently encouraging for Charlotte to send them her next work, Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
, begun in a dreary Manchester lodging whilst nursing her father back to health after a cataract operation. If Poems ranks amongst the great failures in publishing history, then Jane Eyre must count as one of the great successes.
Publication of Jane Eyre
George Smith accepted the book without hesitation, and the novel appeared on 19 October 1847. Wuthering HeightsWuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre...
and Agnes Grey
Agnes Grey
Agnes Grey is the debut novel of English author Anne Brontë, first published in December 1847, and republished in a second edition in 1850. The novel follows Agnes Grey, a governess, as she works in several bourgeois families. Scholarship and comments by Anne's sister Charlotte Brontë suggest the...
had already been accepted by the London publisher, Thomas Cautley Newby, and appeared as a three-volume set in December 1847. Following the success of Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
, the publication of two further "Bell" novels fuelled speculation about the gender and identity of the authors.
The publication of Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final novel by English author Anne Brontë, published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell...
, forced Charlotte and Anne to reveal their separate identities to George Smith, as the unscrupulous Newby tried to pass off the work of his author as being by the more successful Currer Bell. The two sisters travelled to London in July 1848 and confronted the astonished George Smith in his Cornhill office. Charlotte and Anne, staying quietly at the Chapter Coffee House, resisted Smith's attempts to show them off, but they did find themselves being escorted to the opera, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts.
Illness and death
Charlotte's pleasure in her new-found success turned out to be short-lived. Branwell, who had increasingly fallen back on alcohol and opium for solace, had been ailing all summer. Tuberculosis was gaining a rapid hold on his abused frame. He died suddenly on Sunday 24 September 1848, aged thirty-one, with the whole family at his death-bed.While Charlotte was still reeling from the shock of Branwell's death, it became apparent that Emily and Anne were ill. In fact Emily was also dying from tuberculosis, and never left the house again after Branwell's funeral. Refusing to admit she was ill, she dragged herself out of bed every morning and continued to carry out her share of the household chores. Her death came at the age of thirty, three months after her brother's, on 19 December 1848. All Charlotte's concern was now directed towards her last-surviving sister, who seemed unable to shake off her cold. A lung specialist, called in to examine Anne shortly after Emily's death, confirmed Charlotte's worst fear, that she was likely to lose this last, much-loved sister.
Anne submitted to all the futile treatments then available, but any benefit proved to be temporary. In January 1849 Charlotte wrote: "Anne cannot study now, she can scarcely read; she occupies Emily's chair - she does not get well." Anne was anxious to try a sea cure, and on 24 May, accompanied by Charlotte and Ellen Nussey
Ellen Nussey
Ellen Nussey , was a lifelong friend and correspondent of British author Charlotte Brontë and, through more than 500 letters received from her, was a major source for Elizabeth Gaskell's 1857 biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë.-Early years:Nussey was the twelfth child of John Nussey , a cloth...
, she set out for Scarborough, a place she had loved from her summers there with the Robinson family. It was in Scarborough that Anne died, just four days later, on 28 May 1849, aged twenty-nine years.
To spare her father the anguish of yet another family funeral, Charlotte took the decision to bury her sister in Scarborough, where she was laid to rest in the churchyard of St. Mary's, high above the town. Stunned by the tragedies of the past nine months, Charlotte wrote: "A year ago - had a prophet warned me how I should stand in June 1849 - how stripped and bereaved I should have thought - this can never be endured."
Charlotte turned to her writing to sustain her through the dark days ahead. Her novel Shirley
Shirley (novel)
Shirley is an 1849 social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë. It was Brontë's second published novel after Jane Eyre . The novel is set in Yorkshire in the period 1811–12, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812...
, begun before Branwell's death, was taken up once more. The novel was published in October 1849, and as winter approached, Charlotte fled Haworth to stay with George Smith and his mother in London. Her fame had provided her with a means of entering London's literary society, but by this time, Charlotte found that her sense of loss and the seclusion of her life at Haworth had left her unfitted to enjoy such society. During her London visit Charlotte was introduced to her literary idol, the novelist W. M. Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
, but the experience proved to be more of an ordeal than a pleasure.
Over the next few years there were more visits to London, on one of which she sat for her portrait to the society artist, George Richmond. As Charlotte's true identity gradually became known, her fame brought her a great deal of attention, and in August 1850 she was invited to the summer residence of Sir James and Lady Kay-Shuttleworth above Windermere
Windermere
Windermere is the largest natural lake of England. It is also a name used in a number of places, including:-Australia:* Lake Windermere , a reservoir, Australian Capital Territory * Lake Windermere...
, where she met the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
. Later in the year, Smith, Elder & Co. gained permission from Newby to reprint Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. Charlotte agreed to edit the work, correcting many of the errors which had appeared in the first edition, and also making changes of her own. She undertook the melancholy task of sorting through her dead sisters' papers to provide a selection of their poetry, and also wrote an emotional biographical notice of the two authors.
Charlotte's marriage
Charlotte's last novel, VilletteVillette (novel)
Villette is a novel by Charlotte Brontë, published in 1853. After an unspecified family disaster, protagonist Lucy Snowe travels to the fictional city of Villette to teach at an all-girls school where she is unwillingly pulled into both adventure and romance...
, was published in 1853. At this time the atmosphere at the parsonage was emotionally charged: Charlotte had rejected a marriage proposal from her father's Curate, the Reverend Arthur Bell Nicholls, and Patrick was incensed by the mere thought of the poor Irish Curate pursuing his famous daughter. What Charlotte saw as her father's unjust treatment worked in Nicholls' favour, and the couple were eventually married in Haworth Church on 29 June 1854. Though Charlotte had entered the married state with misgivings, she found unexpected happiness with Arthur.
The happiness did not last. Charlotte died on the morning of 31 March 1855, in the early stages of pregnancy, just three weeks before her thirty-ninth birthday. There were to be no direct descendants of the Brontës of Haworth. Patrick Brontë lived on at the parsonage for a further six years, cared for by his son-in-law, and died there on 7 June 1861, at the age of eighty-four.
In 1857, two years after Charlotte's death, her first novel, The Professor
The Professor (novel)
The Professor was the first novel by Charlotte Brontë. It was originally written before Jane Eyre and rejected by many publishing houses, but was eventually published posthumously in 1857 by approval of Arthur Bell Nicholls, who accepted the task of reviewing and editing of the novel.-Plot...
, was finally published. In the same year Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
's moving tribute to her friend, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, also appeared. This biography, along with Charlotte's Biographical Notice of her sisters, have become key sources for interpretations of the family, and have ensured that the story of the Brontës' lives continues to exert as much fascination as their fiction.