Anne Brontë

14 Apr, 2026

The novelist and poet, who shook up the Victorian norms.

The Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, have influenced the English literary world, and have become universally read and highly valued. Their works are taught in schools and universities all over the world, as part of classic English literature, providing study ground for morality, gender, class, faith and more.

Yet, stepping away from academic frames, it seems that Anne is often overlooked, while her sister’s books are frequently promoted and spoken of. There are more chances for a reader to come across Anne’s works through her sisters, after having read Charlotte or Emily, rather than the opposite. Books like Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre are usually suggested in the recommendation lists.

Admittedly, the same happened for my part, and although I am not fond of the uncomfortable feeling that regret creates, I must admit that I would have preferred to read Anne’s books earlier than I eventually did. The good news is I did, and I am so glad about it, for this discovery was a delightful one!

A brief biography

Anne was born on 17 January 1820, in the village of Thorton. Just a few months after her birth, the family moved to the parsonage of Haworth—for Patrick Brontë was a clergyman—and spent most of their lives there.

Their mother, Maria Branwell, fell ill and eventually died (Anne was barely 1 year old). Elizabeth Branwell, Maria’s sister, having already moved to the parsonage to help her sick sister, remained there after the latter’s death, to take care of the children.

While the Brontë kids were highly imaginative and since a young age liked creating, they were also exposed to written works through their father’s library, such as devotional books, newspapers, Byron, Shakespeare, Scott and more, reinforcing their already abundant imagination; they would write stories, plays, and poems, building even a fictional kingdom.

Anne’s education happened mostly at home, where she was taught by her aunt and her father the skills of writing, reading, and arithmetic, including some extra lessons of music and drawing. Eventually she did her schooling at Roe Head, an institution both her sisters had attended previously, but was sent back to the parsonage some years later, due to health inconveniences.

Just after that, Anne sought work as a governess and moved to Blake Hall in 1839, at the age of nineteen, to live with the Ingham family, near Mirfield. Anne faced challenges, with the family’s children being "difficult", and was not able to educate them properly. Her ways of education didn’t match their parent’s methods, making them dissatisfied with Anne’s little contributions to their children’s progress. During the same year of her stay, she was dismissed, and found herself back at the parsonage.

In 1840, she acquired a new position as a governess at Thorp Green Hall, near York, where she worked for the Robinsons. During her time there, she faced again uncomfortable situations, such as being unable to settle into the household, or missing her home and family. Nevertheless, after being appreciated by her employers and dealing with homesickness, she remained there for five years, creating bonds and lasting friendships with the family’s girls.

In 1845, all Brontë children were back at home with their father, after having worked for several years. In order to secure an income from then on, Charlotte, having discovered that Emily wrote poetry, proposed to her to be published. Emily did not appreciate Charlotte’s act, bothered by this invasion of her privacy, and declined. However, after Anne’s confession that she too wrote poetry, and Charlotte insisting, they eventually published a collection of their poetry, although unsuccessful, which sold only two copies during the first year of its publication.

A year later, the three of them sent their manuscripts to several publishers in London: Charlotte’s first work was rejected—only Emily’s and Anne’s works got the green light, and were published together. Charlotte’s second novel got eventually accepted, and was published too.

Interestingly enough, from the beginning, when the three sisters published their poetry collection, they decided to cover their names under the pseudonyms of Currer, Elis and Acton Bell, instead of revealing their true identity. They continued to do so with their novels, confusing readers about their gender and making them question the amount of existing authors—some people believed there was just one author.

Charlotte explained that:

"Adverse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women – without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called ‘feminine’ – we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice [.]"¹

However, they finally decided for the truth to be revealed in later editions: first by clarifying they were different people writing, and then by disclosing their names.

In 1848 their family tragedies started when their brother Branwell died, and just some months later Emily followed. Anne was highly affected by those events, especially by Emily’s death, and that is when her health started to decline too. On 28 May 1849, Anne died in Scarborough.

Literary works (spoiler free)

Anne’s poetry was mostly an expression of her inner turmoil regarding religious doubts. Her spirit could not properly rest, for it wondered what happens in the next stages, according to certain theological systems. She found it hard to agree and accept the Calvinist ideas concerning death, eternity or divine justice, seeking more acceptable and fair conclusions in ideas formed by love, compassion and forgiveness.

"Charlotte, looking through Anne Brontë's papers after her death, was horrified to discover the despair that had occupied the soul of one she had thought so secure in her faith. Reading Anne's religious poems is like watching a lifelong struggle between negative and positive elements for possession of her spirit."

"Calvinism with its God of damnation who has elected the few to be saved, the many to be disposed of in fire and brimstone, partly had Anne Brontë for its victim, partly was itself her victim. On the one hand, as so many of her poems show, she was subject to its threat that certain persons have already been excluded from Heaven, and felt, through a deep conviction of her own sinfulness, that she was going to turn out to be one of these spiritual derelicts. On the other hand, she was herself too loving a person not to loathe the very idea of such a God, who with no sense of decency arbitrarily damned the creatures he had chosen to make and sworn to love."²

Anne made sure to include her religious beliefs into her novels as well, portraying morally-driven characters, who trust the power of restoration through spiritual elevation.

Undoubtedly, she wrote realistically. She focused on real social situations, without added exaggerations, and from then on placed herself into a position to state and convey strong ideas that were not much expressed or perceived at the time. Therefore, we could agree that her books were not written to purely entertain, but to showcase authentic cases, where unfairness, immorality, and corruption lie.

In 1847 she published Agnes Grey, her first novel. Highly inspired by her own life as a shy and quiet governess, she created a story revolving around a young woman, in the position she once found herself in: Agnes becomes a governess to support her family financially. Living in different households under demanding circumstances, and with people who do not treat her correctly, she tries to stay true to her own morals and mind, while trying to find her place in the world.

Agnes Grey offers social criticism alongside educational commentary. The novel deals with empathy, isolation, and morality—the latter being always present in both of her works. Anne experienced firsthand how it feels to be away from home, surrounded, in her case, by rude or ill-mannered strangers. It is not by chance she chose a first person narrator for this book—being, in the end, a semi-autobiographical novel.

Working as a governess in Victorian England meant not being able to fit exactly anywhere in the household:

"In the Victorian household, the governess was neither a servant nor a member of the host family. She worked in the upper-class home of the landed gentry or aristocracy. She herself had a middle-class background and education, yet was paid for her services. As a sign of this social limbo, she frequently ate on her own, away from both the family and the servants."³

Naturally, it was common for a governess to feel lonely and isolated. Yet, one had to do their work, providing their services to the family’s children, as agreed, no matter how they felt.

The Irish novelist George Moore, described the book as:

“the most perfect prose narrative in English letters”.

And it would be of great importance repeating this once more: it was her first novel!

In 1848 Anne published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, her second and, sadly, last novel. The book’s story is about a marriage marred by abuse during the Victorian era: A woman, Helen Graham, flees her husband and takes their child with her to prevent his father’s bad influence upon him.

Just by this brief description, one can get a taste of the power the book holds within it, taking into account the profound social consequences such an act carried at the time:

"Parliament was also unwilling to grant equality to the sexes on the grounds for divorce. A man could divorce his wife for one instance of adultery but a woman could only obtain a divorce if her husband was physically cruel, incestuous, or bestial in addition to being adulterous."

"Moreover, if a woman left her husband before obtaining a divorce, she lost all claim to any property, even that which she brought to the marriage, as well as custody of the children."⁴

Additionally:

In the eyes of the law in the Victorian age, a woman’s property was legally considered her husband’s upon their entering into marriage, whether that property was acquired before or after the wedding. According to famous social reformer Caroline Norton in her letter to Queen Victoria, “A married woman in England has no legal existence: her being is absorbed in that of her husband.”⁵

Although the book received various kinds of critiques (its reception being both positive and negative), a great amount, including Charlotte’s, argued against the defeatist portrayal of Helen’s husband, created by immoral behavior, alcohol addiction and marital abuse. The Spectator thought the subject matter was handled in an unpleasant manner and, according to other critiques, the descriptions were considered graphic and disturbing; Sharpe’s London Magazine believing that "[no] woman could have written such a work", warned its readers, especially ladies, against reading it.

In her turn, in the preface to the second edition of the novel, Anne stated that:

"When we have to do with vice and vicious characters, I maintain it is better to depict them as they really are than as they would wish to appear. To represent a bad thing in its least offensive light, is doubtless the most agreeable course for a writer of fiction to pursue; but is it the most honest, or the safest? Is it better to reveal the snares and pitfalls of life to the young and thoughtless traveler, or to cover them with branches and flowers?"⁶

Keeping her thoughts structured into realistic frames, as previously mentioned, in this book Anne created layers, many of them being shocking or scandalous in Victorian England: domestic violence, alcohol addiction, religion, social expectations, and class irony. All of these topics revolve around a common spot—people’s natural dispositions and the necessary actions to redirect oneself toward a higher moral path, even after one has strayed from it.

She constructed a range of characters, each embodying different facets of human nature, showing and proving the complexity that lies within all of us. Anne depicts how people have the potential for growth, or decay, achieving different results depending on their willingness to improve.

Speaking from my present reading experience, Helen Graham is the epitome of a person’s inner strength, especially when living under legal restrictions in which the law does not recognize oppression and unfairness under certain circumstances. Anne, shedding light on women’s autonomy and legal powerlessness of the time, created such a revolutionary piece of work that should be neither omitted nor overlooked.

In Conversations in Ebury Street, George Moore declared that:

"if Anne Brontë had lived ten years longer, she would have taken a place beside Jane Austen, perhaps even a higher place".

Belongings and manuscripts

Anne’s personal effects, alongside her family’s, can be found in several places, such as the British Library or Victoria and Albert Museum, both in London.

However, the most important institutions that offer access to a more vast collection of the Brontë family, such as literary manuscripts, first editions, their Bibles, letters, or personal artifacts, including Anne’s, are the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, and the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

Personal view

I was genuinely intrigued by the person and author behind the works I recently discovered. I wanted to know more about her and maybe getting to understand her better, if possible. One thing is sure:

Anne was bold.

Her sharp mind, strong inner core, and brave writing created some unforgettable works, in which crucial issues were addressed with outstanding maturity.

To clarify things out, this is neither about choosing my favourite Brontë sister, excluding the rest—nor comparing them. There is definitely no need to do so, especially when all of them have offered major contributions to the English literary tradition, each one in her own voice.

However—my admiration for Anne extending slightly beyond the usual—I hope this attempt to shed some light on her will inspire someone to give her works a try.

Note: No AI was used to write this post. Only my partner's valuable help to spot little mistakes.