The Brontë Sisters

Charlotte (1816 -1855)
Thornton, Yorkshire

Charlotte was the third daughter of a Reverend and his wife, Maria. In 1824, she enrolled in the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge, yet upon the illness of her sisters, she was sent home two years later. In 1826, her father brought home a collection of wooden soldiers and Charlotte and her sisters began to play with them. They created a detailed imaginary world called Angria. In 1844, Charlotte and her sisters decided to start a project for founding a school. However, their advertisements did not elicit a single response from the public. Upon her return home the sisters embarked upon their project for founding a school, which proved to be an abject failure: their advertisements did not elicit a single response from the public. The following year Charlotte discovered Emily's poems, and decided to publish a selection of the poems of all three sisters: 1846 brought the publication of their Poems, written under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Charlotte also completed The Professor, which was rejected for publication. In 1849 Charlotte, visiting London, began to move in literary circles, making the acquaintance, for example, of Thackeray. In 1850 Charlotte edited her sister's various works, and met Mrs. Gaskell. In 1851she visited the Great Exhibition in London, and attended a series of lectures given by Thackeray. 1857 saw the postumous publication of The Professor, which had been written in 1845-46, and in that same year Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë was published.

Emily (1818 - 1848)
Thornton, Yorkshire

Emily was born in 1818. After her mother's death in 1821, Emily and her sisters enroll at the Cowan Bridge School. In 1831, Emily and Anne begin the Gondal saga. 1837 she goes to teach at Law Hill School, near Halifax; remains there for about six months--the exact dates of the Law Hill period are disputed. From 1838 to 842, over half of Bronte's surviving poems written. In 1844, she begins to arrange her poems into two notebooks, dividing the Gondalan from the non-Gondalan material. The idea of a school is abandoned and her brother tells the sisters his idea of novel writing. Charlotte discovers Emily's poems and convinces her sister to collaborate on a volume of poems; December, Wuthering Heights begun. In 1846, Wuthering Heights is finished and she begins to make the round of publishers, along with Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte and The Professor by Charlotte; September 14, last dated complete poem. Confusion in the literary world over the identity originates and also number of the Bells. On December 19, Emily Bronte died.

Anne (1820 - 1849)
Thornton, Yorkshire

The youngest of six children of Patrick and Marie Brontë, Anne was taught in the family's Haworth home, chiefly by her sister Charlotte. She took a position as governess briefly in 1839 and then again for four years, 1841-45, with the Robinsons, the family of a clergyman, at Thorpe Green, near Boroughbridge, Yorkshire. There her irresponsible brother, Patrick Branwell, a drunkard and opium addict, joined her in 1845, intending to serve as a tutor. Anne returned home soon after but was followed shortly by her brother, who had been dismissed, charged with making love to his employer's wife.

Additional Information
The Bronte Sisters:
http://www2.sbbs.se/hp/cfalk/bronte1e.htm

Sources:

A Celebration of Women Writers. Ed. Mary Mark Ocklerbloom. 2001. <http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bronte/bronte-anne.html>

The Victorian Web. Brown University. 1994. <http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/bronte/cbronte/bronteov.html>