Jane Austen (18-19th century)

Jane Austen was an English author, primarily known for her six novels, all of which interpret the life
of British landed gentry at the end of the eighteenth century. Born into a large and close knit family
that belonged to the lower fringes of English gentry, she wrote what she had seen and experienced.
She started writing at the age of twelve and by the age of eighteen, she had created a large volume
of work, which though rather boisterous, shows her dislike for sentimental fictions. Her first serious
work ‘Lady Susan’ was written at the age of nineteen. She then went on to produce more novels.
However, none of them found publishers until she settled down in Chawton and her brother Henry
began to act as her literary agent. Thereafter, four of her novels were published in quick succession;
the rest being published shortly after her death.

Childhood & Early Life

 Jane Austen was born on 16 December, 1775 in the village of Steventon in Hampshire.
Her father, Reverend George Austen, was the rector of the Anglican parishes of
Steventon and Dean. A great reader, he owned a vast library and often supplemented his
income by tutoring students for Oxford.
 Her mother, Cassandra (née Leigh), was famed for her ready wit, impromptu verses and
stories. Jane was born seventh of their eight children; she had six brothers named James,
George, Edward, Henry, Francis, Charles and an elder sister named Cassandra.
 From childhood, Jane was very fond of her sister. Their mother had once said, "If
Cassandra's head had been going to be cut off, Jane would have hers cut off too".
 Cassandra was an amateur watercolorist, who created two of Jane’s portraits. Like Jane,
she too never married and the two sisters lived together all their life. When they were not
together, they wrote extensively to each other and more than one hundred such letters
have been found.
 Jane was also very close to Henry, who started his career as a banker but later became a
clergyman. He had a large circle of friends and exposed Jane to a society that she
normally would not have known. Later he functioned as her literary agent.
 Among her other brothers, James was ten years senior to her. Her second brother
George was deaf and mute. Although he mostly lived away from home, Jane taught
herself enough sign language to communicate with him.
 Her third brother, Edward was adopted by a distant relative, Thomas Knight. She spent
the last part of her life in his estate, which he had inherited from his adoptive parents.
Francis and Charles joined the navy, both reaching the rank of admiral.
 Jane Austen was mostly educated at home by her father and her elder brothers. In
addition, she was also an extensive reader and imbibed a lot through her reading.
 Another unusual source of her education was the private theatricals that were staged by
the siblings in the rectory’s barn. It is believed that they helped to develop her sense of
satire.
 In the spring of 1783, Jane and Cassandra were sent away to study under Mrs. Cawley, a
distant relative. But within a year, both the girls were inflicted with typhus and nearly died
from it. Therefore, they were brought back to Steventon.
 Thereafter in the spring of 1785, the girls were once again sent to a ladies boarding
school, held in the gatehouse of the abbey in Reading, Berkshire. But they were brought
back by December 1786, mainly because of financial constraints.
 After that, Jane never left her family environment. She resumed her education under the
guidance of her father as well as two brothers, James and Harry. Moreover, she now had
full access to her father’s library.
Juvenilia
 Sometime in 1787, Jane Austen began writing and by June 1793, she had created a large
body of work, which she ‘fair copied’ in three large note books, now referred to as the
‘Juvenilia.’ Today, one of those books is preserved in Bodleian Library and the other two
in British Museum.
 These notebooks contain twenty-nine plays, verses and short novels written in various
stages. Among them, ‘Love and Friendship’, a parody of romantic novel, written in 1790
as letters from the heroine Laura to Marianne, showcases her dislike for sentimental
fictions.
 ’The History of England’, written in 1791, is another component of these notebooks.
Notwithstanding the name, it is actually a burlesque, poking fun at the schoolroom history
textbooks available in those days.
 Apart from writing, Jane Austen also loved to socialize. She was fond of dancing and
attended the balls held regularly at the town hall or at some of her neighbors’ residences.
She was an excellent dancer. She also attended the church regularly and loved sewing.

Making of a Novelist
 In the autumn of 1794, Jane Austen wrote her first serious work, titled ‘Lady Susan’. It is
possible that she based the character of Susan on her neighbor Mrs. Craven. However,
the book was not published until 1871.
 In 1795, she wrote ‘Elinor and Marianne’. It not only remained unpublished, but its
manuscript is also lost. Although it is certain that her later novel, ‘Sense and Sensibility’
was based on it, in the absence of the manuscript, it cannot be determined how much of
the original storyline had been retained.
 In October 1796, she wrote another novel, ‘The First Impression’ and completed the initial
draft by August 1797. George Austen sent the manuscript to Thomas Cadell, an
established publisher in London, but it was rejected. Much later it was revised and
published as ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
 From November 1797, Austen began to revise ‘Elinor and Marianne’. In August 1798, she
started working on another novel, ‘Susan’, finishing it sometime towards the end of June
1799. It was a satire of the Gothic novels popular at the time.

Leaving Steventon
 In December 1800, George Austen decided to retire from ministry. Subsequently, he left
Steventon and settled in Bath with his wife and two daughters. Not much is known about
Jane Austen’s life from then until 1803 except that she received the only known marriage
proposal sometime in 1802.
 The period is also marked with very little productivity. Many historians take it as a sign of
depression, which might have engulfed her as she left the only home she had known.
However others refuse to agree. They are of the opinion that she continued to revise her
drafts.
 In 1803, Jane Austen sold the rights of her novel ‘Susan’ for ten pounds to London
bookseller, Crosby & Co. Although they put out advertisements for it, they later decided
against publishing it.
 In 1804, she started a new novel, ‘The Watsons’; about the harsh reality of an
economically dependent woman. However, very soon her father became ill and with that
their financial condition began to worsen. It became worse when he died in early 1805.
However, her brothers pledged to help the female members of the family.
 Austen now abandoned her novel ‘The Watsons.’ That is mainly because after her
father’s death, her own financial condition had become something similar to that of her
protagonist. Moreover, her life over the next few years was too unsettled to allow any kind
of creativity.
  After her father died in January, Jane, Cassandra and their mother lived in a rented
quarter in Bath until June 1805. Thereafter they lived in various places before moving in
with Francis and his new wife in 1806. Although they stayed with them till 1809, the
greater part of their time was spent in visiting relatives.
 Finally in early 1809, Edward, who had by then inherited his adoptive parents’ estate,
invited his mother and sisters to settle permanently in one of his cottages in Chawton,
Hampshire. Subsequently, the three of them arrived at Chawton on July 7, 1809. Their
family friend Martha Lloyd accompanied them.

In Chawton
 In Chawton, the four ladies led a very quiet life. They did not entertain much, read a lot
and in spare time worked for the poor. They also taught a few children. Jane also began
revising her drafts while her brother Henry began to talk to the publishers.
 Finally in 1811, the revised version of ‘Elinor and Marianne’ was published anonymously
as ‘Sense and Sensibility’ by London publisher Thomas Egerton. Sold on commission
basis, it earned her £140.
 Next in 1813, ‘First Impression’ was published as ‘Pride and Prejudice’. In this case, she
sold the copyright for £110. The novel was an instant hit and by 1817, three editions had
been sold out.
 Her third novel, ‘Mansfield Park’ was published in May 1814, also by Egerton. Although
reviewers neglected it, it was a huge hit and the novel earned her the maximum profit.
 Her fourth novel ‘Emma’ was published by John Murray, a better known London
publisher, in December 1815. The book was dedicated to Prince Regent (later George
IV), albeit at a discreet royal command.
 Also in 1815, Austen began to write ‘The Elliots’, which was later published as
‘Persuasion’. She completed her first draft in July 1816. By then, Henry Austen had
repurchased the copyright for ‘Susan’ from Crosby, intending to publish it as ‘Northanger
Abbey’.
 Unfortunately, Henry’s bank failed and the brothers lost a large amount of money with it.
As a result, another period of financial austerity began and the two novels could not be
published until after Jane’s death.

Major Works
 Jane Austen is best remembered for her second published novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
The story revolves around the life of five unmarried Benet sisters and their relation to the
rich and eligible Mr. Bingley, and his status-conscious friend (and even richer) Mr. Darcy,
who come to live in their neighborhood.

Personal Life & Legacy

 Jane Austen never married and remained close to her family till the very end.
 Sometime in early 1816, Jane Austen was inflicted with some serious illness, later
diagnosed as Addison’s disease. However, she continued to write and by August rewrote
the final chapters of ‘The Elliots’ and also started a burlesque, titled ‘Plan of a Novel,
According to Hints from Various Quarters’ (published in 1871).
 Next she started working on ‘The Brothers’ (later titled ‘Sanditon’). However, her condition
began to deteriorate and she made her will in April 1817. In May, she was taken to
Winchester for treatment. She died there on July 18, 1817 and was buried in Winchester
Cathedral.
 The cottage in Chawton, in which she spent her last eight years, has been turned into a
museum. Known as Jane Austen’s House Museum, it holds Austen family items and
furniture, three pieces of her jewelry and eight music books owned by her. Besides, there
is the Jane Austen Centre at Bath. Apart from holding a life size wax model of Jane
 Austen, it tries to depict her life at Bath and its effect on her writing through a permanent
exhibition.

Agatha Christie (20)

Agatha Christie, known as the ‘Queen of Crime’, was a renowned English writer who wrote over
66 detective novels. She is best known as the creator of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot and
village lady Miss Marple. She is credited for writing world’s longest running play ‘The Mousetrap’.
Her first successful publication was ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’ that introduced the character
of Poirot. According to Index Translationum, her books have been translated into 103 different
languages, and her works rank third rank after the works of William Shakespeare and the Bible,
as the world’s most widely published books. Her novel ‘And Then There Were None’ deserves
special mention as her best-selling novel. Around 100 million copies of this novel have been sold
till now. For her noteworthy contribution in the field of detective stories, she received several
awards, such as, Grand Master Award and an Edgar Award. A number of films, television series,
video games and comics have been made based on her stories. Her created character Poirot is
the only fictional character for which The New York Times published an obituary, which is a clear
indication of the character’s popularity.

Childhood & Early life

 Hailing from an upper middle class family of Devon, in South West England, Agatha
Christie was born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, the third child of Frederick Alvah
Miller and Clara Boehmer.
 She spent her childhood days in a happy environment surrounded by some strong and
independent women. On the insistence of her mother, she received a home education on
arithmetic. She also learnt to play the piano and the mandolin at home.
 In 1901, her family went through financial crisis on account of her father’s death. The sad
demise of her father ended her childhood. She started living together with her mother in
their Torquay home.
 In 1902, she took admission at Miss Guyer’s Girls School in Torquay, but could not
continue her study there.
 In 1905, she went to Paris, France where she studied singing and piano at Mrs Dryden’s
finishing school.

Career
 Her first short story was ‘The House of Beauty’ which described the world of ‘madness
and dreams’. She continued writing short stories, which mirrored her interest in
spiritualism and paranormal activities.
 She wrote a novel, namely, ‘Snow Upon the Desert’ which she sent to some publishers
under the pseudonym of Monosyllaba. Unfortunately, publishers were reluctant to publish
her works.
 During World War I in 1914, Agatha joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment. During her
service there, she attended injured soldiers at the hospital in Torquay, England.
 From October 1914 to December 1916, she dedicated her time by serving for 3,400 hours
of unpaid work.
 From December 1916 until the end of her service in September 1918, she earned a wage
as a dispenser at an annual rate of �16.
 As an avid reader of detective novels of prominent authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyel,
she created detective character of Hercule Poirot through her detective novel ‘The
Mysterious Affair at Styles’.
  In October 1920, John Lane at The Bodley Head agreed to publish ‘The Mysterious Affair
at Styles' on the condition of changing the ending of this novel.
 Her second novel ‘The Secret Adversary’ published in 1922, again by The Bodley Head,
introduced the characters of detective couple Tommy and Tuppence.
 Her third novel namely ‘Murder on the Links’ was published in 1923. This novel featured
characters like Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings.
 During the Second World War, the experience of working in the pharmacy at University
College Hospital in London helped her to gain knowledge about poisons. She utilized this
knowledge in her post-war crime novels.
 She was seen publicly for the last time during the opening night of her play ‘Murder on the
Orient Express’ in 1974. In the next year, she signed over the rights of this play to her
grandson due to her poor health condition.

Major Works
 Her novel ‘Murder in Mesopotamia’, set in the backdrop of Middle East, appeared in 1936.
This book is remarkable for its vivid description of an archaeological dig site and the
characters of this book are based on archaeologists whom she met in real life.
 Published in 1938, the novel ‘Appointment with Death’ features her well-known detective
character Hercule Poirot. The novel is set in Jerusalem and the book offers some very
descriptive details of sites which she herself would have visited in order to write the book.

Awards & Achievements

 Being a successful author of a number of detective stories, she was titled as the ‘Queen
of Crime’.
 To honor her literary creation, she was appointed as Commander of the Order of the
British Empire in the 1956 New Year Honors.

Personal Life & Legacy

 Agatha Christie fell in love with Archibald Christie whom she married on the Christmas
Eve in 1914. Archibald, who was the son of a judge in the Indian Civil Service, was born
in India. Their daughter Roseline was born in 1919.
 In 1926, her husband disclosed his relationship with another woman. On December 3,
1926, after a quarrel between Agatha and her husband, she disappeared from her house.
 On December 14, 1926, she was identified at the Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate,
Yorkshire. It is believed that she experienced a nervous breakdown probably due to the
death of her mother earlier that year and her husband’s infidelity.
 After her divorce with Archibald in 1928, she married archaeologist Max Mallowan. Her
travel experience with Max in the Middle East provided background of several of her
detective novels.

Trivia
 During her disappearance in 1926, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took one of her gloves to a
spirit medium to find her location. The Home Secretary of that time, William Joyson-Hicks
pressurized the police department to find her.
Virginia Woolf (20th century)
Virginia Woolf was an English author and novelist who wrote modernist classics. Not only is she
known as a pioneer of modernism, but is also known as the greatest modernist literary personality
of the twentieth century. She pioneered feminist texts as well. She is known for works like ‘To the
Lighthouse’, ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ and ‘Orlando’ and an essay ‘A Room of One's Own.’ Being an
important figure of the Victorian Literary Society, as well as an influential figure of the Bloomsbury
group of intellectuals, she was also an innovator of English literature with her experimental
language. Her works are considered unique as they go deep into the psychology of a character,
and show the way of their thinking. She published novels and essays as a public intellectual, and
received both critical and popular success. She used to self-publish most of her works through
the Hogarth Press which she had co-founded. Throughout her life, she suffered from mental
illnesses, probably including bipolar disorder, and she took her own life in 1941. She was 59. Her
posthumous reputation suffered after the Second World War, but it was re-established with the
growth of feminist criticism during the 1970s. Woolf’s novels can be described as highly
experimental: a narrative, frequently uneventful, and commonplace, is seen to be refracted, or
dissolved, in the receptive consciousness of the character.

Childhood & Early Life

 Virginia Woolf was born as Adeline Virginia Stephen into a privileged English family on 25
January 1882. Her parents, Sir Leslie Stephen, an editor and a critic, and Julia Prinsep
Stephen, a photographer, were quite freethinking people, who educated her in their own
literate and well-connected house. Since both her parents had been previously married,
she grew up with several half-siblings.
 Because of her father being an editor himself, and having a connection to William
Thackeray, she grew up in an environment which had the influence of the Victorian
literary society. There was also a library in their house, from which the children were
taught classics and English literature. Her brothers were educated at Cambridge and they
often used to bring home their Cambridge contacts, which further helped in her
intellectual advancement.
 Her family made summer migrations from their London townhouse to the Talland House,
which was situated on the rugged Cornwall coast. This annual relocation helped structure
her childhood in the terms of opposites, as she experienced city and country, winter and
summer, repression and freedom, etc.
 Her mother passed away in 1895, followed by her sister two years later, which left her in a
state of shock. She also lost her father in 1904, which led to her losing her mental
stability. It was revealed later, that she also suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her
half-brothers which only further added to her trauma.

Career
 Virginia Woolf had begun writing professionally in 1900. The first of her writings, which
was a journalistic account of a visit to the Bronte family, was published anonymously in a
journal in December 1904. She started writing for ‘The Times Literary Supplement’ the
following year.
 She published her first novel ‘The Voyage Out’ in 1915, though it was originally titled
‘Melymbroisa.’ The book was mostly about the experiences in her own life. She continued
writings novels, self-publishing most of them, and slowly she became a famous
personality in the Victorian literary society.
 In 1928, Virginia Woolf started taking a grassroots approach to inspiring feminism. She
started addressing undergraduate women in various colleges. ‘A Room of One’s Own’
and ‘Three Guineas’ were two of her non-fiction works that discuss the hardships that
women writers and intellectuals had to go through since it was men who held legal and
 economic power. She wanted to make people realize the effects of industrialization as
well as create awareness about birth control too.
 It was during the bombing of London in 1940 and 1941 when she worked on ‘Between the
Arts.’ Here, she portrayed war as threatening art and humanity itself. Though she raised
several questions in this work, she later felt that her work was of little significance as
England seemed on the verge of invasion and civilization about to slide over a cliff. It was
such horrors that made her unable to write. She found herself haunted by her fears, which
led to her killing herself by drowning in 1941. Her work was published later that year after
her death.
 With the end of the Second World War, her posthumous popularity suffered. However her
works gained popularity again in the 1970s with the advent of feminist criticism. Despite
her fame, she earned criticism for being anti-Semitic and for her snobbery—attributes she
had herself admitted to in her personal diary.

Major Works
 Her first work ‘The Voyage Out’ was published on 26 March 1915 by her half-brother
Duckworth’s company. It was written during the periods when she was psychologically
vulnerable, and suffered from depression.
 In 1981, an alternate version of ‘The Voyage Out’ under its original title of ‘Melymbrosia’
was published by Loise DeSalvo, an American writer, editor and professor. DeSalvo
claimed that her work was an attempt to restore the text of the novel as Virginia Woolf
had originally conceived it, and contained much more commentary of subjects like
homosexuality, women’s issues, and colonialism. Since Woolf had been warned by her
colleagues that publishing such an outspoken work would affect her career, the earlier
version had been heavily edited.
 ’To the Lighthouse’ was another one of her important works. It was published in 1927 by
the Hogarth Press—which she had co-founded with her husband. What’s unique about
this novel was that it contained little dialogue, and almost no action, as most of it was
written as thoughts and observations. Childhood emotions were recalled and adult
relationships were highlighted. She had begun writing this book as a way of
understanding as well as dealing with unresolved issues concerning her parents. That is
why similarities with her life can be seen in the book.
 ’The Waves’ was published in 1931. It was one of her most experimental novels. It
consisted of six characters, through which Virginia Woolf explores concepts of
individuality, self, and community. It is difficult to assign a genre to this novel, because of
its complexity. Even the term ‘novel’ may not describe it in an accurate way because of its
complexity. As described in Woolf’s biography, it was less of a novel and more of a
‘playpoem.’ The book was translated by Marguerite Yourcenar in 1937.
 'Flush: A Biography’ was published in 1933 by Hogarth Press. The book, which views city
life through the eyes of a dog, is a harsh criticism of the unnatural ways in which people
live in the city. Woolf’s emotional and philosophical views are verbalized in this book.

Awards & Achievements

 Her work ‘To the Lighthouse’ was named No. 15 by the Modern Library in 1998, on its list
of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century. The ‘TIME’ magazine also
chose it as one of the best English language novels from 1923 to presentin2005.

Personal Life & Legacy

 Virginia Stephen married writer Leonard Woolf in 1912. They shared a close bond and a
led a happy married life, which lasted till her death in 1941. The two also collaborated
professionally.
  She was bisexual and believed in exploring her sexuality. She met the writer and
gardener Vita Sackville in 1922, with whom she had a sexual relationship.
 Because of the trauma she endured in her childhood, she suffered from mental illnesses
for most of her life. Unable to bear it anymore, she committed suicide by filling her
pockets with stones and then drowning herself in a river on 28 March 1941. Her body was
found on 18 April of the same year. Her husband Leonard buried her cremated remains in
the garden of their house in Sussex.

Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte was a famous English novelist and poet who left behind a rich legacy of written
work which includes classical novels like ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Shirley’ and ‘Villette’. She was the eldest
among the Bronte sisters—Charlotte, Emily and Anne—all of whom were writers and poets of the
highest standards. A dominant and ambitious woman from a young age, she was someone who
refused to blindly follow the norms the society demanded of women during her time. She was a
fiercely independent woman who introduced to the literary world a new kind of heroine who defied
age-old societal expectations to emerge as a courageous and virtuous individual in her own right.
She grew up reading the works of the Romantic authors like Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth
and Lord Byron. The three Bronte sisters supported and encouraged each other in their
endeavors and shared constructive criticisms of each other’s works. As the eldest of her surviving
siblings the responsibility of providing for them financially fell on Charlotte who first worked as a
teacher and then as a governess to earn a living. Later on the sisters collaborated and worked
together to publish their writings for financial gains. The talented sisters’ writing career was
however cut short by illnesses which claimed all the three well before their time.

Childhood & Early Life

 She was the third of six children born to Maria Branwell and Patrick Bronte. Her father
was an Anglican clergyman who was appointed Perpetual curate of St. Michael and All
Angels Church.
 Her mother died of cancer in 1821 leaving behind six children. An aunt, Elizabeth took
care of the family after her mother’s death.
 She along with her sisters was sent to the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge.
The poor conditions at the school made the girls sick and resulted in the deaths of two of
her sisters. Her father removed his surviving daughters from the school.
 The surviving Bronte children were a close knit unit who created their own fictional literary
world and together wrote stories, articles and poems. The whole Bronte clan had a deep
interest in writing and literature.

Career
 She wrote her first novella ‘The Green Dwarf’ in 1833 under the pen name Wellesley. She
also began working as a teacher at Roe Head from 1835 to 1838.
 She found job as a governess in 1839. Over the next couple of years she would work in
this position for several families in Yorkshire.
 Charlotte and Emily went to Brussels in 1842 to study under the institution of Constantin
Heger and his wife Claire Zoe Heger. In return for their services, Charlotte taught English
and Emily taught music at the school run by the Hegers.
 The sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne decided to pursue their writing careers and chose
masculine sounding names as their pseudonyms—Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. They
published a joint collection of poetry under these names in May 1846.
  Charlotte had begun work on a novel called ‘The Professor’. However she could not find a
publisher; this novel was ultimately published years later, after her death.
 Her first published novel was ‘Jane Eyre’ which was released in 1847. It was published
under her pen name Currer Bell. The novel focused on the story of a plain governess by
the name of Jane who falls in love with her employer Mr. Rochester. The novel is credited
to have revolutionized the art of fiction.
 ‘Jane Eyre’ became a highly popular book and was a huge commercial success. It was
also reviewed very favorably. The book combined elements of gothic melodrama with
naturalism which was an innovation in literature of those times.
 The success of her debut novel motivated Charlotte to continue writing. She was working
on her second novel ‘Shirley’ when multiple tragedies struck the Bronte household—three
family members died within a period of eight months. Charlotte drowned herself in writing
as a means of coping with her grief.
 ‘Shirley’ was out in 1849. The novel was set in Yorkshire and covered the period of
industrial depression. The book dealt with the themes of industrial unrest and the role of
women in society. This work of literature could not however match up to the success of its
predecessor.
 Even though she initially wrote under the male name of Currer Bell, her publisher insisted
that she reveal her true identity following the success of her novels. After revealing herself
to the world, she became friends with Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Gaskell.
 The last novel published during her lifetime, ‘Villette’ was released in 1853. It told of the
story of a woman, Lucy and her adventures and romance. The novel is noted for the
tracing of the protagonist’s psychology and for exploring gender roles in society.

Major Works
 ‘Jane Eyre’ is the novel that changed her fortunes and revolutionized the art of fiction. The
novel combined elements of social criticism and accepted norms of morality. She
explored issues like sexuality, feminism and classism—issues that were regarded much
ahead of her time.

Personal Life & Legacy

 Her father’s curate Arthur Bell Nicholls had been in love with Charlotte for a long time and
had proposed marriage. Her father was initially opposed to the match but eventually
agreed. The couple got married in 1854.
 She began to suffer from health problems when she became pregnant with her first child.
Both the mother and her unborn child died on 31 March 1855.
Emily Brontë (19)
Emily Bronte is an exponent of English literature and her only novel has been regarded as a
masterpiece. This author was a person who preferred to be at home than going out and mingling
with people. She was immersed in her own world and had no desire to venture beyond the
threshold of her house. Apparently, her siblings were her only friends. This withdrawn writer
lapsed into homesickness every time she stayed away from home. She has been an enigmatic
figure and much is not known about her personal life. Even her novel has a predominant
mysterious setting. There are two narrators in the novel which provides the readers with a dual
viewpoint. The writer liked to experiment with different techniques of writing and it is evident in the
portrayal of characters in her novel Wuthering Heights. She had provided vivid description of the
settings which engrosses the readers and keeps them involved. It has a complex plot and every
character has been distinctively created with detailed artistry. The novel has received much
acclamation and is among one of the greatest novels of English literature. Although the writer did
not live long even to celebrate the success of her novel yet this is a great contribution which she
has made to the literary world.

Childhood & Early Life

 She was born to Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell on 30th July 1818, in the Thornton
village of Yorkshire, England. She had five siblings Maria, Elizabeth, Anne, Charlotte and
Patrick Branwell. However, Maria and Elizabeth met with an early death.
 In 1821, her family shifted to Haworth and a few months later, their mother died after
suffering from cancer and left the children in a lonely state.
 When she was six-years old, she joined the ‘Clergy Daughters’ School’ located at Cowan
Bridge, where her elder sisters Elizabeth, Maria and Charlotte were already enrolled at.
 Her sisters Elizabeth and Maria fell ill after they caught some fatal disease which resulted
in their deaths. After that, their father took Emily and Charlotte back home. There they
were home-tutored by their father and their maternal aunt Elizabeth Branwell. The Bronte
sisters, in spite of not having a formal education were provided with numerous books to
read which consisted of writers such as Shelley, Sir Walter Scott, and Byron.
 The Bronte children created a world of their own in which they dwelled and carved
fictional stories around it. Though some of these were later published most of them did
not survive.
 In 1835, she got enrolled at the ‘Roe Head Girls’ School’, where her sister Charlotte
worked as a teacher. However, her longing to be back home, made her leave the school
and return back home.

Career
 In 1838, she joined the ‘Miss Patchett’s School’ located near Halifax, as a teacher and
after working there for a few months, she left the job.
 Charlotte found out some poems of Emily which she penned secretly. This revealed the
fact that the three Bronte sisters had been engaged in writing poetry in their own way
which they did not even share with their siblings.
 In 1946, a collection of their verses was published under their pseudo names entitled
‘Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. They used pen names so as to avoid the bias
which female authors were subjected to during that period.
 In 1947, this writer’s novel ‘Wuthering Heights’ was published as part of a volume of three
which also consisted her sister Anne’s novel ‘Agnes Grey’. This volume was published by
‘Thomas Cautley Newby’. This publication followed after Charlotte Bronte’s novel ‘Jane
Eyre’ which became popular soon after its publication.
 Wuthering Heights’ was the only novel of this excellent writer and although this did not
gain much appreciation as soon as it was printed, it later, was accepted as a classic by
the literary world.
  This novel was set in the moors of Yorkshire and tells the stories of Earnshaw family and
the Linton family residing in ‘Wuthering Heights’ and ‘Thrushcross Grange’.
 In the novel, Bronte experimented with the character of Heathcliff who is the hero or the
anti-hero who is dark, gothic, mysterious, and barbarous. However, when the novel ends,
the readers do not seem to feel disgusted about him. Rather they are left with a sense of
pity for this hero. This art of portraying characters has been done effortlessly by Bronte.
 This novel was first published under the nom de plume of Emily Bronte which is Ellis Bell
till its edition of 1850.

Major Works
 Her only novel ‘Wuthering Heights’ has earned immense fame for Emily Bronte. This book
was not acclaimed instantly because of its stark description and flaming emotions but
later it was appreciated by critics as well as readers. This has even been regarded as a
classic of English literature.

Personal Life & Legacy

 This author did not prefer much exposure to social world and as such details about her
are lacking. She was a person who preferred to be at home and took delight in solitude.
She had her siblings as her friends and they enjoyed being together.
 She was interested in French and German languages and in 1942; she and Charlotte
went to Belgium in order to learn these languages.
 Her only novel ‘Wuthering Heights’ made her a renowned name in English literature but
she did not live long to know about her popularity.
 On 19th December, 1848, a year after the publication of her novel, she breathed her last
in her house at Yorkshire. Her resting place is in the family vault in Church of St. Michael
and All Angels, Haworth, West Yorkshire. This is the resting place of all the members of
the Bronte family expect Anne Bronte, as she died in Scarborough.
 Her residence has been converted into the ‘Bronte Parsonage Museum’ where the literary
works of the Bronte sisters are conserved and the ’The Bronte Society’ manages the
museum.
 ‘Selections from the literary remains of Emily and Anne Bronte’ was published in the year
1850.
 Her works consisted in the book ‘Privately’ which was published by ‘Dodd, Mead and
Company’ of New York in the year 1902. A few years later, her works were published in
‘The Complete Poems of Emily Bronte’.

Trivia
 The Bronte sisters created an imaginary place and named it Gondal and all their
adolescence works revolved around this place

Anne Brontë
Anne Bronte was an English novelist and one of the members of the prominent Bronte literary
family. She is best remembered for penning the classic 19th century novels ‘Agnes Grey’ and
‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, both of which deal with the oppression and social status of women in
Victorian England. Born as the youngest daughter of Patrick Bronte, a poor Irish clergyman in the
Church of England, she had a very difficult childhood, losing her mother at a young age. More
family tragedies followed as she lost two of her elder sisters in quick succession. Raised by her
mother’s sister, she was primarily educated at home by her father and aunt. Her father had a
well-stocked library, and Anne along with her sisters Charlotte and Emily grew up reading the
Bible, Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Scott, and many others. She started working a
as governess while still in her teens to help her family financially. The job experience was horrible
and she had to return home after being removed from the position. Inclined towards literary
pursuits from a young age, she drew inspiration from her difficult experiences as a governess and
detailed it in her novel, ‘Agnes Grey’. A talented writer, her budding career was cut short when
she died of tuberculosis, at the age of 29.

Childhood & Early Life

 Anne Bronte was born on January 17, 1820, in Thornton, England, as the youngest of the
six children of Patrick Bronte, a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, and his
wife Maria Branwell, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Her siblings included sisters
Maria, Elizabeth, Emily and Charlotte, and brother Branwell, who also became writers in
future.
 Her mother died when Anne was hardly a year old. Her mother’s sister Elizabeth moved
in with the family to help Patrick raise the children. She was a stern woman, but was
known to have a soft corner for Anne.
 Her father wanted all of his children to get a good education and sent four of his elder
daughters to the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Tragedy
struck the family again when two of the girls, Maria and Elizabeth, became ill and died.
The traumatized father immediately brought home the surviving daughters, Emily and
Charlotte. For the next five years, all of the remaining Bronte children, including Anne
were educated at home.
 The family had a big library and the children read a wide variety of literature including the
Bible, Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, and Scott. Voracious readers, they also
devoured articles from ‘Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine’, ‘Fraser's Magazine’, and ‘The
Edinburgh Review’. Anne, along with her siblings soon developed a love for writing as
well.
 At the age of 15, Anne joined the Roe Head School; this was her first time away from
home. After studying there for two years she became ill and had to return home to
recover.

Later Years
 She started looking for a teaching job in 1839. Aged just 19, she found employment as a
governess for the Ingham family at Blake Hall, near Mirfield. She found the job very
difficult as the children in her charge were spoilt and disobedient. She was unable to
control and educate them which made the Inghams dissatisfied with her service. She was
dismissed from work and had to return home.
 It did not take her long to find another job, this time as governess to the children of the
Reverend Edmund Robinson and his wife Lydia, at Thorp Green Hall in 1840. The job
was initially very difficult, but eventually she performed her responsibilities well and
impressed her employers. She would work there until 1845.
 After leaving the job in 1845, Anne and her sisters decided to publish a collection of the
poems they had written. Fearing that people would not be receptive to women authors,
the sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne respectively adopted male pen names of Currer,
Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their first book ‘Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell’, though a
dismal failure paved the way for their future literary careers.
 Anne published her first novel ‘Agnes Grey’ under the name of Acton Bell in 1847. The
story revolved around a governess, Agnes Grey, and was largely based on Anne’s own
experiences as a governess for five years. It dealt with the issue of oppression and abuse
of governesses, and women in general in the Victorian England. The novel was a success
which motivated her to focus more on her literary career.
  Her second novel, ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’, was published in June 1848. It became an
immediate success, and was sold out within six weeks. The novel, which was about a
woman who leaves her alcoholic and abusive husband, shocked the 19th century English
society. Published in an era when a married woman had no independent legal existence
apart from her husband, the novel is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist
novels.

Major Works
 Anne Bronte’s novel ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’ dealt with an issue that was considered
scandalous in Victorian England—that of a woman leaving her abusive husband and
trying to fend for herself and her child. The book was a phenomenal success and is
considered a feminist novel by many critics for challenging the prevailing misogynist
morals of the Victorian era.

Personal Life & Legacy

 In the late 1840s, all the Bronte siblings including Anne, her two sisters and one brother,
gained much acclaim as writers and seemed to be destined for highly successful literary
careers. However, a huge tragedy befell the family and the siblings began dying one after
the other.
 Her brother Branwell died in September 1848 and sister Emily died in December the
same year. Anne was also unwell during this time, and the death of her sister affected her
profoundly.
 Her distraught father called for a physician who diagnosed her condition as tuberculosis.
Anne took all the medicines prescribed by the doctor and struggled hard to beat the
disease. She grew progressively weaker over the following months and died on May 28,
1849. She was just 29.