Anne Bronte was born January 17, 1820 in Yorkshire, England to Patrick and Maria Branwell Brontë. Said to be the meeker and less talented Bronte sisters, but her novels were sharp and ironic. Anne was the youngest of six children. Her siblings, by age, were Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Branwell, and Emily Jane. Anne was raised in a strict Anglican home by her clergyman father and a religious aunt after her mother and two eldest siblings died. Anne was closer to her aunt than her sisters. She was too young at the time of her mothers death to be affected or remember her mother.

As with her sister, she also was largely educated at home, Anne worked as a governess for several years before publishing her first novel, Agnes Grey. The novel did not gain similar success as Emily's Wuthering Heights and Charlotte's Jane Eyre. Her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was published in 1848 in three volumes and sold well despite the fact that both books were considered more conservative than those of her sisters.

Relatively little is known about Anne Brontë's life. Records indicate where she was and suggest general outlines of what she was doing; her published works may suggest something of her experience and beliefs.

¹ "Anne, dear gentle Anne was quite different in appearance from the others, and she was her aunt's favorite. Her hair was a very pretty light brown, and fell on her neck in graceful curls. She had lovely violet-blue eyes, fine pencilled eyebrows and a clear almost transparent complexion. She still pursued her studies and especially her sewing, under the surveillance of her aunt. " (Chitham, 1991, p. 39)

For many years, Anne Brontë has been remembered primarily as the third Brontë sister, the meek one. Her works have been largely forgotten. This has occurred to a large extent because Anne is very different, as a person and as a writer, from Charlotte and Emily.




³Pencil Stetch
Country Lane and Homestead - 30 May 1836
This picture courtesy:
Mike's Pad -- The Art of Anne Brontë