The Bronte Quartet Part One, An Introduction

Now onto a family known for being reclusive geniuses, each in their own right, the Brontes.


 There were originally six Bronte children born between the years of 1814 and 1820, the four eldest daughters were sent to a boarding school that was reported to be terrible conditions, traumatizing Emily and Charlotte so much, their experiences wound up in their novels later on in life. 
A year after going to this school, the eldest Bronte sisters, Marie and Elizabeth both died of Tuberculosis at the ages of eleven and ten. 
Charlotte and Emily are pulled out of the boarding school because of this and have their education finished elsewhere where they each receive decent treatment and formed lifelong friendships. I mean, they have short lives, all dying before the age of 40, but lifelong, nonetheless. 

The four remaining siblings, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne, began storytelling at an early age and carried this with them into adulthood. Branwell added painting too because ya know, gotta have one painter in the mix. 
As they aged, their father said they either had to marry or become governesses. The three Bronte sisters chose the latter, often watching after really awful kids, their experiences also making cameos into their novels. Branwell, however, began his journey with substance abuse which would follow the siblings their whole lives. Emily was known for referring to her brother's situation as "hopeless."

Their writing, as much writing does, follows a close examination of their lives, Charlotte writes Jane Eyre, (a governess who falls in love with a man, finds out he's married, more terror than shenanigans ensue) while she herself has fallen in love with a married man. I don't think he fell back though because the only facts I've found thus far on the subject are about her love letters to him, him ripping up the love letters, and his wife gluing them back together and the letters getting published for the whole world to see. They were donated by his children to a museum where you can go see them.

After these pursuits did not give them the financial stability they desired, Charlotte had the idea that the three sisters had the ability to educate young girls and they all agreed to open a school. Branwell was left out of this, as his drinking was a huge problem. 

They traveled to Brussels for further education to prepare for their own school and that's where Charlotte falls in love with the man running the school, ya know, the married man. His wife also runs the school, so you can't really assume that things went well. 
Emily, on the contrary hardly liked her teacher and was known as being rebellious. 
While they're there, their aunt dies back home and they're forced to return. A year later, Charlotte goes back and Branwell's behavior gets worse. 
Due to Branwell's reputation and ongoing issues with substance abuse, the school project fails and is abandoned. 

Charlotte continues her literary pursuits but is often discouraged from trying to publish her poetry because "that's a man's business." *blinks*
It's during this time period that Charlotte finds her sister, Emily's poetry and begs her to have it published. Emily is at first upset about Charlotte reading her poetry and it's recorded that it took her several days to finally come back around. 
This is when Charlotte is like, "okay, the school idea is out, but let's the three of us, ignore Branwell, the three of us should publish our poetry together."
Anne agrees quickly because I think she has a reasonable personality (she's also the only one who used substance abuse in her stories as a moral lesson rather than over-romanticizing it like Emily and Charlotte did). 
Emily comes along reluctantly and they all publish a poetry book using fake names that leave their genders ambiguous... because poetry is for men.

Only three copies are sold. 
But the girls aren't discouraged, they continue to work on their novels in secret and spent hours discussing them with one another after dinner every night. 

Finally, in 1847, each girl published their first novel. 
Charlotte- Jane Eyre
Emily- Wuthering Heights
Anne- Anges Grey

Wuthering Heights didn't receive the best response. It was "clearly written by a man with a depraved mind" Anges Grey was widely considered "alright" and Jane Eyre was the most liked. 

In 1848, a year before Anne's death, Anne produced a second novel, 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'. Charlotte wrote to the publisher and said that the material was hardly worth preserving and she seemed to not really like it. Interestingly enough, it outsold Wuthering Heights almost immediately. 
Its subject matter included a woman marrying a violent alcoholic who ruins the family. It's often believed that she wrote it out of her experience with her brother's own issues and it makes sense that Charlotte wouldn't really want that exposed... I guess. I mean. Charlotte comes off as pretty shady. 
Today 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' is regarded as one of the first feminist novels to exist. It's why I chose to review it along 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights' rather than 'Anges Grey' and also because I don't want to read a scene where the protagonist has to smash a bunch of baby birds to stop them from being tortured. Like, I get that they went through some shit as governesses but. Oof. Smashing baby birds? I just don't want to put that into my head if I don't have to. 

While the girls are finding literary success, Branwell is less successful. He tries to get his poems published in a magazine and they're not taken well. 

Branwell and Emily died months apart in 1848, both of tuberculosis and Anne followed in 1849, also from tuberculosis. 
Charlotte lived until 1855 but also passed away from tuberculosis. Not only did she try to prevent Anne's second novel from being seen again, but there was a manuscript by Emily that she burned before anyone could read it. 

I'm excited to get into these books, I already have Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre so I'll be covering them first, I have 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' on order and it should be here within the week. I did manage to find a book of Branwell's poems so his will be the last I look at but I'm kind of excited. 
He gets a bad rep throughout looking at the Bronte family history but his siblings and father regarded him as the genius of the family and he was the main creative driving force when they were children together. 

I'll also have a review of their collected poems after their novel reviews.