HAPPY BIRTHDAY – Anne Brontë, born 17 January 1820
“My soul is awakened, my spirit is soaring, and carried aloft on the wings of the breeze.”
Anne Brontë – watercolour by Charlotte Brontë, 1834
Anne Brontë is the neglected sister of the three famous authors in the Brontë family, and she does not deserve that neglect. She was modern and brave as a novelist. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is about a woman married to an alcoholic, and in its depiction of his downward spiral into drink, in Helen’s assertiveness and determination to save her son from his contamination, the book has many lessons that are relevant today. It is also a wonderful love story. Agnes Grey is also an excellent read, and it carries a powerful message about the plight of the governess in Victorian England.
In many ways, Anne was the most successful of the Brontë sisters when it came to leading a ‘normal’ life. She held down positions as a governess, worked hard away from home, even helped her brother Branwell get a job. She coped bravely with the tragedy of suffering TB when still so young. She is the only one of the family buried away from her siblings. You can visit her grave at Scarborough, overlooking the sea which she loved. It’s a moving place to go.
Anne Brontë died of TB on 28 May 1849 at age 29.
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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
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