A blistering criticism of the literary world in which she lived, Charlotte Brontë’s ‘The Biographical Notes on the Pseudonymous Bells’ contains two fascinating and insightful essays by the author of ‘Jane Eyre’ addressing her late sisters’ Emily and Anne’s writing careers (Emily wrote ‘Wuthering Heights, ‘ Anne created ‘Agnes Grey’ and’The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’).
With surprising frankness and honesty, Charlotte offers a glimpse of the challenges the young women faced when trying to get their respective works published, which included taking on male pen names – Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily), and Acton (Anne) Bell – in an attempt to sidestep the harsher criticism female authors so often received.
Charlotte – writing as the sole surviving member of the famous ‘Brontë Sisters’ writing trio – also explores some of the qualities that distinguish her sisters from each other – and from other writers – and takes the reader behind the scenes to reveal the difficulties they faced in bringing these groundbreaking novels to the world.
About the author
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was an English novelist and poet and the eldest of a trio of legendary writers who became known as ‘the Brontë sisters.’ Each of the three sisters managed to create novels that would become classics of English literature: Charlotte’s ‘Jane Eyre, ‘ Emily’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ and Anne’s ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.’ The oldest of six children born to clergyman Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria, Charlotte attended the Clergy Daughter’s School, which was so poorly run and unsanitary that Charlotte would later blame their attendance at this school for the deaths of two of her sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, both of whom died of tuberculosis. The four surviving siblings, Branwell, Emily, Anne and Charlotte, created an imaginary world called ‘Glass Town, ‘ and would each contribute poems, stories and geographical details of this mythical place to help them escape the difficulties of their childhood and would plant the seeds for their later literary success. At the time, the idea of publishing a female author was frowned upon, thus Charlotte and her sisters created a pseudonymous trio of brothers – Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell – in order to get their books into print. Charlotte’s first book, ‘The Professor’ was not accepted by a publisher, but her second book, ‘Jane Eyre, ‘ was an immediate success. Charlotte’s sisters each published their own books but their enjoyment of their literary success was short-lived. The family suffered the deaths of Branwell, Emily and Anne in just a few short months in late 1848/early 1949 (the latter two of tuberculosis) and Charlotte herself, while struggling through her first, difficult pregnancy, died in 1854 at the age of thirty-eight. Few families in history have produced as many literary powerhouses as the Brontë sisters and their works have been adapted numerous times for the stage and screen.
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