Anne Brontë (1820–1849) was an English novelist and poet, the youngest of the Brontë sisters. Her novels Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, drawn from her own experience, are frank and realistic studies of the life of women.
Genres
novels and stories, poetry
Haworth
Anne Brontë was born on 17 January 1820 at Thornton, in Yorkshire, the youngest of six children of the clergyman Patrick Brontë. The family moved to Haworth, on the edge of the moors, a few months later, and her mother died the following year.
With her sister Emily she invented the imaginary kingdom of Gondal, about which they wrote stories and poems for many years.
Governess
Anne worked as a governess, first briefly with the Ingham family at Blake Hall, then for five years with the Robinsons at Thorp Green Hall, near York. Her brother Branwell joined her there as tutor and was dismissed in 1845 after an affair with Mrs Robinson.
Her experience of the humiliations of the governess's life became the subject of Agnes Grey.
Acton Bell
In 1846 the three sisters published a volume of poems under the names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Agnes Grey appeared in 1847 together with Emily's Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1848, a bold portrait of a woman who leaves a violent, alcoholic husband.
Ill with tuberculosis, Anne travelled with Charlotte to Scarborough, by the sea she loved, and died there on 28 May 1849, aged twenty-nine. She is the only Brontë not buried at Haworth.
Anecdotes
Censored by her sister
After Anne's death, Charlotte did not allow The Tenant of Wildfell Hall to be reprinted, writing that its subject was a mistake. The novel was little read until the twentieth century.
A grave by the sea
Anne is buried in St Mary's churchyard in Scarborough. Her tombstone gave her age wrongly as twenty-eight; the error was finally corrected with a new plaque in 2013.
Frequently asked questions
What are Anne Brontë's novels?
Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).
What pen name did Anne Brontë use?
Acton Bell, as her sisters used Currer Bell (Charlotte) and Ellis Bell (Emily).
Where did Anne Brontë die?
At Scarborough, on the Yorkshire coast, in May 1849.