The Brontë Sisters - The Beginning | The Brontë Sisters - Childhood | Charlotte Brontë 1816 – 1855 | Emily Jane Brontë (1818 - 1848) | Anne Brontë (1820 – 1849)

After already suffering the death of their mother, more tragedy was to be-fall the Brontë family. On 6 May, 1825, 11-year-old Maria died of tuberculosis. Just one month later, 10- year-old Elizabeth also died of tuberculosis.

Thus leaving Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Patrick, known as Branwell. Who played and amused themselves in the small playroom of the two bed roomed rectory. The girls spent most of their time reading, writing prose and creating fantasy worlds. Which may have been inspired after reading Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathon Swift.

Branwell had as set of 12 solders, which the Bronte children, to ease the tedious of their daily routine, used in their play. They used the solders to enact stories and myths associated with distant Africa. While Emily and Anne invented their own Gondal legend, Charlotte and Branwell wrote their tales about the kingdom of Angria in small notebooks.

Charlotte, Emily and Anne had very little formal education, attending various schools for short periods of time. The most valuable education was at their home, where they read the Bible, and books by such authors as Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton and many others, from the varied choice of their father’s bookshelf. The children also read enthusiastically about current affairs and intellectual disputes.

The Future

Say, Britain, could you ever boast, -

Three poets in an age at most?

Jonathan Swift, On Poetry, 1.5.

Written on the introduction of the first book the sister's had published in 1846, in their Pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. It was later republished in 1978 as: Brontë Poems - The early work of Charlotte, Emily & Anne Brontë

This was the beginning of their future. They would go on to write novels, that in the 20th Century would become well-known classics, be part of the education system, and a few of the novels would have films made based on them. Making the sisters house-hold names into the 21st Century and beyond.