Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Anne Brontë
-
Standard Name: Brontë, Anne
Birth Name: Anne Brontë
Pseudonym: Acton Bell
Used Form: Anne Bronte
The youngest of the famous Brontë sisters, AB
has had the slightest reputation among the three for her output of poetry and two novels. Recently, however, her fiction's importance and influence has begun to be recognized, particularly for its incisive and detailed portrayal of the oppression of middle-class Victorian women.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
Johnson, George M., editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 191. Gale Research.
27
Author summary
Phyllis Bentley
Phyllis Bentley
was a prolific and successful novelist, literary critic, short-story writer, children's writer, and journalist, who was productive over a broad span of the twentieth century. Almost all her twenty-eight novels and numerous short...
Intertextuality and Influence
Phyllis Bentley
PB
was deeply influenced by the Brontës
, whose home at Haworth was close to where she herself grew up in Halifax. As a daydreaming child she strongly identified with the Brontës
' imaginary worlds...
Textual Production
Phyllis Bentley
In 1949 PB
both arranged and introduced the six-volume Heather Edition of the Brontës' works, and supplied an introduction for an edition of Charlotte Brontë
's The Professor, which was published with poems and...
Literary responses
Marjorie Bowen
Although MB
was commended for the accuracy of her historical settings in her crime novels, Mary Jean deMarr
points out that she was also faulted for unbelievable reversals and obstrusive symbolism. However, deMarr finds her...
Intertextuality and Influence
Charlotte Mary Brame
The heroine of Romance of a Black Veil, Laurie Dundas
, has been raised in a boarding school and, at seventeen, wishes to know the secret of her heritage, which has been kept from...
Travel
Charlotte Brontë
CB
returned to Filey, near Scarborough, to try to improve her health and to visit Anne
's grave.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
696-9
Textual Production
Charlotte Brontë
CB
had begun creating plays with her siblings: both secret Bed plays produced under the covers with Emily
in their shared bed, and daytime plays involving Branwell
and Anne
as well.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
151
Reception
Charlotte Brontë
CB
travelled to London with her sister Anne
to refute the claim that Currer
, Ellis
, and Acton Bell
were a single author.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
557
Textual Production
Charlotte Brontë
Emily
, Anne
, and CB
published a collection, Poems, under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.
The pseudonym of Currer Bell may have been based on the name of Miss Currer
of...
Textual Production
Emily Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
discovered a book of EB
's manuscript poetry and was convinced that she should publish it; this led to their first, joint publication (with Anne
) of their Poems.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
478-9
Textual Production
Emily Brontë
The Brontë sisters, Charlotte
, Anne
, and Emily
, received copies of their first publication: a collection of Poems published at their expense under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.
Bell was the...
Textual Production
Emily Brontë
The publishers
of Jane Eyre bought up the remaining copies of Poems by Currer
, Ellis
, and Acton
Bell and reissued it.
Allott, Miriam, editor. The Brontës. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
9, 64
Publishing
Emily Brontë
Anne
and EB
arranged with Thomas Newby
to publish Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights; they had to pay him £50 towards costs.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
525
Textual Production
Emily Brontë
EB
's Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontë
's Agnes Grey reappeared in a cheap, single volume with a heavily edited and annotated selection of poems and a biographical preface by Charlotte Brontë
.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press.
654-6
Brontë, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë. “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell; Editor’s Preface to the New Edition of <span data-tei-ns-tag="tei_title" data-tei-title-lvl=‘m’>Wuthering Heights</span>; Extract from the Prefatory Note to ’Selections from Poems by Ellis Bell’”. Wuthering Heights, edited by Professor Ian Jack and Professor Ian Jack, Oxford University Press, pp. 359 - 65; 365.
365
Timeline
1840: Thomas Cautley Newby established himself...
Writing climate item
1840
Thomas Cautley Newby
established himself as a publisher in London; he earned notoriety for failing to honour contracts, especially with new writers.
10 September 2003: Guardian Unlimited Books named as Site of...
Writing climate item
10 September 2003
Guardian Unlimited Books named as Site of the Week a website entitled Poetry Landmarks of Britain: a map of poetic assocations plotted on an interactive map of Britain, searchable by region or category.
Texts
Brontë, Anne, and Emily Brontë. Agnes Grey. T. C. Newby, 1847.
Brontë, Charlotte et al. Poems. Aylott and Jones, 1846.
Brontë, Anne, and Charles William Hatfield. The Complete Poems of Anne Brontë. Editor Shorter, Clement, Hodder and Stoughton, 1921.
Brontë, Anne. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. T. C. Newby, 1848.
Brontë, Anne, and Winifred Gérin. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Editor Hargreaves, Geoffrey Duncan, Penguin, 1979.
Brontë, Emily, and Anne Brontë. Wuthering Heights. T. C. Newby, 1847.