We all know about the famous literary Brontë sisters — feminists icons, all three of them. Two of them, however, seem to be a bit more famous than the third. Charlotte Brontë is the influential Jane Eyre author, while Emily Brontë is the groundbreaking writer of Wuthering Heights.

But for far too long, Anne Brontë has often been dismissed as the meeker and less talented Brontë sister, or as some have incorrectly called her “the Brontë without genius.” However, Anne’s writings and talents have been criminally underrated and today she’s known as one of the most iconic feminist writers throughout history.

While pretty much all of the novels written by the Brontë sisters were considered relatively progressive and challenged the norms of the Victorian society they lived in, Anne Brontë in particular was a fearless woman who wrote with great courage and an even greater sense of determination. She wanted to write what she cared about matters that concerned her, willing to accept any criticism that might fall upon her.

Hardly anything is known about Anne, and her legacy might have been intentionally dimmed by sibling rivalry. Nevertheless, here are some facts about the lionhearted Anne Brontë:

Anne Brontë – Early Life & Education

1. When was Anne Brontë born?

Anne Brontë was born on January 17, 1820 in Thornton, England. Anne Brontë is the youngest of the literary Brontë sisters.

2. Anne Brontë was her aunt’s favorite

Before Anne Brontë turned 2 years old, her mother Maria sadly died of uterine cancer. That’s when their aunt Elizabeth Branwell came to live with the family at the Brontë Parsonage and help care for the children. Elizabeth Branwell was a stern woman, but it was said that she had a soft spot for Anne Brontë and that Anne was her aunt’s favorite among the rest of the siblings.

3. Thanks to Emily’s homesickness, Anne Brontë got to go to school

Charlotte Brontë worked as a teacher at the Roe Head School in Mirfield in 1835, accompanied first by Emily Brontë (who had been a pupil there like her sister Charlotte), then by Anne when Emily felt homesick and had to return to Haworth. Anne Brontë thrived at Roe Head, and even received a good-conduct medal from her headmistress Margaret Wooler that was inscribed, “Prize for good conduct passed to Miss A. Brontë with headmistress Wooler’s kind love, Roe Head. Dec.14th. 1836.”

4. Anne Brontë might have had a lisp

Although Anne Brontë is usually known as the quiet Brontë, some academics believe that it wasn’t merely shyness and that she might have had a speech problem. Anne Brontë once wrote to a friend: “You must know there is a lamentable deficiency in my organ of language which makes me almost as bad a hand at writing as talking unless I have something particular to say.”

5. Anne Brontë might have had a crush on her father’s curate

When her father’s new curate William Weightman began working at the parish in August 1839, Anne Brontë was introduced to him. He was welcomed at the parsonage, and Anne’s contact with him coincides with a period in her life that was prolific in her poem writing, which raises the possibility of her being in love with him. However, little proof exists other than Charlotte’s mocking remark regarding the matter in a letter to her friend Ellen Nussey in 1842.

6. Anne Brontë mourned Weightman’s death

Whatever the nature of their relationship was (some suggest it was a one-sided admiration from Anne’s end), Anne Brontë mourned his death regardless. William Weightman died in 1842 from cholera, and Anne wrote a poem called “I will not mourn thee, lovely one,” in which she called him “our darling.”

7. Anne Brontë hated her job as governess

Anne Brontë totally hated being a governess — especially during the period when she worked for the Ingham family at Blake Hall. Like almost everyone in the history of the world, Anne Brontë was way underpaid for an extremely demanding job, and it didn’t help that the children she was responsible for were awfully rude and disobedient. Anne Brontë was only 19 when she started working for them in 1939 — and was eventually dismissed from her job, presumably much to her relief.

8. Anne Brontë had to leave a job because of her brother

In 1840, Anne Brontë was appointed governess to the Reverend Edmund Robinson and his wife Lydia’s children at Thorp Green Hall. It was challenging at first, but she soon pleased her bosses and landed a position for her brother Branwell Brontë there. However, Anne Brontë quit when she and Branwell came home for the holidays in June 1846. Anne did not give a reason, although it is possible that the cause was her brother’s alleged affair with Mrs. Robinson. Branwell Brontë was fired once his employer discovered the relationship.

What are the Major Works of Anne Brontë?

9. What was Anne Brontë’s first novel?

The first novel Anne Brontë wrote was Agnes Grey, published in 1847. Though Agnes Grey is not exactly autobiographical, it is certainly inspired by her early professional challenges and fueled by the hatred Anne Brontë harbored for her job. The heroine’s narrative stresses the long hours, poor wages, and degradations that defined one of the few occupations offered to women. With this tale, Anne Brontë hoped to draw attention to the suffering of a growing class of governesses, many of whom were forced to accept difficult, low-paying occupations because few alternative occupations were deemed socially acceptable for middle-class women.

Click on the cover to buy Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë!

10. Agnes Grey wasn’t a hit but it didn’t bomb either

When Agnes Grey was first published, it wasn’t considered widely successful but it didn’t perform badly either. Many copies of the novel were sold. However, it was also included in a volume of other novels, including her sister’s Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, which may have stolen Anne’s thunder.

11. On the other hand, her second novel was a hit

After a year from publishing Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The novel was a hit, selling out in just 6 weeks, and a 2nd edition was published.

12. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was one of the earliest feminist novels

Anne Brontë examined alcoholism, addiction, violent relationships, and how married women were considered as mere possessions of their husbands in The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall. It’s an extraordinarily dramatic tale that shows how the heroine Helen discovers freedom and true love by fleeing an abusive, violent husband with her child. First published in 1848, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is considered one of the earliest examples of feminist novels.

Click to buy The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë!

13. Critics hated The Tenant of Wildfell Hall!

While it was a success, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall challenged the Victorian values of the time, so naturally there were a lot of haters. The character Helen’s slamming of her bedroom door in the face of her spouse was particularly shocking. The novel’s graphic portrayals of drunkenness and marital problems outraged critics and Wildfell Hall was described with such damning words like “brutal,” “coarse,” and “revolting.”

14. Anne Brontë clapped back at her haters

In her preface to the 2nd edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë pushed back and addressed these criticisms, saying, “My object in writing the following pages was not simply to amuse the Reader, neither was it to gratify my own taste nor yet to ingratiate myself with the Press and the Public: I wished to tell the truth, for truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it.” Tell’em, Anne!

15. Anne Brontë also addressed the rumors of her being a man

Raising the question of why it should matter, she would not confirm or deny the rumors because she explained, the subject was irrelevant. “I am satisfied that if a book is a good one,” Anne Brontë wrote, “it is so whatever the sex of the author may be.”

Anne Brontë: Death, Legacy & Controversy

16. How did Anne Brontë die?

Anne Brontë was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1849, the same disease that had recently killed her siblings Emily Brontë and Branwell Brontë. When Miss Margaret Wooler, the headmistress, and part-owner of Roe Head School, learned of her condition, she offered Anne Brontë her own home in North Bay. Miss Wooler was one of the few mourners at Anne’s funeral at the end of May, despite the fact that Anne chose to stay in the South Bay.

17. When did Anne Brontë die?

Anne Brontë died of tuberculosis on May 28, 1849 in Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England. Anne Brontë was only 29 years old.

18. One of the last things Anne Brontë did was defend a donkey

During her visit to Scarborough, Anne Brontë rode in a donkey carriage through the sands. “Lest the poor donkey should be urged by its driver to a greater speed than her tender heart thought right, she took the reins and drove herself,” writes the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, a 19th-century biographer of Charlotte Brontë. Anne Brontë died only two days later at the age of 29.

19. Anne Brontë’s tombstone was inaccurate….

Anne Brontë was buried in Scarborough, and was the only Brontë not buried at the Brontë family vault at Haworth parsonage. Despite her often-patronizing views of Anne, Charlotte Brontë was grieved by her sister’s death and was outraged to discover five inaccuracies on Anne’s headstone inscription.

20. …one of the mistakes was only fixed recently

While Charlotte Brontë had the stone refaced and altered, one error remained: Anne’s death year was stated as 28 years old, not 29. The Brontë Society only relatively recently remedied the error in 2013 by installing a replacement plaque alongside the original and unveiling it during a dedication event.

21. Charlotte Brontë stopped The Tenant of Wildfell Hall from being republished after Anne’s death

Charlotte Brontë had been asked to prepare Anne and Emily’s novels for re-publication, but she refused to allow the republication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Some say her heart was in the right place and she knew that the republication of this novel — now with Anne’s real name on it instead of a pseudonym — would make her sister’s memory a prey for criticism and slander. Whatever her intentions were, she wrote to the publisher saying: “‘Wildfell Hall hardly appears desirable to preserve. The choice of subject in that work is a mistake.”

22. It might have been jealousy

Another notion that Brontë historians have dismissed is that Charlotte Brontë hid The Tenant of Wildfell Hall because she was envious of her younger sister. This was hypothesized as Charlotte frequently writes derogatorily about Anne, such as when she tells Ellen that she would not believe how reasonable a letter Anne has written, or when she writes that she is concerned that Anne’s new employers would think she has a speech impediment.

23. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was a television show

In 1996, the BBC aired a serial adaptation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall that starred Tara Fitzgerald, Rupert Graves, and Toby Stephens. It was nominated for several BAFTA TV awards, and the period piece won for Best Make-Up and Hair Design.

Final Thoughts about Anne Brontë

It’s disheartening to think about how things could have worked out differently if Anne Brontë had been born in a different time, or even into a different family. Having two prominent iconic literary sisters definitely dimmed Anne’s light, whether it was by turning heads with their own work, or perhaps the act of sibling rivalry that Charlotte may have committed.

Nevertheless, the fact that Anne’s talents are underrated does not necessarily mean that they are completely unrecognized. Her novels remain widely read, even hundreds of years later and while some of her progressive concepts and themes didn’t necessarily gain all of her readers’ enthusiasm, they are definitely appreciated today.

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Want to read more interesting fun facts about other literary superstars? Check out our lists on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, Mary Shelley, and others!

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