The Brontes

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. T. Wemyss Reid, [‘ “The Little Family” of the Brontës’] (1829–1849), in Charlotte Brontë: A Monograph (London: Macmillan and Co., 1877), pp. 26–8, 39–43, 94–8

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   Pages 1-8

3. Charlotte Brontë, ‘A Strange Occurrence at the Parsonage’, in Mrs E[lizabeth] C[leghorn] Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Brontë (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 2 volumes, 1857); rpt, Works of the Sisters Brontë, Haworth Edition, vol. vii (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1903), p. 94

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   Pages 8-9

4. Sir Humphry Davy Rolleston, [‘Charlotte, Emily, and Miss Wooler’] (1831–1838), in The Right Honourable Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt K.C.B.: A Memoir (London: Macmillan, 1929), pp. 2–5

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   Pages 10-13

5. ‘E’ [Ellen Nussey], ‘Reminiscences of Charlotte Brontë’ (1831–1855), in Scribner’s Monthly, vol. ii, no. 1 (May 1871), pp. 18–31

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   Pages 13-31

6. Emily and Anne Brontë, [‘A Diary Note’ — No. 1] (1834), in The Brontës: Their Lives, Friendships and Correspondence,* edited by Thomas J. Wise and J. Alexander Symington, vol. i, pp. 124–5

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   Pages 31-33

7. Patrick Branwell Brontë, [‘A Letter to the Editor of Blackwood’s Magazine’] (1835), in The Brontës, vol. i, pp. 133–4

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   Pages 33-35

8. Patrick Branwell Brontë, [‘A Letter to William Wordsworth’] (1837), in The Shakespeare Head Brontë, vol. i, pp. 151–2

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   Pages 35-37

9. Emily and Anne Brontë, [‘A Diary Note’ — No. 2] (1837), in Brontë Society Transactions, vol. xii, no. 1 (1951), p. 15

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   Pages 37-38

10. Arthur Christopher Benson, [‘Charlotte Brontë as a Governess’] (1839), in The Life of Edward White Benson, Sometime Archbishop of Canterbury (London: Macmillan, 2 volumes, 1899), vol. i, p. 12

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    Pages 38-39

11. Francis A. Leyland, [‘The Changing Moods of Branwell Brontë’] (1840–1841), in The Brontë Family, with Special Reference to Patrick Branwell Brontë (London: Hurst and Blackett, two volumes, 1886), vol. i, pp. 265–7, 268–9, 296

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    Pages 39-42

12. Emily Brontë, [‘A Diary Note’ — No. 3] (1841), in Shakespeare Head Brontë, vol. i, p. 238

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    Pages 42-43

13. Mrs Strickland, [‘Charlotte and the White Family of Rawdon’] (1841), in Westminster Gazette (4 May 1901), p. 8

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    Pages 43-44

14. Anne Brontë, [‘A Diary Note’ — No. 4] (1841), in Shakespeare Head Brontë, p. 239

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    Pages 44-45

15. Francis H. Grundy, [‘The Decline and Fall of Branwell Brontë’] (1841–1848), in Pictures of the Past: Memories of Men I Have Met and Places I Have Seen (London: Griffith and Farran, 1879), pp. 73–93

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    Pages 46-59

16. Dorothy Melling, ‘An Early Acquaintance’ (c. 1842), in The Brontës, edited by E. M. Delafield (London: Hogarth Press, 1935), pp. 144–5

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    Pages 59-61

17. Charlotte Brontë, [‘A Boarding School for Young Ladies’] (1844), in The Shakespeare Head Brontë, vol. ii, p. 1

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    Pages 61-62

18. Charlotte Brontë, [‘Four Letters to M. Heger’] (1844–1845), in The Shakespeare Head Brontë, vol. ii, pp. 11–14, 18–19, 23–4, 69–71

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    Pages 62-71

19. Emily Brontë, [‘A Diary Note’ — No. 5] (1845), in The Shakespeare Head Brontë, vol. ii, pp. 49–50

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    Pages 71-73

20. Anne Brontë, [‘A Diary Note’ — No. 6] (1845), in The Shakespeare Head Brontë, vol. ii, pp. 51–3

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    Pages 73-75

The Brontes, living in an isolated village in Yorkshire, wrote some of the most vivid, imaginative, and widely-read novels of the Victorian Age; they also became the subject-matter of romanticized anecdotes and regrettably distorted biographies. The best testimony about what kinds of men and women they really were comes from statements they made themselves; but because their autobiographical commentaries are sparse, the record is usefully supplemented in this anthology by first-hand statements made not only by various inhabitants of Haworth, but by those who met members of the Bronte family in Yorkshire, London, and elsewhere.

• novel
• Romanticism
• Victorian era

• University of Kansas, USA

  Harold Orel

Policies and ethics