The Brontës

⁠A Short History of Ancient Rome⁠ - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit ⁠⁠noiser.com/books⁠⁠ to learn more. Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë were among the most famous authors of the nineteenth century. Though they wrote at a time when women were systematically discouraged from doing so at all, they managed to produce some of the most beloved, powerful and often challenging literature of the Victorian age. How did three sisters from the Yorkshire Moors become celebrated writers? Why did they use pseudonyms and live most of their lives in obscurity? And what were the tragedies that whittled their number down in their prime? This is a Short History Of The Brontës. A ⁠Noiser⁠ podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Nick Holland, author of three books on the family, including “In Search of Anne Brontë” Written by Erin Parker | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: The Soundhouse Studios | Fact Check: Sean Coleman Get every episode of Short History Of… a week early with ⁠Noiser+⁠. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hey Spotify listeners! When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admirals Club Lounge, with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In-flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi, sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

• 0:27Speaker 00

  Born from the intensity of a night in the Eternal City, introducing Born in Roma Fragrances by Valentino. Feminine perfume Donna Born in Roma features juicy black currant, central jasmine, soft cashmerin, and warm vanilla. Masculine-leaning but unisex Womo has notes of fresh violet leaf, aromatic sage, green vetiver, and mineral salt. Shop holiday gifts at macys.com.

• 0:59Speaker 01

  It's late in the day, sometime in the early 1800s, on a wind-swept moor in the north of England. A bitter gale whips a young woman's cloak as she stumbles over the uneven ground.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  The village she left hours ago has disappeared from view, and it's been a long time since she last ate. A humiliating handful of porridge begged from a farmer's daughter who'd been about to feed it to her pigs.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  With the light already fading, tumultuous clouds above her threaten rain at any moment. Still, there is hope.

• 1:38Speaker 01

  If she can only make it to that house in the distance where she is sure she sees a candle burning in a window, maybe she'll sleep with a roof over her head tonight.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  Breathing heavily, she struggles up the hill, her long woolen skirts sodden from the wet heather.

• 1:55Speaker 01

  But she's only halfway up, and the heavens open.

• 2:02Speaker 01

  Freezing rain lashes down, saturating her bonnet in seconds and seeping through her bodice right to the skin. Even worse, as she pauses to peer through the downpour, she finds she has lost sight of the house. Weak from hunger and desperately cold, she forces herself onward, stumbling, sobbing, getting back to her feet, persevering.

• 2:29Speaker 01

  Now, a sudden crack of lightning illuminates the moorland. As she looks up, she sees the house silhouetted for just a second against the purple sky.

• 2:40Speaker 01

  It is her only hope of salvation. She will surely not survive another night out in the open, starving, destitute, chilled to the bone. Thunder rumbles across the hills as she increases her pace, until finally she is rushing up the wide stone steps to the house. With numb hands, she pounds on the door, shouting into the gale to be let in. She has almost lost hope, sinking to her knees when she hears movement inside. The sound of a woman's voice. A bolt is drawn, a key turns, the door opens...

• 3:20Speaker 01

  A log falls out of the fireplace with a thump, startling the woman who had been captivated by the passage she was reading. She drops the book into her lap as her husband, Prince Albert, jumps to his feet, but a footman soon hurries over to help, lifting the smoldering wood back into the fire. The prince consort notices his teacup is empty and asks his wife if she would like another, but she is already back to her story, engrossed as she has been since the very first page. Albert tilts his head to read the spine. Its gold-printed letters glint in the firelight, announcing the volume's title and author: Jane Eyre by Cora Bell.

• 4:07Speaker 01

  He smiles as he watches his wife's eyes move swiftly across the lines, the palace around her fading away as she immerses herself once more in the writer's world. Tomorrow, as ever, Victoria will go about her duties as Queen of England. But tonight, she is in the moors with her northern English heroine as her companion.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  By the mid 1800s, the authors Curran, Acton, and Ellis Bell were household names. They were also pseudonyms, hiding the identities of three remarkable women who feared they would not be published without them: Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bronte.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  Among the most famous authors of the 19th century, the Brontes shared close family bonds, and the deep creativity of their early years determined much of their lives and work. And though they wrote at a time when women were systematically discouraged from doing so at all, they managed to produce some of the most beloved, powerful, and often challenging literature of the Victorian Age.

• 5:20Speaker 01

  So how did three sisters from the Yorkshire moors become celebrated writers? Why did they use pseudonyms and live most of their lives in obscurity? And what were the tragedies that whittled their number down in their prime?

• 5:35Speaker 01

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is A Short History of the Brontes.

• 5:52Speaker 01

  In December 1812, in a small village near Leeds in northern England, a couple are married in St Oswald's Church.

• 6:01Speaker 01

  Witty and highly educated, 35-year-old Irishman Patrick Bronte currently works as a classics examiner. His whirlwind romance with school assistant Maria Branwell has seen her relocate from Cornwall to start a new life with him here just six months after they met. Within eight years, the couple have six children: five girls and a boy.

• 6:27Speaker 01

  And it's now that they move to their new home, the parsonage of the Yorkshire village of Haworth, where Patrick has accepted a job as a curate.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  Set on a hill, the village overlooks the wild and beautiful Yorkshire dales. While Patrick works, the toddler Emily and baby Anne mostly stay close to their mother, while the older girls Maria and Elizabeth tend to their younger siblings, four-year-old Charlotte and their brother Branwell, aged three.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  For now, the children's days are taken up with clambering around the churchyard, but it won't be long before they're old enough to start exploring the vast moors beyond.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Even in these early days, creativity is a way of life for the Bronte siblings. Making up characters and entire worlds in their games, they are encouraged in their learning by both parents, with whom they spend the evenings reading and discussing literature.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  Life is happy in Haworth, and though not wealthy, the family have enough to employ a cook and a maid. But then, only a year after moving in, thirty-seven-year-old Maria falls ill. It's found that she has a form of abdominal cancer, and after several months of extreme pain, she passes away.

• 7:49Speaker 01

  Patrick is left alone to bring up their six children, the youngest of whom Anne is not yet two.

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Nick Holland is the author of three books on the family, including In Search of Anne Bronte.

• 8:04Speaker 02

  Anne was only one at the time, she was a baby really, so she'd never remember her mother. Emily was a young three, Grandma was a bit older. So Charlotte and Branwell, I think especially, would have been affected by it. But into their lives came Aunt Branwell, their mother's sister who came up from Cornwall, and especially for Anne, she became like a surrogate mother, a second mother. So the aunt became a mother to Anne, and really she fulfilled a mother's role for the whole family. So that helped negate the loss from that sense. But really, I think you can see in the novels, we get Orphans, people like Jane Eyre, who hasn't got a mother, Heathcliff hasn't got a mother. Still, mothers are often absent in the stories, and aunts are often present in the stories.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  Aunt Branwell establishes a schooling routine with the older siblings. But in 1824, she persuades Patrick to send the girls to school. The two eldest, Maria and Elizabeth, enrol at the Cowan Bridge School for clergy daughters in Lancashire. A journey of several hours over the moors. But when eight-year-old Charlotte arrives a few months later, she finds her elder sisters thinner and weakening. Maria in particular is plagued with a persistent cough.

• 9:18Speaker 01

  The living conditions at the school are grim. The rooms damp and the food meagre and plain. By the time Emily arrives in November, Maria is worse. Soon, she is diagnosed with consumption, now known as tuberculosis.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  Patrick swiftly brings her back to Haworth, but by then, there's little to be done but pray.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  A few weeks later, Patrick receives word that Elizabeth too has contracted the same disease. Dismayed by her pitiful condition when she arrives, he demands that the school also return his remaining two daughters immediately.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  Charlotte and Emily arrive home to find their elder sister Maria has already lost the battle, just a couple of weeks after her 11th birthday.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  She is buried next to her mother, and although the family keep a terrified vigil over Elizabeth, just a month later, she too succumbs at only 10 years old.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  They did become a close-knit group, especially after the death of the sisters, I think, Maria and Elizabeth. Suddenly, the four remaining siblings were thrown together, they'd had this tragedy in their life, and it really impacted them, as you'd expect. But Charlotte stepped up, she was now the oldest surviving sibling. Even though she was only eight, she became almost a mother figure to the rest of the siblings.

• 10:46Speaker 00

  Hey Spotify listeners! When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admirals Club Lounge, with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In-flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi, sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy, from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

• 11:13Speaker 03

  Born from the intensity of a night in the Eternal City, introducing Born in Roma Fragrances by Valentino. Feminine perfume Donna Born in Roma features juicy black currant, central jasmine, soft cashmerin, and warm vanilla. Masculine-leaning but unisex Womo has notes of fresh violet leaf, aromatic sage, green vetiver, and mineral salt. Shop holiday gifts at macys.com.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  Still grieving after the disastrous consequences of Cowan Bridge School, Patrick keeps his remaining children home. As well as encouraging them to read widely, he teaches them Latin, and hires tutors to instruct them in art and music. And it's now that, after Branwell receives a present of twelve toy soldiers, the siblings' first forays into the world of literature begin.

• 12:11Speaker 01

  The Brontë's only son shares the figures out with his sisters, and together, they develop an imaginary world which they name Glass Town. It becomes more and more complex, the soldiers taking on the characters of Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, and even Princess Victoria, who is Charlotte's age. Countless hours are whiled away in their upstairs room, as the children create personalities, backstories, and detailed narratives in their make-believe games.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  After a while, Branwell and Charlotte, who have grown closer after the loss of their sisters, shift their attention to another fictional universe, Angria, which becomes the setting for a series of written stories.

• 12:56Speaker 02

  They started writing these tiny little books, tiny little novels and magazines. They're so small you can only read them with a microscope. But some people think they wrote them that small so the soldiers could read them, toy soldiers. Emily and I were probably contributing in the background, but they never actually wrote anything at that time that we have. But then later Emily and Anne founded their own imaginary kingdom of Gondal and started creating stories and poems about that.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  Gondal is a sanctuary for Emily and Anne. Its tales of romance and battle, secret even from Charlotte and Branwell. The stories of their island world revolve around its heroine Augusta, who shares much of her personality with Emily's own stubborn nature.

• 13:44Speaker 01

  But the refuge of these imagined worlds is interrupted when Aunt Branwell announces that Charlotte is to go again to boarding school, to learn the skills to become a governess.

• 13:56Speaker 01

  Rowhead School is in Murfield, eighteen miles away from Haworth. Upon arrival, it's immediately clear to Charlotte that the school is quite different from Cowan Bridge. The headmistress, while strict, is also fair, and the conditions are much better, even the food is nourishing. But the upheaval is a shock, and Charlotte struggles to find her place among the girls who find her odd. After all, though she is comfortable around her siblings, among strangers she fears between abrasive and painfully shy. It doesn't help that she is short, with plain features and several missing teeth and a poor sense of fashion.

• 14:37Speaker 01

  After a time though, she settles in and finds a kindred spirit in classmate Ellen Nussey, who becomes a lifelong friend. And though she begins a long way behind her classmates, she works fiercely to catch up. Within the year, Charlotte is at the top of many of her classes, and takes it upon herself to share her learning with her sisters during the holidays.

• 15:00Speaker 01

  Back home, Branwell misses her intensely. Though he's schooled by Patrick and other tutors, ordinarily, he only has Anne for company, and is often lonely.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  But when Charlotte returns, now in her late teens, the siblings pick up where they left off, and the make-believe worlds come to life once more.

• 15:23Speaker 01

  The intervening years, however, have changed her brother. Charlotte watches with disapproval as he sets off in the evening to the pub, often returning drunk. Sharing her concern, Patrick and Aunt Branwell make plans to send him away to art school, to develop his promising early talents as a painter. But school costs money.

• 15:46Speaker 01

  Charlotte, keen to help contribute to her brother's education, accepts an invitation from the headmistress at Rowhead to return as a teacher. As well as the salary, there is the bonus of taking her sister Emily along as a student.

• 16:00Speaker 02

  She became a teacher, aged nineteen, at Rowhead School where she'd been a pupil, and she wrote a series of letters over a couple of years. Throughout the letters, she's furious at being a teacher. She absolutely despises her pupils. In one letter, she writes to her best friend Ellen: "A vision came to my mind about..." basically angry at the imaginary world that she wrote about. "And I could have written a narrative better than anything I'd ever done, but just then a dole came up to me with a lesson, and I thought I was going to vomit."

• 16:32Speaker 01

  While Charlotte finds teaching a chore, her sister finds being a student unbearable. Emily is even shyer than Charlotte and fails to make any friends at all. Her only source of refuge is found outdoors during long walks throughout the countryside.

• 16:49Speaker 01

  But pining for home, she grows withdrawn and ill. Alarmed, Charlotte writes home to their father. Remembering the quick demise of his two eldest daughters, Patrick wastes no time in bringing Emily back, though he does send Anne to take her place.

• 17:09Speaker 01

  Thanks in part to Charlotte's income, Bramwell finally leaves for London to seek admission to the Royal Academy. He has his best clothes on, money in his pocket and his portfolio safely on his shoulder as he is waved off by both Patrick and his aunt.

• 17:26Speaker 01

  But once he's there, he finds the temptation of the innumerable pubs and gambling dens too much to resist. Inevitably, the money disappears and he is forced to return home in disgrace without even submitting his work to the art college he had so wished to join.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Meanwhile, with few other options, Charlotte continues teaching.

• 17:49Speaker 02

  The only occupations open really to females of that class were teaching or being a governess. And it was a real drudgery of a job. Teaching today might be like that, but in the 19th century, teachers and governesses worked very, very long hours, very few holidays, and they had to teach robotically really. So there's nothing to expand their minds, but Brontes loved creating. They wanted free time to write books, to write poetry.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  In the precious few hours she has to herself, however, Charlotte does continue to write. As well as sending angrier stories home to Bramwell, she also works on her poetry. Though she keeps the work from her family, she does seek feedback from another source.

• 18:34Speaker 02

  She wrote to the poet laureate Souve, which was quite a bold move at the time, and he wrote back and said, "Yes, your poetry's quite nice, but..." and these were his exact words, "Her literature cannot and should not be the occupation for a woman."

• 18:52Speaker 01

  For her part, since returning home, Emily has taken on more domestic responsibilities and finds comfort in the company of her animals. When she's not out on her extensive hikes across the moors, she too spends hours secretly writing, locking her poetry away in her desk between sessions. However, 1838 sees her taking up a position as a teacher at a different school to her sister. But she lasts only six months, hating her students more than Charlotte did, and again finding it painful to be away from home.

• 19:26Speaker 02

  She didn't like it either. She was a very, very private person. One of her pupils later remembered that she cared more about the school dog than she did about her pupils. Which was very fitting for Emily. She loved animals, she loved dogs, and she didn't like people as much.

• 19:41Speaker 01

  Anne now follows her sisters into teaching. Her first role as a governess lasts just a year. But then she works for the Robinson family near York.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  Anne was the most successful in a way. She became a private governess in two situations. In her second job, she was there for over five years, which is by far the longest period of time in a job for a Bronte. But even she, in her first stint, we hear from the son of one of the people who was one of Anne's pupils, that at one point she tied her pupils to table legs so that she could get on writing poetry without being disturbed, and she was sacked for that reason.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  Even so, before she is dismissed, she manages to secure Branwell a job as a tutor for the children. Charlotte, though, comes up with a new plan. If she and her sisters have to teach, the only way to make it bearable is to do it together. With a long-term plan to open a school of their own, she turns her mind to improving her language skills.

• 20:47Speaker 01

  It's nearly midnight in mid-February 1842, and Charlotte, Emily, and Patrick Bronte are on the deck of a steam packet boat.

• 20:57Speaker 01

  After a fourteen-hour journey from London, the sisters huddled together against the sea breeze as the crew prepares to dock at the busy international port of Ostend on the Belgian coast.

• 21:10Speaker 01

  The passengers are exhausted after the days-long journey, but though it's the middle of the night, there's still a long way to go.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  As the hull bumps against the dock, a worker nearby throws a thick rope to a stevedore waiting below. Soon, the boat is secured, and, gripping the handles of their bags, the sisters make their way down the gangplank and out onto dry land.

• 21:35Speaker 01

  Shivering, Charlotte slips her free arm through her sisters.

• 21:40Speaker 01

  Introverted at the best of times, Emily shrinks back from the noisy activity around them, overwhelmed. Steering her gently to a waiting room while their father makes arrangements for their onward journey, Charlotte reminds her that they'll soon be out of the hubbub at the school where they have enrolled in order to improve their French and German. Eventually, the large, horse-drawn carriage, known as a diligence, arrives. Patrick and the porter load the trunks onto the back as the sisters climb into the cabin. Giving the tickets to the driver, Patrick climbs in with his daughters, and soon they're on their way to Brussels.

• 22:25Speaker 01

  It's a long, uncomfortable journey, but many hours later, they are standing in front of the austere, stone-built school, the Pensionnaire Hégère. The door is opened by a neatly uniformed woman who welcomes them in French, ushering them inside and sending a nearby student to fetch the headmistress of the school.

• 22:48Speaker 01

  The Bronte sisters can hear laughter and footsteps at the other end of the corridor as one lesson ends and these students make their way to the next. Following their host down a wood-paneled corridor, they are settled into a small sitting room and supplied with tea as they wait.

• 23:06Speaker 01

  Then, a beautifully dressed woman enters and introduces herself as Madame Heger, the head. She is followed by her husband, a short, severe-looking man in a dark suit.

• 23:19Speaker 01

  And, though Emily sees nothing remarkable in Monsieur Heger, her sister seems to flush as she curtsies, stumbling over her words.

• 23:29Speaker 01

  Brief pleasantries are exchanged before Monsieur Heger makes his excuses and leaves his wife to escort the young women to their rooms in another part of the school.

• 23:39Speaker 01

  Emily listens plightly as they are shown around the place that will be their home for the coming months, though she can't help but notice that her sister seems to have her mind on other things.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Patrick soon returns home, and, once settled into their new home, Charlotte and Emily work hard at improving their French and German. Professor Heger, who teaches at the boys' school next door, sets them writing tasks, which often involve emulating classic French authors. But while Charlotte knuckles down, Emily resents being forced to write in another's voice, often getting into arguments with Monsieur Heger about the merits of his teaching.

• 24:28Speaker 01

  After eight months, they receive news that Aunt Branwell has fallen ill. They quickly make arrangements to return home, but just two days later, another message informs them it's too late. Aunt Branwell has died of a bowel obstruction.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  They make the journey back in time to bury their beloved aunt, but Emily decides she has had enough of Brussels, taking on the task of housekeeping the parsonage.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  Charlotte returns to Belgium, but it's now that she develops an infatuation with Professor Heger. The feeling is not reciprocal, and certainly not welcomed by his wife, who dismisses the younger woman.

• 25:11Speaker 02

  After Charlotte returns to Haworth after two years in Belgium, she writes a series of letters, begging letters really, over a year or more to Hejzer in Belgium, saying, "Write back to me. I can't sleep. My whole life's Terry books I don't hear from you. I'd undergo the greatest torments just to go one letter from you." They're really, really sad letters because he never replied. It's just really raw, unrequited love.

• 26:11Speaker 03

  Born from the intensity of a night in the Eternal City, introducing Born in Roma Fragrances by Valentino.

• 26:20Speaker 03

  Feminine perfume Donna Born in Roma features juicy black currant, central jasmine, soft cashmerin and warm vanilla. Masculine leaning but unisex Womo has notes of fresh violet leaf, aromatic sage, green vetiver and mineral salt. Shop holiday gifts at Macy's.com.

• 26:40Speaker 01

  By 1844, all of the siblings are home with Patrick. Both Anne and Branwell are back from the Robinsons, after Branwell is accused of conducting an affair with the lady of the house. Charlotte attempts to establish a new school with her sisters, but struggles to attract students. And though his art school dream has fizzled out, Branwell now occupies himself with fitful attempts at writing and frequent visits to the local pub.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  Never lacking in self-confidence, he sends some of his poetry to William Wordsworth, but receives no reply.

• 27:16Speaker 01

  When the publishers he approaches also fail to respond, he turns increasingly to drink to dull his disappointment. Eventually, he sinks into taking opioids.

• 27:30Speaker 01

  All this time, Charlotte has continued to write. And once she's back home, she works on The Professor, a novel inspired by her time in Brussels.

• 27:42Speaker 01

  One day, she stumbles upon Emily's open notebook. By now, in her mid-twenties, Emily has been the most secretive with her writing, and Charlotte finds the temptation irresistible. She sits down to read, and is so impressed and enthralled that she fails to notice her sister coming in. Catching her red-handed, Emily is furious. But what she sees as a breach of privacy soon signals a turning point in all their lives.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  When Charlotte explains to Anne what has happened, the younger sister confesses that she too has been writing, not just poetry, but a novel, Agnes Grey, which draws on her experiences as a governess. The sisters, already familiar with creating their stories as children, fall into a new rhythm.

• 28:38Speaker 01

  They write more openly, and sit up for hours at night, reading their work to each other. But while Anne and Charlotte mine their own lives for material, when Emily begins her own novel, she looks elsewhere for inspiration.

• 28:54Speaker 02

  I think, to a greater or lesser extent, all the other Bronte novels have some autobiographical elements to them, whereas Wuthering Heights doesn't. I think Wuthering Heights is pure imagination on Emily's part. And I think that's because for Emily, she lived very much, almost completely, in imagination. Charlotte put it quite well, I think. She said, when she's looking back at Wuthering Heights, she characterised the people so well, you know, the accents and the way they behaved. But she had very little interaction with people of Howarth and beyond. She didn't see people, but she knew them somehow. She knew how people acted, how they talked. And that's why it's such an amazing book. But I think Emily could conjure up an amazing novel like that, amazing world in her imagination. I think she was a unique genius, really.

• 29:45Speaker 01

  Despite her modesty, Charlotte recognises their common potential. She convinces her sisters to submit a collection of poetry to a publishing house in London. But remembering Robert Southey's words to her years ago, she suggests they use pseudonyms. Emily, hating the idea of losing anonymity, finally agrees under the condition that they tell no one, not even their father or Branwell.

• 30:13Speaker 01

  After some thought, they choose names that keep their initials intact.

• 30:18Speaker 02

  So Charlotte became Curran, Anne became Acton, and Emily became Ellis. And I think they all had reasons to choose those names, people they knew or people they'd heard of. But they thought, yes, disguised as men, we can go out into the world. We don't need to be shy anymore. People won't trace it back to us. They won't think, oh, that's that clergyman's daughters, why are they writing?

• 30:39Speaker 01

  They borrow their assumed surname from the middle name of their father's curate, a young man by the name of Arthur Bell Nichols. But possibly, there is another reason for their choice.

• 30:52Speaker 02

  This is just my theory. I think Bell, in a way, is a tribute to Branwell. He wasn't in their writings at this time. You know, he's too far gone down the addiction route, unfortunately. But B.E.L.L. are the letters from Branwell, really, the first letter and the last letter of his name. So I think it could be a contracted form of Branwell.

• 31:15Speaker 01

  With the names and the submission agreed upon, the sisters send out their poems.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  Though they initially received nothing more than a growing collection of rejection notes, eventually, their volume of poetry is accepted in early 1846, with the condition that they pay for the paper and ink. It takes a big bite out of the money they had inherited from Aunt Branwell, equivalent to a year's worth of their governess wages. But even so, the sisters agree to foot the bill.

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Months later, they are thrilled to finally hold a properly printed and bound volume of their work in their hands. What is less exciting, however, is the public’s response. In fact, the book sells only two copies. Not to be deterred, they finish their longer manuscripts: Charlotte’s The Professor, Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey by Anne. Several more attempts at publication follow, until finally they receive good news. This time, the acceptance comes from Thomas Newby, an emerging editor developing a reputation for unearthing exciting new writers, including his recent discovery of Anthony Trollope.

• 32:31Speaker 01

  On the condition the authors contribute £50 each to publication costs, he agrees to publish Emily and Anne’s novels. But devastatingly for Charlotte, he doesn’t want The Professor.

• 32:43Speaker 02

  So suddenly, Charlotte, who’d come up with this plan, didn’t have a publisher, and her sisters had been published. So I think that must have been hard for her to take. But she rose to her challenge, she then wrote, “I’ll write another book.”

• 32:58Speaker 01

  This second novel, which she calls Jane Eyre, is woven throughout with echoes of her life, including chapters set in a school that much resembles her horrific experience at Cowan Bridge. And though this book is also repeatedly rejected, once it finds its way into the hands of publisher George Smith, things move fast. He reads it from cover to cover in a day, before hastily sending back an acceptance letter. So keen is he to get it into the hands of readers, that Anne and Emily are still waiting for their books to be published by the time Jane Eyre is finalised and sent to print.

• 33:38Speaker 01

  Charlotte negotiates a substantial advance of £100, the equivalent of two years of wages as a governess. And though she keeps the publication from her brother, she can't resist showing it to her father.

• 33:52Speaker 02

  When Jane Eyre was published, when she got her six authors' copies, she went into Patrick's study. She knocked on his door and said, "I want to talk to you. I've got a book to show you, Jane Eyre", by Corrie Bellis, it said on it. But she said, "I've written this book", and he was very lukewarm at first. Patrick said, "Oh, that's, that's nice", you know, because he knew they'd be writing all their childhood, all their life. He probably thought it was a childhood-type story. She knocked up. And he said, "No, I've had it published", and Patrick said, "Well, it's a wife's thing to do. How much will that cost you?" She said, "No, they paid me", and he was just amazed. "Leave the book with me", so he read it very quickly. And then he called Anne and Emily, not knowing that they'd also written books, and said, "Do you know your sister's writing this book? It's an amazing book",

• 34:36Speaker 02

  or in fact, he said, "It's better than I thought it would be".

• 34:41Speaker 01

  The book hits the shops and is an immediate success. Figures as prominent as Queen Victoria enjoy the novel, though it is not without its critics, with one prominent reviewer calling it "immoral", and a celebration of anti-Christian values.

• 34:58Speaker 02

  She had more of a, what we might think of as a modern attitude towards religion. So, early in the novel, Jane Eyre, she's at Lowood School and her best friend Helen is dying. She's in bed with her and Helen says, "I'm going to heaven and you will join me one day, this region of universal happiness, with one God, universal parent looking after us". And then Jane says, "Where is that region? Does it exist?" And I think that's Charlotte's own doubts coming onto the page. You know, she saw her mother die, she saw her sisters die early, and she was thinking, "Have they gone to heaven? Is there a God?" So I think there is that doubt in Charlotte's works.

• 35:40Speaker 01

  Wuthering Heights and Agnes Gray emerged soon after and are also received enthusiastically, although neither reached the levels of success enjoyed by Charlotte's debut.

• 35:51Speaker 01

  With more financial freedom, the sisters are able to abandon teaching in favour of staying home and writing full-time. But in 1848, a misunderstanding blows the subterfuge wide open.

• 36:06Speaker 01

  The editor, George Smith, sends a letter to Howarth explaining that a new book, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, is being offered around publishers in America. But though it's under Anne's pseudonym of Acton Bell, it's his belief that it's actually written by Curra Bell. That Acton and Curra Bell are in fact the same person.

• 36:27Speaker 02

  Charlotte and Anne were furious about this. So that very same day, they got on a train from Leeds, they were in London, in the early hours of Saturday morning the next day, and they made their way to George Smith's publisher. And in his memoirs, he wrote how a clerk came to his room, his office, and said there were two women wanting to see him, so he let them into his office. And he said there were two shabbily dressed, small women, and he said, "Why are you here?" And Charlotte put this letter in front of him, that was addressed to Curra Bell. George Smith said, "Where did you get this letter?" And she said, "From the post office, it's addressed to me." She said, "We have come in person to show you ocular proof that there are at least two of us." He said, "At least two," because Emily had refused to go, she still wanted to remain

• 37:13Speaker 02

  private. So it's a massive revelation for George Smith. He at last, he'd found out they were women, and he was blown away.

• 37:23Speaker 01

  But though the secret is out, the publisher, George Smith, promises to keep it to himself.

• 37:29Speaker 01

  For Charlotte, the liberation opens the door to a new world. Smith makes sure to introduce her to literary figures, such as William Thackeray, her personal hero, and novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, who becomes a friend to the family and Charlotte's biographer.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  But her new friends perhaps fail to truly bring her out of her shell.

• 37:52Speaker 02

  Elizabeth Gaskell reports that Charlotte, when she was visiting her, another visitor came and Charlotte hid behind the curtains for an hour until the visitor left.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  On top of her almost debilitating timidity, Charlotte is also prone to misplacing her affection. On her increasingly regular visits to London, George Smith takes her to the opera and often invites her to dine with him and his sisters. She falls in love with him, writing him long letters describing her affection. He doesn't return her feelings and eventually replies to her with the news that he is engaged to another woman. Charlotte replies with a single word: "Congratulations", and does not write to him again.

• 38:37Speaker 01

  In 1848, Anne successfully publishes The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, a story about a woman who falls in love at a young age, but who is then forced to leave her abusive, alcoholic husband.

• 38:49Speaker 02

  She writes about marital infidelity, about marital abuse, and about a woman leaving a man, leaving her husband, taking her child, which was hugely popular with readership, but hugely controversial at the time.

• 39:03Speaker 01

  Even Charlotte is disapproving, arguing that it is a book that need not have been written.

• 39:10Speaker 01

  Meanwhile, Branwell, oblivious to his sister's success, has lived at home since the scandal at the Robinsons. He continues to run up gambling debts, is badly addicted to opium and alcohol, and is often ill-tempered and sickly. Now, as his health begins to decline rapidly, it falls to Patrick to nurse him.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  The sisters also take their turns, their concern growing as he develops a familiar-sounding cough. In September 1848, at just thirty-one years old, he loses his life to tuberculosis, without ever having realised what his sisters had achieved.

• 39:51Speaker 01

  Mere weeks later, it becomes clear that Emily too is ill. Their grief still raw, the family do their best to help her, but she is not an easy patient. Refusing medical treatment, she insists on continuing her domestic tasks. Until one December day, she finds herself unable to make it up the stairs.

• 40:12Speaker 01

  She does not recover. At thirty years old, she passes away just three months after her brother.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  It is a somber Christmas that year, with the Bronte clan now whittled down to just three.

• 40:28Speaker 01

  There is a small, bright spot for Charlotte when she is given an advance for her new novel Shirley, with which she busies herself writing. But soon, there is more bad news.

• 40:43Speaker 01

  It's a May afternoon in eighteen forty-nine. In the seaside town of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the sun is setting over the sea. The sky, a vivid palette of pink and orange. Seagulls screech and whirl overhead in the cold air, while below, a carriage rattles across a cobbled street.

• 41:05Speaker 01

  Inside, three women sit braced as it turns a corner. Twenty-nine-year-old Anne Bronte is slumped against her sister, coughing uncontrollably.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  When she moves the handkerchief away from her mouth, it is spotted with blood. Charlotte exchanges a glance with her old school friend Ellen Nussey, who is accompanying them. Things are not looking good. Her face pale, Charlotte's last living sibling is weak and soaked with sweat, despite the cool of the evening, and her clothes hang loose on her emaciated frame.

• 41:44Speaker 01

  The hope is that this visit to take the fresh sea air might give her some relief, and it's one of Anne's favourite places to visit too. Right now, though, what she needs is rest, and quickly.

• 42:00Speaker 01

  They pull to a stop in front of a house overlooking the sea. Charlotte and Ellen are helped out by the coachman, but Anne is almost too frail to climb down. Eventually, she manages it, and her companions loop their arms around her body and help her up the steps. The housekeeper hurries to open the door, worriedly ushering them inside.

• 42:23Speaker 01

  It takes some work and several rests to manage the stairs, but eventually, they get Anne into a room with a beautiful view of the ocean. After settling her into the bed, propping her up with pillows so she can breathe more easily, Charlotte opens the window, letting in the sound of the waves.

• 42:42Speaker 01

  She manages to feed her sister a few mouthfuls of soup, but after that, Anne has strength to do little other than sleep.

• 42:52Speaker 01

  The next morning is a Sunday, and at the sound of the church bells, Anne struggles to sit upright. Reluctantly, Charlotte agrees to help her to church and carefully dresses her in her best clothes before trying to get her to take a little breakfast.

• 43:09Speaker 01

  The three women leave the house, but every step is an ordeal for the ailing writer. Slowly, they make their way into church, and Anne chooses a spot in the back row to avoid disturbing the rest of the congregation with her continuous coughing.

• 43:25Speaker 01

  Trying her best to stifle the spasms, she can only croak a few words from the hymnbook held in front of her by Ellen before giving up and closing her eyes. They make it home, but it is clear that Anne has worsened. Charlotte sends Ellen to fetch a doctor and bathes her sister's forehead as she slips into unconsciousness.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  But though she continues to pray for her recovery, Charlotte has seen enough of this ravenous, merciless disease to know that there is little anyone can do for her now.

• 44:01Speaker 00

  Hey Spotify listeners! When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admirals Club Lounge with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In-flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi, sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

• 44:28Speaker 03

  Born from the intensity of a night in the Eternal City. Introducing Born in Roma Fragrances by Valentino. Feminine perfume Donna Born in Roma features juicy black currant, central jasmine, soft cashmerin, and warm vanilla. Masculine-leaning but unisex Womo has notes of fresh violet leaf, aromatic sage, green vetiver, and mineral salt. Shop holiday gifts at macys.com.

• 45:01Speaker 01

  Anne Bronte, the youngest of the six siblings, dies at the age of 29. After burying her in the churchyard of St. Mary's Church in Scarborough overlooking the sea, Charlotte returns to Howarth. The house is quiet with just her and Patrick, who is already in his 70s.

• 45:22Speaker 01

  But she continues to write, returning to the novel Shirley.

• 45:27Speaker 02

  And it's got two hairwinds, Shirley and Caroline. And they're based, quite clear, I think, Charlotte even told Elizabeth Gaskell. They're based upon Emily Bronte's Shirley and Anne Bronte's Caroline. And when she started writing the novel, both sisters were healthy, but halfway through the novel, they both died. And so the novel changes a little bit, really. And I think it becomes a tribute to her sisters and it shows just how much she really loved them.

• 45:56Speaker 01

  She writes under her own name now. And a year after Anne's death, publishers are asking to republish Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Emily's Wuthering Heights. But while Charlotte agrees to the new edition of Emily's novel, she refuses a reprint of Anne's.

• 46:14Speaker 02

  She told the publisher she didn't think it should be republished. And some people, myself included, at one time have wondered whether Charlotte was showing a bit of jealousy because The Tenant of Wildfell Hall had been an amazing success when it came out. But I don't think that was the case. I think Charlotte did what she thought was right because Tenant was a controversial novel and she didn't want that controversy to be linked to Anne after her death.

• 46:38Speaker 01

  Though Charlotte is in her late 30s and a confirmed spinster by the standards of the time, an unexpected new chapter is about to begin.

• 46:49Speaker 01

  For years, Patrick has been supported by his curate, Arthur Bell Nichols, whose middle name the Bronte sisters took as their pseudonym. Having become increasingly close to the family in their recent difficult years, he confesses that he has fallen in love with Charlotte. But when he asks Patrick for his last living child's hand in marriage, both father and daughter are horrified. Charlotte rejects Arthur outright, declaring that she has no affection for him at all, while Patrick suspects his colleague's motives, given that his daughter is a famous author. Distraught, Arthur resigns his position

• 47:32Speaker 01

  and accepts a missionary role in Australia. On his final Sunday, Arthur gives a halting, miserable address to his parishioners, after which Charlotte finds him outside the church on a bench weeping. Sadened by his distress, she comforts him, telling him how much she's admired his ardent care for the parish. His hopes rekindled, he changes his plan.

• 47:58Speaker 02

  He didn't go to Australia. He went to another parish in Yorkshire instead. And he continued to write Charlotte, didn't give up. And eventually, a year later, he came back to Taworth.

• 48:08Speaker 01

  This time, when he asks Charlotte to marry him, she accepts.

• 48:17Speaker 01

  They are married in June 1854, and though Patrick appears to disapprove initially, by the time the newlyweds return from a honeymoon in Wales, he seems to have come around. On Christmas Day that year, Charlotte writes to Ellen that she is blissfully happy. Still living at the parsonage, she dusts off her first rejected novel, The Professor, hoping once more to publish it, and her other books remain very popular. Sometimes she is even visited by fans of her work, something she finds greatly annoying. And when, in December 1854, she discovers she is expecting a baby, her contentment seems complete.

• 49:01Speaker 01

  Her pregnancy, though, is troubled from the outset. Becoming violently ill, she is soon confined to her bed. Desperate for her recovery, Patrick sits beside her as she declines. But within a few short months, Charlotte passes away, aged 38. Though modern scholars believe conditions related to pregnancy may have caused her death, the official record cites tuberculosis. Patrick, who has now lost every one of his six children to the illness, is left to be supported by his son-in-law.

• 49:40Speaker 01

  With her widower's consent, Charlotte's The Professor is finally published posthumously. Anne, the tenant of Wildfell Hall, lies in obscurity for years, but is re-released in 1992, almost 150 years after its first publication.

• 49:59Speaker 01

  Today, the visionary novel is considered a masterpiece, as is Emily's Wuthering Heights, which has never been out of print, and Jane Eyre, Charlotte's most popular novel, which has sold millions of copies.

• 50:15Speaker 01

  Between them, the sisters' works have been translated countless times and inspired untold numbers of adaptations, films and television series. Their beloved work finds new fans by the thousands with every reimagining.

• 50:30Speaker 01

  Though the world they describe is almost unrecognisable today, the Brontes remain some of the best-loved authors of all time, their names synonymous with great Victorian literature.

• 50:43Speaker 01

  And while their books drew on universal themes of love, death, religion and honour, at heart it was perhaps their commitment to their own imaginations that became their greatest legacy.

• 50:57Speaker 02

  I think if you read any Bronte novel today, you'll enjoy it. Yes, they're writing about a time 200 years ago, nearly, but they're relevant, you know, the people, the people you could meet on the streets today, and some of the issues they're writing about are very modern, especially if you're attending to Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, which I think is very modern but well ahead of its time. I think they were forward-thinking, very relevant novels even today, but they're just brilliant stories, who are amazing geniuses but they're obviously humans as well. I think as long as humanity exists, as long as this world keeps turning, as long as people read books, in whatever form they read them, people will still read the Bronte novels.

• 51:44Speaker 01

  Next time on Short History, we'll bring you a short history of the Ashes.

• 51:48Speaker 04

  Well, I think we still love the Ashes and we will continue to love the Ashes because it's gone on for so long. And whilst in some countries they're sort of giving up on Test cricket, England, Australia won't give up on the Ashes because there's too much history at stake and it's what's defined as, you know, we measure ourselves by how we're doing against the other lot. So the fact that other people are giving up on Test cricket only adds to the appeal that it's this sort of slightly exotic creature which we all still love.

• 52:19Speaker 01

  That's next time.

• 52:24Speaker 01

  If you can't wait a week until the next episode, you can listen to it right away by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Head to www.noiser.com/subscriptions for more information.

• 52:36Speaker 00

  Hey Spotify listeners! When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admirals Club Lounge with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In-flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi, sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

• 53:03Speaker 05

  What's the secret to being a great host this season? Keeping things deliciously simple, like mixing Simply Cranberry into a festive drink as guests arrive, or serving up a warm mug of Simply Apple on a chilly night. That means less time behind the scenes and more time in the moment with everyone. Crafted with real fruit, Simply juices and fruit drinks make any holiday drink effortless, inviting, and completely delicious. Simply. Say yes to simple.