Anne Bronte

Anne was born into a clergyman's family and lived most of her life in the Yorkshire wilderness town of Haworth. Anne Bronte and Emily Bronte created the fictional country Gondal together since she was a teenager, wrote poems on it, and later began to express her inner feelings in poetry. In 1846, he published a collection of poems with his sisters Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte. She worked as a governess twice and wrote the novel Agnes Gray based on her own experience. The novel tells the story of a delicate British girl, Gray, who has been doted on since she was a child, who was forced to go out due to her poor family's downfall. She served as a governess to a rich family, and tasted the bitterness of the world. Therefore, some critics believe that this novel is written not so much for the readers as for the author himself. The novel truthfully reflects society's indifference and injustice towards the group of female tutors, calling for improving the status of female tutors and paying attention to children's early education.

In 1848, Anne's second novel,"The Tenants of Wildfield Manor", was published. The novel uses a dual narrative structure to tell the story of a husband who is trying to get rid of alcoholism and a wife who lives independently by painting. It involves women's independence, men's bad habits such as alcoholism, debauchery, and domestic violence, and parents 'treatment of children. These themes are ahead of the times. In 1847, Anne's first autobiographical novel "Agnes Gray" and Emily's "Wuthering Heights" were published simultaneously.

Before the poetry collection received a response, the three Bronte sisters had completed their first novel.

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"Agnes Gray"(also translated as "Agnes Gray")(1847), originally named "A Person's Life". It tells the story of Agnes Gray, a delicate girl who has been doted on since childhood, who takes the initiative to go out to serve as a governess to help financially disadvantaged families. The gentlemen she met appeared to be very elegant and talked gracefully on the surface, but in fact they lacked spirit and enjoyed sarcasm and insults others; the hostess did not care what the child thought, but was just blindly arrogant; the child was completely spoiled and did not know how to respect others. Playing around or abusing animals all day long. Agnes Gray found it difficult for children to learn and felt like a complete "stranger in a strange place." She controls her emotions with great self-control, insists on influencing children with kindness, teaches children to treat animals well, and resists bad influences from fathers and uncles. Eventually, Agnes became friends with the students and eventually married the equally kind pastor Weston.

In the history of English literature, there were many novels in the 1840s with female governesses as the protagonists. Unlike other novels that use the female governess's perspective to observe huge social and economic changes, or the protagonist enters society through dissatisfaction with the family, the protagonist in "Agnes Gray" takes the initiative to enter society from home. Anne pays attention to the psychological changes of the heroine in the book, in order to truthfully reflect the society's indifference and injustice to the group of female governesses, and to gain people's attention and support. As she says in the book, "If a parent obtains some kind of useful inspiration from it, or a unfortunate female governess benefits a little from it, my painstaking efforts are not in vain."

Anne's unpretentious, temperate and even religious style in "Agnes Gray," which the famous Irish writer George Moore called "the best prose narrative," is one of the reasons why critics and future readers have ignored the book.

After entering 1848, the Brontese family fell ill, and Anne alone was sick twice. To comfort the Reverend Brontese, who had a cold and was caring for Branwell, Anne asked Charlotte to tell her father about their literary success, and the Reverend Brontese was very happy. In the last week of June 1848, Anne's novel, "The Tenants of Wildfield Manor," a blend of Thorpe Green's life experiences and Branwell's depravity, was published, an instant success, and sold out within six weeks. But the publisher, Newbay, cut many of these passages, cheated Anne of her pay, and tried to convince the public that the authors of "The Tenants of Wildfield Manor" and "Jane Eyre" were alone in promoting the book. In order to clarify the facts, Charlotte and Anne went to London in July 1848 to identify themselves with the publisher George Smith. Years later, George Smith recalled in Cornhill magazine Anne's impression of herself: "An elegant, serene, and very reserved lady, not beautiful in appearance, but likeable. Her manner was strangely in need of protection and encouragement, and she always maintained a sincere expression, which made people feel sympathetic."

"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"(1848) tells the story of a mysterious lady who brings her children and servants to Wildfell Hall, which has been unoccupied for many years. She tried to live in seclusion, but was still surrounded by rumors. Young farmer Gilbert Markham, who did not believe rumors, finally learned about Helen's past from the diary she gave him. It turned out that Helen's husband, Arthur Huntington, had been spoiled since childhood and used various means to make Helen blindly fall in love with her. After his marriage, Huntington still drank heavily, lived a debauchery life with many fair-weather friends, and abused Helen, who tried to persuade him to be good. Arthur also taught his son to drink, and Helen secretly added tartaric acid to the wine to make his son hate the smell of alcohol completely. Arthur tried to teach his son to abuse and abuse animals. Helen, who had always been obedient, decided to leave and planned to become a painter to live independently. However, Arthur learned about it and burned the painting tools. Helen eventually ran away with her children and came to Wildfield Manor. She hopes Gilbert will no longer pursue her legally unmarriageable self. Soon after, Helen learned that her husband was critically ill and rushed home to try to comfort her dying husband, but Arthur Huntington refused. After the death of Arthur Huntington, Helen inherited the inheritance and was free to paint. Faced with Gilbert, who still pursued herself, Helen feared that she would lose her independent status after remarrying, and in the end they married.

"The Tenants of Wildfield Manor" is a work that was ahead of its time. At a time when women like Helen Huntington were either at the mercy of their husbands after marriage or became governesses, Helen Huntington went out of the family and lived independently as a painter. As May Sinclair put it, "Helen Huntington slammed the bedroom door in front of her husband, resounding throughout Victorian England." The male figures in this book are the epitome of the society of the time, where alcoholism, debauchery and abuse of family members were common, but they were accustomed to this society at that time. Anne Bronte attributed it to a flaw in the education of men, arguing that society should educate men and women equally. Some critics immediately objected to Anne's radical views, and for this reason, Anne added a strong preface to the second edition of "The Tenant of Wildfield Manor". She emphasized Acton Bell's independence, saying that all speculation about the author's gender is irrelevant, and that it is important to "speak the truth, because the truth always conveys its own morality to those who can accept him." "When we have to write about sinful and immoral people, I insist that it is better to describe them as they really are, rather than as they want the reader to see them."

Charlotte disliked this novel very much. She believed that "the choice of themes was a mistake. I couldn't imagine themes that were even more out of tune with the author's character.""I think writing simple and natural things, peaceful descriptions and simple feelings are Acton Bell's strengths." She refused requests to reprint the novel, and the publisher did not publish a separate version of the novel until after her death in order to respect Charlotte's feelings.

George Moore praised the theme and style of this novel as reminiscent of Jane Austen, but disliked the dual narrative structure in which the hero quoted the heroine's diary in his correspondence to friends. The radical theme, complex dual narrative structure and failure to reprint in time all limited the circulation of this novel, but today's literary history has regarded this work together with Jane Eyre, Dombey and Son, Vanity Fair, etc., as a representative of writers' questioning and criticism of society in that period.

Anne Bronte's novel style is different from that of her two sisters, and its style is quite similar to Austen's. Anne's style is different from Charlotte's implicitousness, which breeds strength and Emily's passion, but a calm narrative style, somewhat similar to prose, and is called "one of the best prose poems." She and her sisters Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte are well-known in the literary world and are known as the "Three Bronte Sisters."