"I could only conclude that excessive vanity, like drunkenness, hardens the heart,enslaves the faculties, and perverts the feelings, and that dogs are not the only creatures which, when gorged to the throat, will yet gloat over what they cannot devour." - Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey The (to us) least well known Brontë sister (that most tragic family…
When Charlotte Brontë sat down to write
Jane Eyre, she didn’t yet know she was writing a major work of English literature. The gothic novel about a governess’s romance with the brooding Mr. Rochester was an instant classic in its time and is still much loved today. After all, who can resist a tale featuring a mysterious woman locked in an attic?
1. Like Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë worked as a governess.
Jane Eyre was a provincial girl hired to work as a governess among strangers. So was Charlotte Brontë. In 1839, the wealthy Sidgwick family employed Brontë to live in their country estate and educate their children. She hated the job, writing, “I had charge given me of a set of pampered, spoilt, turbulent children, whom I was expected constantly to amuse, as well as to instruct.” She became depressed and withdrawn, causing Mrs. Sidgwick to scold her.