Charlotte and Anne Bronte

Anne wrote 2 novels, one about a governess, called Agnes Grey and a second about a young woman who marries a dissolute alcoholic, and leave him when he ill treats her and upset her son. It was considered scandalous to advocate walking out on a bad husband, and Anne was heavily criticised for her frankness. Her first book is rather bland, being loosely based on her own life as a governess, but wtih a happy ending. ANne was in love with one of her father's curates, but he died young, but in Agnes Grey she allows her heroine to marry the clergyman she loves. In Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Helen's virtue is rewarded when her husband dies and she is free to marry the gentleman farmer whom she has fallen in love with. Both books are very moral, with very high Victorian standards, and this can make them tedious reading. Charlotte's first published novel, Jane Eyre, has a more passionate, wilful heroine, though Jane is also very moral and proper. Howwever she has a hot temper and is willing to fight for her rights. She also wrote a novel called the Professor with a male lead, who becomes a school master in Brussels and then marries a lace maker and opens a school of his own. Crimsworth is not a very interesting character and the book is not her best but it is about her own life to an extent, about keeping a school and working in Brussels. Her best novel is considered to be VIlette, which is set in Brussels, using a fictional name. Lucy Snowe, the heroine falls in love with a middle aged school master, based on M Heger, the schoolmaster Charlotte loved in Brussels. Because Heger was married, Charlotte could not have a happy ending with him, so in her novel she killed off M Emanuel, before he could marry Lucy so the novel has a sad ambiguous ending. Her fourth novel was Shirley which was not a success, being based on the history of the LUddite riots, in Yorkshire which was not Charlotte's forte.