When the family of a minister comes to financial ruin, his daughter desperately attempts to earn money to help the family. Discovering that there are few jobs that "respectable" women can take in those times, she finds employment as a governess in several wealthy families with spoiled children that she must learn to control. Will she manage to overcome oppression, isolation and humiliation, and find love as well?Join us for Anne Bronte's classic first novel, based upon many of her own experiences, and acting as a scathing critique of Victorian morality in what some have called "the most perfect prose narrative in English letters."
About the Author: Anne Bronte was born on January 17, 1820, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the youngest of six children and member of the three Bronte sisters who became authors. Her father was a curate and her mother died of cancer when she was only a year old. Anne's father required someone to help with the children, so her mother's sister moved in to take over. In 1824, four of the daughters were sent to boarding school, but when the two older daughters died from tuberculosis, the two younger ones were brought home. For the next five years, she was educated by her father and aunt, studying art and music. Anne also spent a great deal of time reading in her father's large library, enjoying books by authors such as Homer, Shakespeare, Milton and Scott. After a while, the sisters began creating elaborate stories to entertain themselves, eventually writing them down. At age fifteen, Anne attended Roe Head School, with sister Charlotte as her teacher, but she became ill and returned home, taking a job as a governess for four children, which she did for five years. In 1845, the three sisters compiled a book of poems, and with money their aunt had left them, they were able to have it published. Not wanting anyone to know they were women, the sisters adopted pseudonyms, with Anne calling herself Acton Bell. Unfortunately, only two copies sold. Anne however, still using the Acton name began to publish her work in magazines. In 1846, all three of the sisters were working on novels and Anne finished "Agnes Grey." Her second novel, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," was released in 1848 and became an instant success, though some of the subject matter was considered controversial at the time. In 1848, a rumor that the "Bell brothers" were all the same person began to circulate and Anne and Charlotte went to London to reveal themselves to their publisher. In 1848, Anne's brother died at age 31, then three months later, sister Emily died at 30. Then on May 28, 1849, Charlotte died while on a trip with sister Charlotte to Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, at the age of 29. Charlotte had her buried in St. Mary's churchyard in Scarborough, instead of with the rest of the family in Hayworth, not even waiting for their father to arrive.