The Victorian era is known for the galaxy of female novelists. Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Mrs. Gaskell and George Eliot are in prime focus. However, the four most important women novelists, who yet are quite important, are charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Mrs. Gaskell and George Eliot. Of the four, the two first named were sister, and their methods and achievement as novelists met at many places. But each of the remaining two priced her own line and made herself known in the field of English novel in her own way.
BRONTË SISTERS LIVES:
Charlotte bronte was born in 1816. They were the daughters of an Irish clergyman Patrick Brontë who held the living in Yorkshire. Financial difficulties comepelled Charlotte to become a school teacher in 1835 to 1838 and then a governess. Along with Emily she visited Brussels in 1842 and then return home where family cares kept her closely tied. Later her books had much success and she was released from many of her financial worries. She was married in 1854 but died in the next year.
Emily was born in 1818. Emily was perhaps the greatest of the three Brontë sisters, but the record of her life is extremely meagre, for she was silent and reserved and left no correspondence of interest. She was never married and had no any romantic attachments.Soon after the publication of her novel (wuthering heights), Emily’s health began to fail rapidly. She had been ill for some time, but now her breathing became difficult, and she suffered great pain. She died of tuberculosis in December 1848.
Anne Brontë was born in 1820. Anne Brontë started writing her first novel some time between 1840 and 1845 while she was working as a governess for the Robinson family, at Thorp Green near York. She laboured away in her neat, elegant handwriting, Anne must have felt that she was writing a novel that would go off like a bomb. She was the least famous among famous among her sisters. She died in 1849.
THEIR WORKS:
Charlotte Brontë: Charles first novel “The professor” fail to find a publisher and only appeared in 1857 after her death. Jane eyre published in 1847 is her greatest novel. The love story of the plain but very with vital heroine is an unfolder with the frank truthfulness and depth of understanding that are new in English fiction. The next novel “Shirley” published in 1849, Charlotte Brontë reverts to a more normal and less impassioned portrayal of life. “Villette” published in 1853 is written in a reminiscent vein and the character of Lucy snowe is based on the author herself. the truth and intensity of Charles work are and questioned. Most of the plots of her novel are largely restricted to her own experiences, her seriousness is unrelieved by any humour and her passion is a times over charge to the point of rage. But her novels bought an energy and passion that gave to commonplace people the wonder and beauty of the romantic world.
Emily Brontë: Even though she wrote less than Charlotte, Emily bronte is in some ways the greatest of the three sisters. Her one novel “Wuthering heights” published in 1847 is unique in English literature. This novel is highly imaginative work of passion. Her single novel darkens rather than solves the mystery of her spiritual existence. A few of her poems reached the very highest levels, though the majority lack distinction. her finest poems were probably “No coward soul is mine” and “cold in the Earth” and “The deep snow piled above thee”.
Anne Brontë: Anne bronte is by far the least important figure of her sisters. Her two novels “Agnes grey” published in 1847 and the “Tenant of wildfell hall” published in 1848 are much inferior to those of a sisters, for she lacks nearly all their power and intensity.
THEIR IMPORTANCE IN THE HISTORY OF NOVEL:
With Brontës the forces which had transformed English poetry at the beginning of the century were first felt in the novel. They were the pioneers in fiction. Their works are as much the products of the imagination and emotions. In their concern with the human soul they were to be followed by George Eliot and Meredith.
