Brontë sisters

Brontë sisters, 3 English novelists and poets, daughters of an Anglican clergyman. The isolated life of the Yorkshire moors, their mother's early death, and the dissipations of their brother, Branwell, informed much of their work. Charlotte Brontë (1816–55) published the partly autobiographical novel Jane Eyre (1847) under the name Currer Bell and met with immediate success. Together with Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853), it represents an important advance in the treatment of women in English fiction. Emily Brontë (1818–48), using the name Ellis Bell, published a single novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), a masterpiece of visionary power. Anne Brontë (1820–49) published two novels, Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), under the name Acton Bell.