Happy 190th birthday, Anne!

Like many other seemingly overlooked literary figures, Anne Brontë is forever being reclaimed by those of us - fortunately a growing group - who think it is unfair and undeserved for her to be just 'the other sister' or 'the youngest sister'. Charlotte Brontë set the trend and, as with her opinion of Jane Austen, people who don't otherwise seem to heed much of what Charlotte Brontë said, did or wrote, rely on her opinion of - and actions regarding to - say, Anne's second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Often has it been said that had Anne belonged to a different family, she would have her name generally included 'among the best'. As things stand, though, she seems to be always either surprising people - a good thing - or being ignored and/or dismissed by them.

She was a very brave young woman of firm principles who actually deserves to be admired both for the life she lived and for the things she wrote. Throughout her life she had fight against being treated as the 'baby' of the Brontë family and 190 years after her birth she's still doing so in a way. But for the most part of those 190 years we believe that Anne Brontë has already been mature enough for her to stand on her own two feet and for the world to take her as seriously as she expected.

Picture: Sunrise Over Sea, Signed and dated - 'Anne Brontë', 'November 13th. 1839'. Source: The Scarborough Connection.

Categories: Anne Brontë, Reminder