Anne Brontë
Spine number 01
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
The three Brontë sisters bring together imagined lives, landscapes and reflections on belief and loss. Anne’s twenty-one contributions, signed Acton Bell, include The Doubter’s Prayer and Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day, setting religious uncertainty beside the exhilaration of the natural world. Published in 1846, this entry represents the whole shared volume; its combination of fictional speakers and reflective verse accounts for its mixed classification.
1846 · collection · Fiction & non-fiction · Collaboration
Spine number 02
Agnes Grey
Determined to help her family after a financial loss, Agnes Grey takes work as a governess and discovers how little authority her employers allow her. Her account of unruly pupils, social humiliation and the search for companionship combines a restrained voice with sharp observations of class and cruelty. Drawing on Brontë’s own employment, the novel first appeared in 1847 as the third volume of the set that also introduced Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
1847 · book · Fiction
Spine number 03
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
When Helen Graham arrives at Wildfell Hall with her young son, her guarded independence attracts both a neighbour’s interest and village suspicion. Letters and a diary gradually bring her own account into a story about marriage, drinking and the limits placed on women’s choices. Published in 1848 under the name Acton Bell, Brontë’s second novel asks readers to look beyond gossip and the appeal of a charming manner.
1848 · book · Fiction
Spine number 04
The Complete Poems of Anne Brontë
Imagined lovers and exiles share this collection with poems of homesickness, spiritual doubt and endurance. Its fictional voices and devotional reflections offer a wider view of Brontë’s poetry than the selection published during her lifetime. This entry represents Clement Shorter’s posthumous 1920 collected edition, with a bibliographical introduction by C. W. Hatfield, bringing together verse previously printed in the 1846 shared volume and later publications.
1920 · collection · Fiction & non-fiction · Posthumous
Begin with the direct voice of Agnes Grey, choose the more layered storytelling of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, or approach Brontë through a few poems at a time.
Where to begin
Start here
Agnes Grey
The shorter of Brontë’s two novels offers a clear introduction to her close observation of work, manners and unequal power. Read for the tension between Agnes’s measured account and the indignities she describes: the quiet voice carries a firm judgement.
Not yet in our collection
For a more demanding novel
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Choose this if you enjoy weighing different accounts of the same person and watching an initial judgement come under pressure. The movement between letters and a diary asks for closer attention, while the questions of responsibility and independence give the domestic story its force.
Not yet in our collection
For shorter reading sessions
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
Seek out the poems signed Acton Bell for a compact introduction to Anne’s verse within the sisters’ shared book. Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day and The Doubter’s Prayer make a useful pairing, moving from an outward rush of energy to inward questioning.
Not yet in our collection
Read next
The Complete Poems of Anne Brontë
Turn to this wider collection when the 1846 selection leaves you wanting more of Brontë’s poetry. Read the imagined speakers alongside the poems of faith and loss, allowing their different situations to emerge without treating every voice as a direct confession.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1846
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
collection · Collaboration
The three Brontë sisters bring together imagined lives, landscapes and reflections on belief and loss. Anne’s twenty-one contributions, signed Acton Bell, include The Doubter’s Prayer and Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day, setting religious uncertainty beside the exhilaration of the natural world. Published in 1846, this entry represents the whole shared volume; its combination of fictional speakers and reflective verse accounts for its mixed classification.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1847
Agnes Grey
book
Determined to help her family after a financial loss, Agnes Grey takes work as a governess and discovers how little authority her employers allow her. Her account of unruly pupils, social humiliation and the search for companionship combines a restrained voice with sharp observations of class and cruelty. Drawing on Brontë’s own employment, the novel first appeared in 1847 as the third volume of the set that also introduced Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1848
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
book
When Helen Graham arrives at Wildfell Hall with her young son, her guarded independence attracts both a neighbour’s interest and village suspicion. Letters and a diary gradually bring her own account into a story about marriage, drinking and the limits placed on women’s choices. Published in 1848 under the name Acton Bell, Brontë’s second novel asks readers to look beyond gossip and the appeal of a charming manner.
Not yet in our collection
Published 1920
The Complete Poems of Anne Brontë
collection · Posthumous
Imagined lovers and exiles share this collection with poems of homesickness, spiritual doubt and endurance. Its fictional voices and devotional reflections offer a wider view of Brontë’s poetry than the selection published during her lifetime. This entry represents Clement Shorter’s posthumous 1920 collected edition, with a bibliographical introduction by C. W. Hatfield, bringing together verse previously printed in the 1846 shared volume and later publications.
Not yet in our collection
Anne Brontë was an English novelist and poet who published as Acton Bell. Her fiction examines the everyday exercise of power: an employer’s treatment of a governess, the authority of a husband, and the difficulty of earning an independent living. Agnes Grey (1847) draws on her experience as a governess, while The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) explores marriage, destructive drinking and a woman’s efforts to protect her child. Both novels give close attention to the gap between respectable appearances and private conduct.
Born at Thornton in Yorkshire on 17 January 1820, Brontë grew up at Haworth Parsonage and worked as a governess between 1839 and 1845. With her sister Emily she developed the imaginary world of Gondal; her poetry moves between invented speakers, memories of home, and questions of faith and doubt. In 1846 she joined Charlotte and Emily in publishing Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. She died of tuberculosis at Scarborough on 28 May 1849, aged twenty-nine, leaving two novels and a body of verse that continued to appear after her death.