Anne Brontë: for so long underestimated, from her own day to modern times. But why exactly has this remarkably talented and pioneering author been so overlooked? Anne’s writing has often been compared harshly with that of Charlotte and Emily – as if living in her sisters’ shadows throughout her life wasn’t enough. But her reputation, literary and personal, has changed dramatically since Agnes Grey was first published in 1846. Then, shocked reviewers complained of her ‘crudeness’ and ‘vulgarity’ – words used to this day to belittle women writing about oppression. Her second and most famous work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, was groundbreaking in its subject matter: marital and alcohol abuse and the rights of married women. A book that refused to sweep difficult truths under the carpet. A book so ahead of its time that even her sisters weren’t ready for it, Charlotte being one of its harshest critics. And yet could this even be the best of all the Brontë works? With such a contradictory life and legacy: who was Anne, really? It’s time to find out.
