In the second half of the 19th century, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was considered the best of the Bronte sisters' works, but following later re-evaluation, critics began to argue that Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights was superior. However, Anne, the least known Bronte sister, was not given a chance to compete with her siblings. Despite the fact that The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was an instant and phenomenal success, its re-publication was prevented by Charlotte Bronte after Anne's death in 1849. This edition includes all three novels, and is limited to 1,000 copies. The Brontes were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in Thornton England. The sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, are well known as poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they originally published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories immediately attracted attention for their passion and originality. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily's Wuthering Heights, and Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were later to be accepted as masterpieces of literature.

Author Biography

Charlotte Bronte (21 April 1816 - 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Bronte sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She enlisted in school at Roe Head in January 1831, aged 14 years. She left the year after to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home, returning in 1835 as a governess. In 1839, she undertook the role as governess for the Sidgwick family, but left after a few months to return to Haworth where the sisters opened a school, but failed to attract pupils. Instead they turned to writing and they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Her first novel, The Professor was rejected by publishers, her second novel Jane Eyre was published in 1847. The sisters admitted to their Bell pseudonyms in 1848, and by the following year were celebrated in London literary circles. Bronte experienced the early deaths of all her siblings. She became pregnant shortly after her marriage in June 1854 but died on 31 March 1855 of tuberculosis or possibly typhus. Emily Jane Bronte (30 July 1818 - 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third-eldest of the four surviving Bronte siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She published under the pen name Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights's violence and passion led the Victorian public and many early reviewers to think that it had been written by a man.According to Juliet Gardiner, the vivid sexual passion and power of its language and imagery impressed, bewildered and appalled reviewers. Literary critic Thomas Joudrey further contextualizes this reaction: Expecting in the wake of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre to be swept up in an earnest Bildungsroman, they were instead shocked and confounded by a tale of unchecked primal passions, replete with savage cruelty and outright barbarism. Even though the novel received mixed reviews when it first came out, and was often condemned for its portrayal of amoral passion, the book subsequently became an English literary classic. Emily Bronte never knew the extent of fame she achieved with her only novel, as she died a year after its publication, aged 30. Although a letter from her publisher indicates that Emily had begun to write a second novel, the manuscript has never been found. Perhaps Emily or a member of her family eventually destroyed the manuscript, if it existed, when she was prevented by illness from completing it. It has also been suggested that, though less likely, the letter could have been intended for Anne Bronte, who was already writing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, her second novel. Anne Bronte (17 January 1820 - 28 May 1849) was an English novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Bronte literary family.The daughter of Patrick Bronte, a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Bronte lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. She also attended a boarding school in Mirfield between 1836 and 1837. At 19 she left Haworth and worked as a governess between 1839 and 1845. After leaving her teaching position, she fulfilled her literary ambitions. She published a volume of poetry with her sisters (Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, 1846) and two novels. Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847. Her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, appeared in 1848. Like her poems, both her novels were first published under the masculine pen name of Acton Bell. Anne's life was cut short when she died of what is now suspected to be pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 29. Partly because the re-publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was prevented by Charlotte Bronte after Anne's death, she is not as well known as her sisters. However, her novels, like those of her sisters, have become classics of English literature.