Biographical Notes on the Pseudonymous Bells

Two short pieces Charlotte Brontë wrote in 1850 for the new edition of her sisters' novels, two years after both of them had died. The Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell explains who the Bells were and why three sisters in a remote parsonage had published under men's names; it describes the accidental discovery of Emily's poems, the failure of their first joint volume, the illnesses and the two deaths within months of each other. The Editor's Preface to Wuthering Heights then does something harder: it answers the reviewers who had called the book brutal, without pretending to think they were entirely wrong, and tries to explain the sister who wrote it.

These are the documents through which the Brontës first became known as themselves rather than as Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, and they shaped everything written about the family afterwards.

This Bibliomancer edition presents both pieces complete.