Difficult Woman N° 11
Anne Brontë
1820 – 1849
Who: Novelist. Poet. Governess. Youngest member of the literary Brontë family.
Signature difficult moves: In her second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the female protagonist is living not only outside conventional Victorian society, but also outside the law. By running away from her husband with their son, she was liable for kidnapping and theft under the Married Woman’s Property Act (read: married women are property)
What people said about her: The least popular Brontë sister in her time, modern critics now find Anne to be the most forward thinking and modern. “She is now viewed as the most radical of the sisters, writing about tough subjects such as women’s need to maintain independence and how alcoholism can tear a family apart.” — Sally McDonald, the Brontë Society
Personals: Single until her untimely death of consumption at age 29. One brief love affair (her beloved died of cholera months after they met.)
Feminine charms: Her fetching pout (immortalized centuries later in a billion selfies).
How she spoke truth to power:
Comic credit: Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant) http://www.harkavagrant.com/
Quote to live by:”But he that dares not grasp the thorn/Should never crave the rose.”
