The Brontë Sisters (and Their Rivalry)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Contained herein are the heresies of Radolf Berndtwein, erstwhile monk turned traveling medical investigator. Join me as I uncover the blasphemous truth of a plague-ridden world, that ours is not a loving god, and we are not its favored children.
The Heresies of Radolf Berndtwein, coming January 2nd, wherever podcasts are available.

**Madigan** (0:28)
Hi, I'm Madigan, and you're listening to Your Angry Neighborhood Feminist, a podcast that explores the world through a personal feminist perspective.
Hi everyone, I hope we're doing great. It is still so strange to me not to be recording twice a week, but here I am. I'm doing pretty fantastic besides the fact that I totally threw my neck out last night, and it didn't help that at like four in the morning, Penny woke up because she heard animals outside, and I decided to sleep on the couch for the rest of the morning, I guess at that point, which definitely fucked my neck up even more. So now I can't move my head from side to side, but other than that, the sun is out. It's a beautiful day. I have my adorable dog, Dorothy, next to me, and I'm ready to get into a new episode, one that I am really psyched to talk about. So let's get into it. The Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, were all well-known poets and novelists who each lived short but very full lives. Since each of their deaths, the final sister passing away in 1855, their legacy and reputations have grown and evolved. Their books, Agnes Grey, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, have also remained relevant and popular for now close to 180 years. Due to each of the sisters' vast imaginations, the truthfulness in their writing, and due to the subject matter of each novel. I, of course, have known about the Brontë sisters for a long time, but I really hate to admit that I've never actually read any of the three books that I just mentioned. I was always really intimidated by the classics when I was younger, and I would use reading a lot as almost like watching TV when I was a kid. I never wanted to get anything that was going to make me think too hard. But now that I'm older, I do enjoy reading those classics more. And now, well, I have a few more books to add to my reading list. The first children born to Patrick and Maria Brontë, born Maria Branwell, were Maria and Elizabeth. Charlotte, Emily and Anne would all be born within four years of each other, with Charlotte coming into the world on April 21, 1816, Emily on July 30, 1818, and Anne born on July 17, 1820
All three of the girls would be born at the parsonage in West Yorkshire, England. It seems that their family history laid the foundation for their future success, as the Brontë family can be traced to the Irish clan, and I'm going to totally butcher this name, even though I'm very Irish myself, O'Prenty, a family of hereditary scribes and literary men. Young Patrick was incredibly bright and won a scholarship to St. John's College, or Cambridge, where he studied divinity, ancient history and modern history. Some believe that it was when attending Cambridge that he became embarrassed of his Irish last name and decided to change it. There's also one last reason as to why Patrick may have wanted to change his name. Apparently, his brother William was on the run from authorities at the time due to his involvement with the United Irishmen, which Patrick seemed to be ashamed of and wanted to distance himself from.
Patrick graduated from Cambridge in August of 1806 and became an author of numerous poems, pamphlets and several newspaper articles. But it seemed that he always had an ambition to work as a member of the clergy. He met and married 29-year-old Maria Branwell in 1812 Maria Branwell was from Cornwall and came from a comfortably well-off middle class family. Her father had a popular tea and grocery store and a number of other properties around town, and they got pretty rich off of that. Maria met Patrick when visiting her aunt Jane and uncle John Fennell in Yorkshire after the deaths of four family members between 1808 and 1812, including both of her parents. Patrick had become friendly with Maria's uncle Fennell, and when Maria and Patrick met, it was allegedly love at first sight, which was why they were married within a year. They got married on December 29th, 1812 by their mutual friend, Reverend William Morgan, who also married Jane and John Fennell's daughter, Jane Branwell Fennell, on the same day.
In fact, there was also another wedding that day, the same hour that Maria was married. Maria's youngest sister, Charlotte, would also be married to her cousin, Joseph Branwell.