Branwell Brontë, self portrait, 1840

Patrick Branwell Brontë (26 June 1817 – 24 September 1848) was a painter and poet, the only son of the Brontë family, and the brother of the writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Image File history File links Branwell. ... Image File history File links Branwell. ... June 26 is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 188 days remaining. ... 1817 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... September 24 is the 267th day of the year (268th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1848 (MDCCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Brontë sisters, painted by their brother, Branwell c. ... Charlotte Brontë (IPA: ) (April 21, 1816 – March 31, 1855) was an English novelist, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters whose novels have become enduring classics of English literature. ... Portrait by her brother Emily Jane Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, which is now an acknowledged classic of English literature. ... Anne Brontë (January 17, 1820 – May 28, 1849) was a British novelist and poet, the youngest of the Brontë literary family. ...

Youth

Branwell Brontë was the fourth of six children. The only son of Patrick Brontë and his wife, Maria Branwell Brontë. He was born in Thornton, and moved with his family to Haworth when his father was appointed to the perpetual curacy in 1821. Patrick Brontë around 1860 Reverend Patrick Brontë (March 17, 1777 - June 7, 1861) was a curate, writer, and the father of the writers Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë. He was the first of ten children born to Hugh Brunty and Eleanor McCrory in Drumballyroney, County Down, Northern Ireland. ... Thornton village lies to the west of Bradford, into which it was incorporated around 1899, but was mentioned in the Domesday Book of the 11th Century, when it had been laid waste by William the Conquerors harrying of the north, punishment for an uprising against the Norman invaders of... Haworth, Main Street Haworth, Main Street For alternate meanings see Haworth (disambiguation) Haworth is a small village and tourist attraction, in the English county of West Yorkshire, best known for its association with the Brontë sisters. ... The coronation banquet for George IV 1821 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

Of the four Brontë siblings who survived into adulthood, Branwell Brontë seems to have been regarded within the family as the most talented, at least during his childhood and youth. While four of his five sisters were sent to Cowan Bridge boarding school (resulting in the death of his two oldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth), Branwell was kept at home to be privately educated by his father, who gave him a classical education suitable for admission to Oxford or Cambridge. Cowan Bridge is a hamlet in the English county of Lancashire. ... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ... Shown within Cambridgeshire Geography Status: City (1951) Region: East of England Admin. ...

Brontë collaborated as a writer with his sisters in childhood and adolescence, creating fictional worlds. His surviving juvenilia shows that he collaborated most closely with Charlotte on their imaginary world Angria. An imaginary world is a setting, place or event or scenario at variance with objective reality, ranging from the voluntary suspension of disbelief of fictional universes and the socially constructed consensus reality of the Social Imaginary, to alternate realities resulting from disinformation, misinformation or imaginative speculation, and the subjective universe...

Adulthood

As a young man, Branwell Brontë was trained as a portrait painter in Haworth, and worked as a portrait painter in Bradford in 1838 and 1839. His most famous portrait is of his three sisters (he seems to have painted himself out). The Brontë sisters, painted by their brother, Branwell c. ... The larger City of Bradford Metropolitan District includes other settlements in the surrounding area. ... | Jöns Jakob Berzelius, discoverer of protein 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1839 (MDCCCXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1840, Brontë became a tutor to a family of young boys in Broughton-In-Furness but was dismissed within six months. During this time he did a translation of Horace. He was then employed on the Luddenden Foot railway station in 1841 but was dismissed in 1842 due to a deficit in the accounts attributed to incompetence rather than theft. During his period of employment both as a tutor and on the railways he harboured literary ambitions and published poetry under various pseudonyms in the Yorkshire press. 1840 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Horace, as imagined by Anton von Werner Quintus Horatius Flaccus, (December 8, 65 BC - November 27, 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. ... Luddendenfoot is a community in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, lying along the River Calder between Sowerby Bridge and Hebden Bridge. ... Passengers bustle around the typical grand edifice of Londons Broad Street Station in 1865. ... 1841 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... A pseudonym (Greek pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons true name. ... Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In 1843 Brontë took up another tutoring position in Thorp Green, appointed as the tutor to the Robinson family's young son. He gained this position through his sister Anne, who was the governess to the Robinson's two older daughters. During this time he corresponded with a number of old friends about his increasing infatuation with Lydia Robinson. He was dismissed on unspecified charges in 1845: it is thought, due to his account to his own family; the Robinson family's silence on the reason for his dismissal; and subsequent gifts of money from Mrs Robinson through her servants, that he had an affair with Mrs Robinson and that the affair had been discovered by her husband. 1843 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Look up infatuation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... An affair is usually a euphemism for a situation where two people are involved in an illicit activity. ...

Brontë returned home to his family at the Haworth parsonage, now known as the Brontë Parsonage Museum. He was devastated by Mrs Robinson's abandonment and the increasing unlikelihood of a reunion and turned to alcohol. He became an alcoholic and was thought to be addicted to laudanum. His behaviour became irrational and dangerous as he developed delirium tremens. Charlotte's letters from this time demonstrate that she was angered by his behaviour, but that her father was patient with his broken son. Although it was at this time that his sisters' first novels were being accepted for publication, it is not known whether he was even informed. The Brontë Parsonage Museum is maintained in honour of the famed Brontë sisters — Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë — and is located in Haworth, Yorkshire, an area of England covered in much open, expansive moorland. ... Alcoholism is the consumption of, or preoccupation with, alcoholic beverages to the extent that this behavior interferes with the drinkers normal personal, family, social, or work life, and may lead to physical or mental harm. ... Addiction is a chronic disorder proposed to be precipitated by a combination of genetic, biological/pharmacological and social factors. ... Laudanum is an opium tincture, sometimes sweetened with sugar and also called wine of opium. ... Delirium tremens (colloquially, the DTs, the horrors, the shakes or rum fits) is an acute episode of delirium that is usually caused by withdrawal or abstinence from alcohol following habitual excessive drinking. ...

Brontë's severe addictions masked the onset of tuberculosis, and his family did not realise that he was seriously ill until he collapsed outside the house and a local doctor identified him as being in the disease's terminal stages. He died shortly after, intriguingly, while standing up and leaning against a mantlepiece, purely in order to prove that it could be done. [1] Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the mycobacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium bovis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones and joints. ...

Emily Brontë died of the disease December of that year and Anne Brontë the following May. Portrait by her brother Emily Jane Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, which is now an acknowledged classic of English literature. ... Anne Brontë (January 17, 1820 – May 28, 1849) was a British novelist and poet, the youngest of the Brontë literary family. ...

Further reading

• Branwell Brontë: a biography by Winifred Gerin ((Toronto/NY: T. Nelson & Sons, I96I, Hutchinson 1972)

• The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë by Daphne du Maurier (Victor Gollancz 1960, Penguin Books 1972)

• The Poems of Patrick Branwell Brontë, ed. by Tom Winnifrith (Oxford: Blackwell Ltd, I983)

• The Life of Patrick Branwell Brontë by Tom Winnifrith

• The Brontës and their Background by Tom Winnifrith (1973 Macmillan, 1988 Palgrave Macmillan)

• The Brontës by Juliet Barker (London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994)

• A Brontë Family Chronology by Edward Chitham (2003 Palgrave Macmillan)

• Branwell, A Novel of the Bronte Brother (ISBN 1-933368-00-4), by Douglas A. Martin

External links

• Website of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth
• Branwell Brontë
• Web news magazine of the Brontë Parsonage Museum
• News and information about the Brontës using a blog format.
• Bronte Sisters Links: the biggest collection of links regarding the Bronte Sisters
• Brontëana: Brontë Studies Weblog