Inside the Parsonage - Charlotte's Room.

This was the main bedroom, used by different members of the family over the years, depending on who happened to be at home at any particular time. In the nineteenth century it was more common for people to share rooms and beds than it is today. The room was enlarged at the expense of the little room over the hall in 1850.

 Initially this was Patrick and Maria's room. Maria Brontë died here on 15 September 1821 at the age of thirty-eight. During her painful illness (probably uterine cancer) Mrs Brontë seldom complained, and Elizabeth Gaskell described how she would beg her nurse to 'raise her from the bed to let her see her clean the grate, "because she did it as it was done in Cornwall".'  After Mrs Brontë's death Aunt Branwell moved into this room, and Patrick Brontë occupied the room opposite. At this time Anne was still a baby, and she slept here with her aunt during much of her early childhood. When Aunt Branwell died in 1842 Emily returned from Brussels and remained at the Parsonage acting as housekeeper. Charlotte returned permanently from Brussels in early 1844 and may have taken over the room then. Anne left Thorp Green in June 1845 and probably shared with either Charlotte or Emily from this point onwards. After the deaths of her sisters Charlotte occupied this room, moving out occasionally if guests such as Elizabeth Gaskell came to stay. When Charlotte married she and her husband Arthur Bell Nicholls shared the room. Charlotte died here on 31 March 1855 at the age of thirty-eight. Elizabeth Gaskell described how the gravely ill Charlotte overheard her husband praying beside her: 'Oh!' she whispered forth, 'I am not going to die, am I? He will not separate us, we have been so happy.' bronte.org.uk/museum-and-library

How the stigma of contagion keeps alive Romantic notions of how the Brontës died.

The way we think about tuberculosis has changed dramatically since Robert Koch discovered the tubercle bacillus in 1882. As Katherine Byrne has explained in Tuberculosis and the Victorian Literary Imagination, before Koch’s discovery “consumption” had often been thought of as a “mysterious, ethereal wasting disease”. It became “an identifiable bacterial infection” by the end of the 19th century, and this was also when the term “tuberculosis” started to replace “consumption”.

By the mid-20th century, the tuberculosis sufferer was no longer thought of as delicate or exceptional. Now that the infection could be clearly seen in X-rays, and treated with often brutal surgery, the tubercular body seemed much less Romantic. TB was a public health problem, and those who contracted it often faced isolation and social stigma.

Yet in this same period, biographies about the Brontës described their deaths from rather personal, individual illness, as though the discoveries made about the disease in the intervening century had never happened. The “consumption” from which the siblings died in these accounts often seems to have little in common with the disease which was by then commonly known as tuberculosis. 

Read all: theconversation

The Brontë Sisters in Auckland Discover Auckland Libraries rare heritage items.

Auckland is a long way from the wild moors of Yorkshire where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë lived and wrote, but their first published work is part of the Heritage Collections at Auckland Libraries.

Currently, on display at Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero - Central City Library is an extremely rare copy of the only collaborative work by the Brontë sisters – Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (Pseudonyms for Charlotte, Emily and Anne respectively).

A collection of poems by all three sisters; the book was their first published work, released in 1846 before the production of the renowned novels that they’re remembered for today.

Only one thousand copies of Poems were printed, and as the Brontë sisters' fame grew, the rare books became highly valuable and sought-after items.

The copy now sitting in our Auckland library once belonged to Auckland lawyer and art patron Edmond Mackechnie, and was donated to Auckland Libraries by his widow in November 1902. It sits alongside Shirley, Charlotte’s second novel published in 1849.

Jane Wild, Manager of Auckland Libraries’ Heritage Collections is excited by the books on display. “Poems is a compelling example of the scope and value of our heritage collections,” she says.

Read all: aucklandcouncil.govt.nz