(Source: sternenflut)

"

I was sorry for her; I was amazed, disgusted at her heartless vanity; I wondered why so much beauty should be given to those who made so bad a use of it, and denied to some who would make it a benefit to both themselves and others.

But, God knows best, I concluded. There are, I suppose, some men as vain, as selfish, and as heartless as she is, and, perhaps, such women may be useful to punish them.

"

Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (via whimsies-emiliecatherine)

"If a woman is fair and amiable, she is praised for both qualities, but especially the former, by the bulk of mankind: if, on the other hand, she is disagreeable in person and character, her plainness is commonly inveighed against as her greatest crime, because, to common observers, it gives the greatest offence; while, if she is plain and good, provided she is a person of retired manners and secluded life, no one ever knows of her goodness, except her immediate connections"

Brontë, Anne. “Agnes Grey.” (via abookishtype)

vintageanchor:

The Brontë family vault at Haworth Church

(Source: vintageanchorbooks)

"It was named Catherine, but [Edgar] never called it the name in full, as he had never called the first Catherine short, probably because Heathcliff had a habit of doing so. The little one was always Cathy, it formed to him a distinction from the mother, and yet, a connection with her, and his attachment sprang from its relation to her, far more than from its being his own."

Wuthering Heights
(VII, Chapter III, p. 184-5)
Emily Brontë  (via bibliophiling)

(via nitrateglow)

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jacks-concavity:

Wuthering Heights: First American Edition: Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, (1848). A rare first edition bound in leather boards, with gold lettering and matching headbands.

(via nitrateglow)

sigma-chan:

My favourite female fictional characters:

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is proud, and therefore she is ungrateful too. It pleased God to make her an orphan, friendless, and penniless—yet she thanks nobody, and least of all Him, for the food and raiment, the friends, companions, and instructors of her helpless youth… On the contrary, she looks upon all that has been done for her not only as her undoubted right, but as falling far short of it.

- Quarterly Review (December 1848)

astraeas:

ladies from books » jane eyre by charlotte brontë

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

(Source: clara-oswalded)

"Lucy Snowe is the woman to be. Rising from the shadows, she looks to the future. The book ends when she is ready to write it: the work of art to complement an exchange of letters which, at the crest of rapport, shapes character and extends expression. We leave Lucy advancing into a future in which she will record her rise in heretic terms. What is to be the fate of such a woman? This question looms in the ‘pause: pause’ at the end of ‘Villette’."

Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life, Lyndall Gorndon, p314 (via fycharlottebronte)

165 years ago, on October 16, 1847, Jane Eyre was first published by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name “Currer Bell.

(Source: thebrontes)