Brontë Sisters
This Web page has information to help researchers find materials related to the English authors (and sisters) Anne Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, and Emily Brontë.
Books | Articles (includes tips for searching MLA online) | Web | Full Text Online
Books
Books are a key resource for literary research. Because of their close relationship, some of the books by and about the sisters are found in one volume, so there is research overlap. Books by and about the authors number:
| Author | Call number (primary) | No. of Titles by Subject | No. of titles by Subject: |
No. of Titles by Author | Shelf space |
| Brontë, Anne, 1820-1849 | PR 4162 | 7+ subdivisions | 8+ | 16 | 1/2 |
| Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855 | PR 4165-PR 4167 | 26+ subdivisions | 24+ | 52 | 4 |
| Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848 | PR 4172 | 13+ subdivisions | 18+ | 41 | 1 1/3 |
Most of these (check the library catalog record) are located in the lower level (basement) of Morgan Library. Check Prospector, the regional catalog for additional titles (CSU affiliates may request available titles, but need to establish a library PIN first).
Locate individual titles by doing a title search in SAGE, the library catalog:
Wuthering Heights
Note: this search also picks up materials about the novel, essay, or poem.
Reference books
- The Oxford Companion to the Brontës. PR4167.A3 O94 2003 Reference
- Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vols. 21 (all three authors), 32 (Emily), 159 (Charlotte), and 199 (all three authors). PS221 .D5 Reference
Articles
For literature, and therefore the Brontës, there are three indexes that provide the most sources for research on the author and his works. The indexes are MLA Bibliography, AcademicSearch Premier, and Humanities International Index.
Search the MLA Bibliography for articles, book chapters, etc. After finding a citation, use the 
button to see if there is an electronic version of the article and/or to have a shortcut to checking the library catalog SAGE to find out if CSU owns the journal or book. In a very few cases, items will be full text within MLA itself.
To find resources about all of the Brontës, search each one individually in MLA and "or" them together:
(over 2200 records in August 2007)
If specifically looking for family links, there is a subject term for "Brontë family" (over 130 records).
Look for one author by herself:
(over 850 records in August 2007)
Because there can be many records, you might want to narrow your search by topic. For example:
results in 26 items.
You can limit your search by publication type from the initial search screen. Get there by clicking on "Search Options" tab if you have already done a search. Publication types are: Book; Book Article; Book Collection; Dissertation Abstract; Journal Article. The left example below shows a search limited to journal articles. You can exclude dissertations from a general search (right example).
You can also limit your search by language of the article by scrolling and selecting your choice:
You may select more than one language; just use the Ctrl key to choose languages that are not sequential:
Once you set limits, they will stay as long as you do new searches in the main search box (
shows just above entries for search results). If you return to
it erases your previous limits, so if you intend to add something new, you will need to remember to repeat your earlier limits.
The "Search History" shows you your earlier searches. Click on the box in the "Add to Search" column to the left of the search you want to repeat or combine (with and, or, or not) and click on the "Add" button. You will then need to click the "search" button to do the search--or you can add additional terms in the same or other search boxes. Search history/alerts, will continue to display until you click on it again
(difference is direction of arrow to left of the words.)
(July 30, 2008)
Look at the subjects that are displayed in a full record. As you can see below, "Heathcliff (character)" is a subject that can be searched; the hyperlink will generate a brand-new search.
If you already know that a term is a subject, it can be searched in the search box like this:
. The "DE" is the descriptor (terminology left over from previous electronic versions of MLA) or subject term.
Use the Narrow Results by Subject option too (see image below).
There are not as many items about the Brontës in this database as there are in the MLA, but it is worth checking. To eliminate the book reviews from your search, do a subject search for Emily Brontë not books-reviews (DE Brontë, Emily NOT SU books-reviews). Same software as MLA above. Some of the records are for a more general audience than MLA, and may be very useful. You can also limit your results, under "search options," to scholarly articles (this option is not found in MLA--generally speaking, everything in MLA is scholarly).
Humanities Index (AI 3 .I495 Reference South 1974-98; online 1984- ). Online (different publisher, similar subject coverage): Humanties International Index Varies.
There are a number of book reviews here, but they can be eliminated (see just above). Has a "people" field, that searches people by subject. Same software as MLA and Humanities International Index.
Find:
PE "BRONTE, Charlotte" (over 180 records)
PE "BRONTE, Anne" (over 16 records)
PE "BRONTE, Emily" (over 50 records)
All three of the above databases may be searched at the same time, if desired, but some functionality will be lost, which may or may not be a problem.
Over 700 articles about Emily Brontë (over 2150, including reviews; limit to articles on initial page to identify articles only). Over 935 articles on Charlotte Brontë. Over 465 articles about Anne Brontë. All full text.
19 records with Brontë, Emily in Subject Headings. All articles are full text and may be viewed in HTML or PDF. Do a Subject Heading search or "All Fields Except Text" because the "all fields w/text" brings up a lot of irrelevant articles. 13 records for Brontë, Charlotte and 7 for Brontë, Anne in "All Fields Except Text."
Essay & General Literature Index.
Citations to book chapters. Over 140 records with "Brontë." Use the left-hand subject terms to help narrow down topics.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (via Web of Science).
Emily Brontë over 135 citations, Anne Brontë over 40 citations, Charlotte Brontë over 430 citations.
Electronic Collections Online.(ECO.)
Over 40 citations for Charlotte Brontë; the other two have over 10.
Web
It looks as if there is a lot of material on the sisters on the Web, but a lot of it is the same sort of material. For these authors, it is probably a better thing to rely on the scholarly articles and books that one is going to find via library resources (listed above). Nevertheless, there are some useful starts on the Web, as well as full-text online copies of their work. A number of pages have pop-ups and/or pop-backs, so be careful.
In all cases, be sure to evaluate what you find, no matter the source: book, article, Web page.
Anne Brontë (1820-1849). Mary Mark Ockerbloom, editor. A Celebration of Women Writers. Digital Library Projects. Penn Library.
Biography, selected poems, bibliography.
Anne Brontë: An Overview. The Victorian Web.
Biographical Materials, Works, Literary Relations, Social and Political Contexts, and Theme and Technique. A number of links go off site. At least one link not working.
Anne Brontë - The Scarborough Connection. A Magical History Tour. Copyright © 1999 Michael Armitage.
Music plays on the home page of site (there are pop-ups and pop-backs too). "This work is both a literary, and a pictorial account of the life of Anne Brontë, with a particular focus on her connections with the seaside resort of Scarborough; a place she loved; a place she portrayed in both her novels - Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; a place where she wished to open her own school, and the place where she ultimately died and was buried." Images of her handwriting and more. Author is electronics specialist.
The Brontës. Brontë Parsonage Museum & Brontë Society.
Pages on: Who were the Brontes, Family Tree, Family History, The Novels, Profiles, and Chronology.
The Brontës.§ 1. The Brontë Family. Bartleby.com. By A. A. JACK, M.A., Peterhouse, Chalmers Professor of English Literature in the University of Aberdeen. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XIII. The Victorian Age, Part One.
Encyclopedia article about the family. Also find discussions of Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, Wuthering Heights, and Emily Brontë’s poems. The appendix discusses the sister's access to certain articles.
Bronte, Charlotte. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. AuthorSheets.
Nice resource that identifies where criticism of Charlotte Brontë's writing can be found within books of criticism. (Check the library catalog to see if CSU owns the titles, if not check Prospector. If neither use Interlibrary Loan.)
Bronte, Emily. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. AuthorSheets.
Nice resource that identifies where criticism of Emily Brontë's writing can be found within books of criticism. (Check the library catalog to see if CSU owns the titles, if not check Prospector. If neither use Interlibrary Loan.)
Charlotte Brontë: An Overview. The Victorian Web.
Multiple links to various aspects of the author's life and writing.
A Charlotte Bronte Chronology. Margaret Howard Blom, Charlotte Bronte [Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977]. Mitsuharu Matsuoka.
Emily Brontë (1818-48): An Overview. The Victorian Web.
It looks like regular text, but most of the items are hyperlinked. Biographical Materials, Works, Cultural Contexts, Theme and Technique. A number of links go off site.
An Emily Bronte Chronology. Richard Benvenuto, Emily Bronte [Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982]. Mitsuharu Matsuoka.
Elizabeth Gaskell. The Life of Charlotte Brontë. (1857). All rights are reserved. They are only for your private use. No part of them may be reproduced on the Internet or any other media without the permission of Mitsuharu Matsuoka.
Overview of Emily Brontë. Lilia Melani. Brooklyn College. 2005.
Course support with information about the author and her works.
Full Text Online
Agnes Grey. Anne Brontë. Literature.org. Knowledge Matters Ltd.
Agnes Grey. Anne Brontë. Classic Bookshelf.
Bronte Poems. Arthur C. Benson. At The Ballantyne Press, 1915.
See View the Book on left hand side of page. PDF has 450 pages (7.4MB).
Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë. UntravelRoad Library. Copyright 2006 UntraveledRoad.
Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë. Classic Bookshelf.
Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë. eBooks@Adelaide © 2006 The University of Adelaide. Works are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Poems. Charlotte Brontë. Classic Bookshelf.
Poems of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. 1846. Mary Mark Ockerbloom, editor. A Celebration of Women Writers. Digital Library Projects. Penn Library.
"Capitalization, spelling, and diacriticals from the original text have been reproduced." Anne's are indicated by a blue circle, Charlotte red, Emily green.
The Professor. Charlotte Brontë. eBooks@Adelaide © 2006 The University of Adelaide. Works are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The Professor. Charlotte Brontë. Classic Bookshelf.
Shirley. Charlotte Brontë. eBooks@Adelaide © 2006 The University of Adelaide. Works are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Anne Brontë. Literature.org. Knowledge Matters Ltd.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Anne Brontë. Classic Bookshelf.
Villette. Charlotte Brontë. eBooks@Adelaide © 2006 The University of Adelaide. Works are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontë. Literature.org. Knowledge Matters Ltd.
Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontë. Ian Lancashire. Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights. Oxford: Shakespeare Head P; Boston and New York: Basil Blackwell and Houghton Mifflin, 1931. University of Toronto English Library.
See also Milton, Chaucer, Poe, O'Connor, William Carlos Williams & Wallace Stevens, Dickinson & Wright, Faulkner, and Shakespeare.