Maria Brontë
Brontë family manuscripts: an introduction
Francis O'Gorman, Professor of Victorian Literature at the University of Leeds, introduces the Brontë family manuscripts, part of the original Brotherton Collection.
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Charlotte Brontë manuscripts
Description of Charlotte Bronte material in Bronte Family Manuscripts.
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Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell
Description of letters from Charlotte Brontë & Elizabeth Gaskell describing each other.
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Revd. Arthur Bell Nicholls
Description of A B Nicholls letter to Ellen Nussey following Charlotte Brontë's death.
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Branwell Brontë poetry
Description of Branwell Bronte manuscripts in the Brotherton Collection, part 1
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Branwell Brontë artwork
Description of Branwell Brontë artwork in Brontë family manuscripts collection
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Branwell Brontë 'Our Lady of Greif'
Description of Branwell Bronte's sketch '‘Our Lady of Grief’.
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Maria Brontë, the Brontë siblings' mother, passed away in 1821 and we know little of her life.
However, in the Brotherton collection we can glimpse her religious thinking in the apparently unpublished manuscript of her somewhat severe essay on 'The Advantage of Poverty in Religious Concerns'.
In her essay, Maria takes the opportunity to find spiritual gain in material loss:
'What is poverty? Nothing - or rather a something which, with the assistance, and blessing of our Gracious Master, will greatly promote our spiritual welfare, & tend to increase, & strengthen our efforts to gain that Land of pure delight'
"Pure delight" was elsewhere for Mrs Brontë and hardship helped in drawing one closer to it: a doctrine that must have been familiar to the poor of Haworth.
