=Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)=, who gave to Thackeray the enthusiastic hero-worship of her early years, called him a Titan, and dedicated "Jane Eyre" to him, had little enough in common with the author of "Vanity Fair." The daughter of a poor parson of Irish birth, she was born at Thornton in Yorkshire. She and two sisters grew up in the cramped atmosphere of a vicarage at Haworth, in the centre of the moorlands. They wrote stories and poems from childhood, and dreamed of literary fame. Meanwhile it was necessary to add to the scanty stipend of their father; two of them went back as governesses to the school in which they had been educated; and all of them a little later attempted the uncongenial life of private governesses. The desire to have a school of their own led Charlotte and her sister Emily to Brussels, where they studied French and German. Returning to the Haworth parsonage, the three sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, with money left them by an aunt, published a volume of verse--"Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell." Then each sister produced from her drawer the manuscript of a novel, and Charlotte's "Professor," Emily's "Wuthering Heights," and Anne's "Agnes Grey" were sent round to the publishers and returned more than once to the parsonage. Finally the "Professor" was read by Smith & Elder, who asked for a longer story by the writer. "Jane Eyre" (1847) was the result, and that story became one of the most successful novels of the day. It was followed by "Shirley" (1849) and "Villette" (1853). In 1854 Charlotte Brontë became Mrs Arthur Bell Nicholls, and the wife of her father's curate. In the following year she died. "The Professor" was published two years after her death. =Emily Brontë (1818-1848)= accomplished less than her elder sister, but her name will live as long. She secured the admiration of Sydney Dobell, of Matthew Arnold, and of Mr Swinburne, and her best verse is perhaps the greatest ever written by a woman. "Last Lines" and "The Old Stoic" will rank with the finest poetry in our literature. Her one novel, "Wuthering Heights," has been most happily criticised by Mr Swinburne: "As was the author's life so is her book in all things; troubled and taintless, with little of rest in it and nothing of reproach. It may be true that not many will ever take it to their hearts; it is certain that those who do like it will like nothing very much better in the whole world of poetry or prose." Emily Brontë's sole contributions to literature were the poems written in conjunction with her two sisters under the name of Ellis Bell, some further poems published by her sister Charlotte after her death, and the single novel "Wuthering Heights."