Ding dong the Bells had the literary world in a muddle

In 1847 three books were published by authors with the surname Bell. There was Currer Bell, Acton Bell and Ellis Bell.

Literary stalwarts, reviewers and those in the publishing world immediately smelled a rat, but they were on the wrong track. They suspected the books were all written by one person – a man.

What had probably missed their attention was that the previous year a book of poetry had been published- the works of three brothers: Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell.

The reason no connection was made, between the poetical brothers and the novels of Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell, could well be because the volume of poetry only had a two-volume print run.

Nowadays we know the Bell brothers were actually the Brontë sisters: Charlotte, Emily and Anne, daughters of a country parson of Irish extraction, Patrick Brontë.

The novels of the “Bell brothers” were well received and many reviewers considered it brave of the authors to indicate support for female characters who showed strength in their actions, and a degree of learning, often shown through them becoming governesses or even teaching young men of a somewhat “lower class” to read and write.

If Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey had been published under the writers’ real names it is highly likely they could have fallen foul of male prejudices and sunk into oblivion.

That would have been a literary tragedy and could well have put back the feminist cause back for decades.

The strangest thing is that literary connoisseurs of the early 19th century not only thought the three works were written by a man, they also thought they were written by the same person.

Yet if you read the books you could not see them as the works of one person.

Admittedly there are authors who have produced novels using different characters in the lead. Murder mysteries are a classic example.

Agatha Christie had Hercule Poirot as her main detective, but Jane Marple also played her part, yet the characters could not be more different.

Hercule is a prissy little Belgian, a refugee in the First World War who had been a police detective.

Jane Marple was one of those little old ladies you see everywhere but never really notice, yet she uses everyday situations to solve crimes.

The point is you can always recognise that Agatha Christie style.

If you were to read Jane Eyre and follow on with Wuthering Heights you would need to be very narrow-minded to even contemplate that the authors were the same person.