Editions

Take Courage

Take Courage

  • Anne Bronte and the Art of Life

'I was wowed and moved' Tracy Chevalier

Anne Brontë is the forgotten Brontë sister, overshadowed by her older siblings - virtuous, successful Charlotte, free-spirited Emily and dissolute Branwell. Tragic, virginal, sweet, stoic, selfless, Anne. The less talented Brontë, the other Brontë.

Take Courage is Samantha's personal, poignant and surprising journey into the life and work of a woman sidelined by history. A brave, strongly feminist writer well ahead of her time - and her more celebrated siblings - and who has much to teach us today about how to find our way in the world.

Reviews

  • "I thought that everything had already been said about the Brontës. But Samantha Ellis has looked at the family from a new angle, and in doing so brought Anne out of the shadows and placed her front and centre amongst her splashier siblings. I was wowed and moved"

    Tracy Chevalier

  • "A lively, intelligent tribute to the forgotten Bronte sister, Anne… Her indignation is salutary"

    Lucy Hughes-Hallet, Observer

  • "A fascinating and compelling read... what Ellis does extraordinarily well is to convey the emotion of her own deeply personal voyage of discovery about Anne and herself... [makes] you long to rush off and reread Anne's novels and poetry: what more could you ask for?"

    Juliet Barker, Mail on Sunday

  • "This is a very personal book about what the short life of Anne Bronte can tell us about wringing every drop out of existence… A great pleasure to read and a more fitting tribute to Anne than her gravestone in Scarborough."

    Daisy Goodwin, The Times

  • "A lovely and imaginative investigation into a serious and searching woman whose last words were "take courage". It's inspiring stuff"

    Eithne Farry, Sunday Express

More from this Author

About the Author

Samantha Ellis

Samantha Ellis is a playwright and journalist. Her first book How to be a Heroine was published in 2014. Her plays include Cling to me Like Ivy, Operation Magic Carpet and How to Date a Feminist. She has written for the Guardian, Observer, TLS, Spectator, Literary Review, The Pool, Exeunt and more. She lives in London.

Samantha Ellis

Related articles

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Features

How sibling rivalry made Anne the 'neglected' Brontë

Anne Brontë's biographer, Samantha Ellis, reveals how the Agnes Grey author's older, better-known sister Charlotte helped to restrict her readership.
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Podcasts

Vintage Classics podcast

One of the Guardian's '50 Best Podcasts Of 2016' returns with a bumper edition focussing on the classics; from Anne Brontë to Angela Carter by way of the Russian greats
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Recommendations

Samantha Ellis on literary heroines

Samantha Ellis, author of How to be a Heroine, talks us through some of her favourites, from Anne of Green Gables to Lizzy Bennet

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