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Emily gives a short account of her recent, several-day visit to York with Anne, and it is clear that she is still heavily engrossed in her imaginary world of Gondal, as the two sisters 'roll-play' a number of the characters while on their journey. All though it is clear Anne joined in this 'roll-play', she did not now have the same enthusiasm for Gondal as Emily did, declaring in her own paper: 'The Gondals in general are not in first rate playing condition - will they improve?'; and she presents no account of the York journey. Anne was feeling very despondent at this time, largely on account of Branwell's affair with Mrs. Robinson and his subsequent dismissal. She may well have felt responsible to some degree - having herself obtained Branwell the post two and a half years earlier.
Anne also notes that she has just 'begun the third volume of Passages In the Life of an Individual.' This is now generally accepted as being the foundation of her first novel, Agnes Grey. She was 25 years old at the time of writing this paper.
(N.B: a number of spelling and punctuation errors present in the original manuscripts have been corrected in the copies below.)
Anne's Diary Paper:
| Thursday, July the 31st, 1845. Yesterday was
Emily's birthday, and the time when we should have opened our 1841 paper,
but by mistake we opened it today instead. How many things have happened
since it was written - some pleasant, some far otherwise. Yet I was then
at Thorp Green, and now I am only just escaped from it. I was wishing to
leave it then and if I had known that I had four years longer to stay how
wretched I should have been; but during my stay I have had some very unpleasant
and undreamt of experience of human nature. Others have seen more changes.
Charlotte has left Mr White's and been twice to Brussels, where she stayed
each time nearly a year. Emily has been there too, and stayed nearly a
year. Branwell has left Luddenden Foot, and been a tutor at Thorp Green,
and had much tribulation and ill health. He was very ill on Thursday, but
he went with John Brown to Liverpool, where he is now, I suppose; and we
hope he will be better and do better in future. This is a dismal, cloudy
wet evening. We have had so far a very cold, wet summer. Charlotte has
lately been to Hathersage, in Derbyshire, on a visit of three weeks to
Ellen Nussey. She is now sitting sewing in the dining-room. Emily is ironing
upstairs. I am sitting in the dining-room in the rocking-chair before the
fire with my feet on the fender. Papa is in the parlour. Tabby and Martha
are, I think, in the kitchen. Keeper and Flossy are, I do not know where.
Little Dick is hopping in his cage. When the last paper was written we
were thinking of setting up a school. The scheme has been dropt, and long
after taken up again, and dropt again, because we could not get pupils.
Charlotte is thinking about getting another situation. She wishes to go
to Paris. Will she go? She has let Flossy in, by-the-by, and he is now
lying on the sofa. Emily is engaged in writing the Emperor Julius's life.
She has read some of it, and I very much want to hear the rest. She is
writing some poetry, too. I wonder what it is about. I have begun the third
volume of Passages in the Life of an Individual, I wish I had finished
it. This afternoon I began to set about making my grey figured silk frock
that was dyed at Keighley. What sort of a hand shall I make of it? E. and
I have a great deal of work to do. When shall we sensibly diminish it?
I want to get a habit of early rising. Shall I succeed? We have not yet
finished our Gondal Chronicles that we began three years and a half
ago. When will they be done? - The Gondals are at present in a sad state.
The Republicans are uppermost, but the Royalists are not quite overcome.
The young sovereigns with their brothers and sisters are still at the Palace
of Instruction. The Unique Society, about half a year ago, were wrecked
on a desert island as they were returning from Gaaldine. They are still
there, but we have not played at them much yet. The Gondals in general
are not in first rate playing condition - will they improve?
I wonder how we shall all be, and where and how situated, on the thirtieth of July 1848, when, if we are all alive, Emily will be just 30. I shall be in my 29th year, Charlotte in her 33rd, and Branwell in his 32nd; and what changes shall we have seen and known; and shall we be much changed ourselves? I hope not, for the worse at least. I for my part cannot well be flatter or older in mind than I am now. Hoping for the best, I conclude. |
Emily's Diary Paper:
(Sources of diary-papers contents)
It is interesting to note that the girls had decided on a change in custom - these two diary papers were to be opened on Emily's 30th. birthday - 30th July, 1848 - after just three years, rather than the usual four. It is not known whether this was undertaken - with new diaries being written. Certainly no diaries for 1848 are known to exist, though there seems no reason why the girls should have neglected this arrangement. At that time things were looking very rosy for the sisters; all three had enjoyed a phenomenal success with the publication of their novels over the previous two years; and a highly successful literary career was looking a certainty for them all. Anne had recently written her preface to the second edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. There was no hint of the impending tragedy that was to befall the family: within the next ten months, three of the siblings, including Anne, would be dead.
 1841
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