Anne Brontë of poetry with her sisters ("Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell", 1846) and two novels. "Agnes Grey", based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847. Her second and last novel, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", which is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, appeared in 1848. Like her poems, both her novels were first published under the masculine pen name of Acton Bell. Anne's life was cut short when she died of what is now suspected to be pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 29. Partly because the re-publication of "The Tenant
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall thought to have fathered an illegitimate child who died at birth); and especially in his alcoholism. Another character in the novel, Lord Lowborough, has an association with opium that may also reflect Branwell's behaviour. Another possible source for "The Tenant" is the story of Mrs Collins, the wife of a local curate, who in November 1840 came to Anne's father Patrick Brontë seeking advice regarding her alcoholic husband's abusive conduct. Mr Brontë's counsel was that she should leave her husband. Mrs Collins returned to Haworth in the spring of 1847, while Anne was writing "The Tenant", and told how she