During Branwel's last years，the girls published a book of poetry at their own expense (under a pseudonym，for fear of reviewer's bias against females). Even Branwell might have snickered: they sold only 2 copies.
Undaunted, they continued in their spare time, late at night by candlelight, to pour out their pent-up emotion，writing of 9 what they knew best, of women in conflict with their natural desires and social condition — in reality, less fiction than autobiography! And 19th century literature was transformed by Anne's Agnes Grey, Emily's Wuthering Heights, and Charlotte's Jane Eyre.
在布兰维尔生前最后几年，姑娘们自己出资出版了一本诗集（用的是假名，以防编辑们对女性的成见）。只卖出两本，就连布兰维尔也哂笑她们。
然而她们并不气馁。姐妹们继续利用她们的空余时间，夜深人静时秉烛而书，倾吐她们幽禁的情怀，抒写她们最熟悉的一切。她们描写了那种女性自发的意愿与社会环境之间的冲突。实际上她们所写的与其说是小说不如说是自传！于是，19世纪文学就因安妮的《安格尼斯·格雷》、艾米丽的《呼啸山庄》和夏洛特的《简·爱》而改观了。
But years of sacrifice for Banwell had taken their toll. Emily took ill at her brother's funeral and died within 3 months, aged 29; Anne died 5 months later, aged 30; Charlotte lived only to age 39. If only they had been nurtured instead of sacrificed.
No one remembers Branwell' s name， much less his art or literature，but Bronte sister' s tragically shot lives teach us even more of life than of literature. Their sacrificed genius cries out to us that in modem society we must value children not by their physical strength or sexual gender, as we would any mere beast of burden, but by their integrity, strength, commitment, courage—spiritual qualities abundant in both boys and girls. China，a nation blessed by more boys and girls than any nation，ignores at her own peril 10 the lesson of the Bronte tragedy.
Patrick Bronte fathered Branwell，but more importantly, he fathered Anne, Emily and Charlotte. Were he alive today he would surely urge us to put away our passe 11 prejudices and avoid his own tragic and irrevocable error of putting all of his eggs in one male basket!
然而，三姐妹为了布兰维尔的多年牺牲，付出了沉重的代价。艾米丽在她兄弟葬礼的那一天便得了病，三个月后便离世了，年方29岁；五个月后安妮也以30芳龄长逝；夏洛特则只活到39岁。假若她们能早日得到培养而不做牺牲，那该多好啊！
无人再记得布兰维尔的名字，更不用说他的艺术或文学了。然而，从勃朗特三姐妹悲剧性的夭折中，我们学到的不仅是文学，更重要的是生命之谛，她们牺牲了的天分向我们大声疾呼：现在社会再不能以体力或性别，把子女当牛马来评估了。它必须就忠诚、能力、责任心、勇敢等等男女孩子都富有的精神品质来对他们评价。中国，这个有幸拥有世界上最多的男孩女孩的国家应从勃朗特悲剧中获得认识，勿蹈覆辙。
帕特里克·勃朗特养育了布兰维尔，但更重要的，他是安妮、艾米丽和夏洛特的父亲。倘若此人今日仍活着的话，他一定会迫切敦促我们放下我们的古旧偏见，避免他自己的悲剧和抱憾终身的过失—将一切都押在一个男性后裔身上。
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