Charlotte Nicholls (; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known as Charlotte Brontë (,
commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three
Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of
English literature
English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...
. She is best known for her novel ''
Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The firs ...
'', which she published under the male pseudonym Currer Bell. ''Jane Eyre'' went on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in the
gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean me ...
genre of literature.
Brontë enrolled in school at Roe Head,
Mirfield
Mirfield () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the A644 road (Great B ...
, in January 1831, aged 14 years. She left the year after to teach her sisters,
Emily and
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...
, at home, then returned to Roe Head in 1835 as a teacher. In 1839, she undertook the role of governess for the Sidgwick family, but left after a few months. The three sisters attempted to open a school in Haworth but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing; they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although her first novel, ''
The Professor'', was rejected by publishers, her second novel, ''
Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The firs ...
'', was published in 1847. The sisters admitted to their Bell pseudonyms in 1848, and by the following year were celebrated in London literary circles.
Brontë was the last to die of all her siblings. She became pregnant shortly after her wedding in June 1854 but died on 31 March 1855, almost certainly from
hyperemesis gravidarum, a complication of pregnancy which causes excessive nausea and vomiting.
Early years and education
Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816 in Market Street,
Thornton (in a house now known as the
Brontë Birthplace), west of
Bradford
Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
in the
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...
, the third of the six children of
Maria (née Branwell) and
Patrick Brontë
Patrick Brontë (, commonly ; born Patrick Brunty; 17 March 1777 – 7 June 1861) was an Irish Anglican minister and author who spent most of his adult life in England. He was the father of the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte, Emily Bront ...
(formerly surnamed Brunty), an Irish
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
clergyman. In 1820
her family moved a few miles to the village of
Haworth, on the edge of the moors, where her father had been appointed
perpetual curate of
St Michael and All Angels Church. Maria died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters,
Maria,
Elizabeth, Charlotte,
Emily and
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), Annie a ...
, and a son,
Branwell, to be taken care of by her sister,
Elizabeth Branwell.
In August 1824, Patrick sent Charlotte, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth to the
Clergy Daughters' School
The Cowan Bridge School was a Clergy Daughters' School, founded in 1824, at Cowan Bridge in the English county of Lancashire. It was mainly for the daughters of middle class clergy and attended by the Brontë sisters. In the 1830s it moved to ...
at
Cowan Bridge
Cowan Bridge is a village in the English county of Lancashire.
It is south-east of the town of Kirkby Lonsdale where the main A65 road crosses the Leck Beck. It forms part of the civil parish of Burrow-with-Burrow.
Clergy Daughters' School
C ...
in Lancashire. Charlotte maintained that the school's poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development, and hastened the deaths of Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who both died of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
in May (Maria) and June (Elizabeth) 1825. After the deaths of his older daughters, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school. Charlotte used the school as the basis for Lowood School in ''
Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The firs ...
,'' which is similarly affected by tuberculosis and typhus that is exacerbated by the poor conditions.
At home in
Haworth Parsonage, Brontë acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters". Brontë wrote her first known poem at the age of 13 in 1829, and was to go on to write more than 200 poems in the course of her life. Many of her poems were "published" in their homemade magazine ''
Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine'', and concerned the fictional world of ''
Glass Town''. She and her surviving siblings – Branwell, Emily and Anne – created this shared world, and began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of their imaginary kingdom in 1827.
Charlotte, in private letters, called ''Glass Town'' "her 'world below', a private escape where she could act out her desires and multiple identities".
Charlotte's "predilection for romantic settings, passionate relationships, and high society is at odds with Branwell's obsession with battles and politics and her young sisters' homely North Country realism, none the less at this stage there is still a sense of the writings as a family enterprise".
However, from 1831 onwards, Emily and Anne 'seceded' from the ''Glass Town Confederacy'' to create a 'spin-off' called ''
Gondal'', which included many of their poems.
After 1831, Charlotte and Branwell concentrated on an evolution of the ''Glass Town Confederacy'' called ''Angria''. Christine Alexander, a Brontë juvenilia historian,
wrote "both Charlotte and Branwell ensured the consistency of their imaginary world. When Branwell exuberantly kills off important characters in his manuscripts, Charlotte comes to the rescue and, in effect, resurrects them for the next stories
.. and when Branwell becomes bored with his inventions, such as the Glass Town magazine he edits, Charlotte takes over his initiative and keeps the publication going for several more years".
The sagas the siblings created were episodic and elaborate, and they exist in incomplete manuscripts, some of which have been published as
juvenilia
Juvenilia are literary, musical or artistic works produced by authors during their youth. Written juvenilia, if published at all, usually appear as retrospective publications, some time after the author has become well known for later works. Bac ...
. They provided them with an obsessive interest during childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for literary vocations in adulthood.
Between 1831 and 1832, Brontë continued her education at a boarding school twenty miles away in
Mirfield
Mirfield () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the A644 road (Great B ...
, Roe Head (now part of
Hollybank Special School), where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents
Ellen Nussey and
Mary Taylor. In 1833 she wrote a novella, ''The Green Dwarf'', using the name Wellesley. Around about 1833, her stories shifted from tales of the supernatural to more realistic stories. She returned to Roe Head as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. Unhappy and lonely as a teacher at Roe Head, Brontë took out her sorrows in poetry, writing a series of melancholic poems. In "We wove a Web in Childhood" written in December 1835, Brontë drew a sharp contrast between her miserable life as a teacher and the vivid imaginary worlds she and her siblings had created. In another poem "Morning was its freshness still" written at the same time, Brontë wrote "Tis bitter sometimes to recall/Illusions once deemed fair". Many of her poems concerned the imaginary world of Angria, often concerning
Byronic heroes, and in December 1836 she wrote to the Poet Laureate
Robert Southey asking him for encouragement of her career as a poet. Southey replied, famously, that "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it even as an accomplishment and a recreation." This advice she respected but did not heed.
In 1839 Brontë took up the first of many positions as
governess
A governess is a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching; depending on terms of their employment, they may or ma ...
to families in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
, a career she pursued until 1841. In particular, from May to July 1839 she was employed by the Sidgwick family at their summer residence,
Stone Gappe, in Lothersdale, where one of her charges was John Benson Sidgwick (1835–1927), an unruly child who on one occasion threw the Bible at Charlotte, an incident that may have been the inspiration for a part of the opening chapter of ''
Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The firs ...
'' in which John Reed throws a book at the young Jane. Brontë did not enjoy her work as a governess, noting her employers treated her almost as a slave, constantly humiliating her. She was of slight build and was less than tall.
Brussels and Haworth

In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
to enrol at the boarding school run by
Constantin Heger (1809–1896) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1804–1887). During her time in Brussels, Brontë, who favoured the
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
ideal of an individual in direct contact with God, objected to the stern
Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
of Madame Heger, which she considered a tyrannical religion that enforced conformity and submission to the Pope. In return for board and tuition Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the school was cut short when their aunt Elizabeth Branwell, who had joined the family in Haworth to look after the children after their mother's death, died of
internal obstruction in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the school. Her second stay was not happy: she was homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Heger. She returned to Haworth in January 1844 and used the time spent in Brussels as the inspiration for some of the events in ''
The Professor'' and ''
Villette''.
After returning to Haworth, Charlotte and her sisters made headway with opening their own boarding school in the family home. It was advertised as "The Misses Brontë's Establishment for the Board and Education of a limited number of Young Ladies" and inquiries were made to prospective pupils and sources of funding. But none were attracted and in October 1844, the project was abandoned.
First publication
In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne self-financed the publication of a joint collection of poems under their assumed names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The pseudonyms veiled the sisters' sex while preserving their initials; thus Charlotte was Currer Bell. "Bell" was the middle name of Haworth's curate,
Arthur Bell Nicholls whom Charlotte later married, and "Currer" was the surname of
Frances Mary Richardson Currer who had funded their school (and maybe their father).
Of the decision to use ''noms de plume'', Charlotte wrote:
Although only two copies of the collection of poems were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels, continuing to use their ''noms de plume'' when sending manuscripts to potential publishers.
''The Professor'' and ''Jane Eyre''

Brontë's first manuscript, 'The Professor', did not secure a publisher, although she was heartened by an encouraging response from
Smith, Elder & Co. of Cornhill, who expressed an interest in any longer works Currer Bell might wish to send. Brontë responded by finishing and sending a second manuscript in August 1847. Six weeks later, ''Jane Eyre'' was published. It tells the story of a plain governess,
Jane, who, after difficulties in her early life, falls in love with her employer,
Mr Rochester. They marry, but only after Rochester's insane first wife, of whom Jane initially has no knowledge, dies in a dramatic house fire. The book's style was innovative, combining Romanticism,
naturalism with
gothic melodrama
A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...
, and broke new ground in being written from an intensely evoked first-person female perspective. Brontë believed art was most convincing when based on personal experience; in ''Jane Eyre'' she transformed the experience into a novel with universal appeal.
''Jane Eyre'' had immediate commercial success and initially received favourable reviews.
G. H. Lewes wrote that it was "an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit", and declared that it consisted of "''suspiria de profundis''!" (sighs from the depths). Speculation about the identity and gender of the mysterious Currer Bell heightened with the publication of ''
Wuthering Heights
''Wuthering Heights'' is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the ...
'' by Ellis Bell (Emily) and ''
Agnes Grey'' by Acton Bell (Anne). Accompanying the speculation was a change in the critical reaction to Brontë's work, as accusations were made that the writing was "coarse", a judgement more readily made once it was suspected that Currer Bell was a woman. However, sales of ''Jane Eyre'' continued to be strong and may even have increased as a result of the novel developing a reputation as an "improper" book. A talented amateur artist, Brontë personally did the drawings for the second edition of ''Jane Eyre'' and in the summer of 1834 two of her paintings were shown at an exhibition by the Royal Northern Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Leeds.
''Shirley'' and bereavements
In 1848 Brontë began work on the manuscript of her second novel,
''Shirley''. It was only partially completed when the Brontë family suffered the deaths of three of its members within eight months. In September 1848 Branwell died of
chronic bronchitis
Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. ...
and
marasmus, exacerbated by heavy drinking, although Brontë believed that his death was due to
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. Branwell may have had a
laudanum addiction. Emily became seriously ill shortly after his funeral and died of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848. Anne died of the same disease in May 1849. Brontë was unable to write at this time.
After Anne's death Brontë resumed writing as a way of dealing with her grief, and ''Shirley'', which deals with themes of industrial unrest and the role of women in society, was published in October 1849. Unlike ''Jane Eyre'', which is written in the first person, ''Shirley'' is written in the third person and lacks the emotional immediacy of her first novel, and reviewers found it less shocking. Brontë, as her late sister's heir,
suppressed the republication of Anne's second novel, ''
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall'', an action which had a deleterious effect on Anne's popularity as a novelist and has remained controversial among the sisters' biographers ever since.
In society
In view of the success of her novels, particularly ''Jane Eyre'', Brontë was persuaded by her publisher to make occasional visits to London, where she revealed her true identity and began to move in more exalted social circles, becoming friends with
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian era, Victoria ...
and
Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau (12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist.Hill, Michael R. (2002''Harriet Martineau: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives'' Routledge. She wrote from a sociological, holism, holistic, religious and ...
whose sister Rachel had taught Gaskell's daughters. Brontë sent an early copy of ''Shirley'' to Martineau whose home at
Ambleside she visited. The two friends shared an interest in
racial relations and the
abolitionist movement; recurrent themes in their writings. Brontë was also acquainted with
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...
and G. H. Lewes. She never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time, as she did not want to leave her ageing father. Thackeray's daughter, writer
Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, recalled a visit to her father by Brontë:
Brontë's friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell, while not particularly close, was significant in that Gaskell wrote the first biography of Brontë after her death in 1855.
''Villette''
Brontë's third novel, the last published in her lifetime, was ''
Villette'', which appeared in 1853. Its main themes include isolation, how such a condition can be borne, and the internal conflict brought about by social repression of individual desire. Its main character, Lucy Snowe, travels abroad to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette, where she encounters a culture and religion different from her own and falls in love with a man (Paul Emanuel) whom she cannot marry. Her experiences result in a breakdown but eventually, she achieves independence and fulfilment through running her own school. A substantial amount of the novel's dialogue is in the French language. ''Villette'' marked Brontë's return to writing from a first-person perspective (that of Lucy Snowe), the technique she had used in ''Jane Eyre''. Another similarity to ''Jane Eyre'' lies in the use of aspects of her own life as inspiration for fictional events, in particular her reworking of the time she spent at the ''pensionnat'' in Brussels. ''Villette'' was acknowledged by critics of the day as a potent and sophisticated piece of writing although it was criticised for "coarseness" and for not being suitably "feminine" in its portrayal of Lucy's desires.
Marriage

Before the publication of ''Villette'', Brontë received an expected proposal of marriage from Irishman
Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's
curate
A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are as ...
, who had long been in love with her. She initially refused him and her father objected to the union at least partly because of Nicholls's poor financial status.
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian era, Victoria ...
, who believed that marriage provided "clear and defined duties" that were beneficial for a woman, encouraged Brontë to consider the positive aspects of such a union and tried to use her contacts to engineer an improvement in Nicholls's finances. According to
James Pope-Hennessy in ''The Flight of Youth,'' it was the generosity of
Richard Monckton Milnes that made the marriage possible. Brontë, meanwhile, was increasingly attracted to Nicholls and by January 1854, she had accepted his proposal. They gained the approval of her father by April and married on 29 June. Her father Patrick had intended to give Charlotte away, but at the last minute decided he could not, and Charlotte had to make her way to the church without him.
Because her father did not attend it was Miss Wooler (Charlotte's former teacher at Roe Head School, and life-long friend), as "friend", who "gave away" Charlotte (Gaskell: Vol II, Chap XIII).
The married couple took their honeymoon in
Banagher
Banagher ( or ) is a town in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, located in the midlands, on the western edge of County Offaly in the province of Leinster, on the banks of the River Shannon. The town had a population of 3,000 at the height of its ...
, County Offaly, Ireland. By all accounts, her marriage was a success and Brontë found herself very happy in a way that was new to her.
Death
Brontë became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness". She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, three weeks before her 39th birthday. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as
phthisis, but biographers including
Claire Harman and others suggest that she died from dehydration and malnourishment due to vomiting caused by severe
morning sickness or
hyperemesis gravidarum. Brontë was buried in the family vault in the
Church of St Michael and All Angels at Haworth.
''The Professor'', the first novel Brontë had written, was published posthumously in 1857. The fragment of a new novel she had been writing in her last years has been twice completed by recent authors, the more famous version being ''
Emma Brown: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë'' by
Clare Boylan in 2003. Most of her writings about the imaginary country Angria have also been published since her death. In 2018, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' published a belated obituary for her.
Religion
The daughter of an Irish
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
clergyman, Brontë was herself an Anglican. In a letter to her publisher, she claims to "love the Church of England. Her Ministers indeed, I do not regard as infallible personages, I have seen too much of them for that – but to the Establishment, with all her faults – the profane
Athanasian Creed excluded – I am sincerely attached."
In a letter to
Ellen Nussey she wrote:
''The Life of Charlotte Brontë''
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian era, Victoria ...
's biography ''
The Life of Charlotte Brontë'' was published in 1857. It was an important step for a leading female novelist to write a biography of another, and Gaskell's approach was unusual in that, rather than analysing her subject's achievements, she concentrated on private details of Brontë's life, emphasising those aspects that countered the accusations of "coarseness" that had been levelled at her writing. The biography is frank in places, but omits details of Brontë's love for
Constantin Heger, a married man, as being too much of an affront to contemporary morals and a likely source of distress to Brontë's father, widower, and friends. Mrs. Gaskell also provided doubtful and inaccurate information about Patrick Brontë, claiming that he did not allow his children to eat meat. This is refuted by one of Emily Brontë's diary papers, in which she describes preparing meat and potatoes for dinner at the parsonage. It has been argued that Gaskell's approach transferred the focus of attention away from the 'difficult' novels, not just Brontë's, but all the sisters', and began a process of sanctification of their private lives.
Nussey letters
Brontë held lifelong correspondence with her former schoolmate
Ellen Nussey. 350 of the some 500 letters sent by Brontë to Nussey survive, whereas all of Nussey's letters to Brontë were burned at Nicholls's request. The surviving letters provide most of the information known on Charlotte Brontë's life and are the backbone of her biographies.
Brontë's letters to Nussey seem to have romantic undertones:
Some scholars believe it is possible, given their passionate friendship, that Charlotte Brontë was in a romantic or sexual relationship with Ellen Nussey.
Heger letters
On 29 July 1913 ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' of London printed four letters Brontë had written to
Constantin Heger after leaving Brussels in 1844. Written in French except for one postscript in English, the letters broke the prevailing image of Brontë as an angelic martyr to Christian and female duties that had been constructed by many biographers, beginning with Gaskell. The letters, which formed part of a larger and somewhat one-sided correspondence in which Heger frequently appears not to have replied, reveal that she had been in love with a married man, although they are complex and have been interpreted in numerous ways, including as an example of literary self-dramatisation and an expression of gratitude from a former pupil.
In 1980 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the
Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, on the site of the Madam Heger's school, in honour of Charlotte and Emily.
Legacy
Kazuo Ishiguro
is a Japanese-born English novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded several major literary prizes, including the 2 ...
, when asked to name his favourite novelist, answered "Charlotte Brontë's recently edged out
Dostoevsky...I owe my career, and a lot else besides, to ''Jane Eyre'' and ''Villette.''"
Publications
Juvenilia
* ''
The Young Men's Magazine'', Volumes 1–3 (August 1830)
* ''
A Book of Ryhmes'' (1829)
* ''The Spell
''
* ''The Secret''
* ''Lily Hart
''
* ''The Foundling''
* ''Albion and Marina''
* ''Tales of the Islanders''
* ''Tales of Angria'' (written 1838–1839 – a collection of childhood and young adult writings including five short novels)
** Mina Laury''
''
** Stancliffe's Hotel''
''
** The Duke of Zamorna
** Henry Hastings''
''
** Caroline Vernon''
''
** The Roe Head Journal Fragments''
''
** Farewell to Angria
''The Green Dwarf, A Tale of the Perfect Tense'' was written in 1833 under the pseudonym Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley. It shows the influence of
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...
, and Brontë's modifications to her earlier gothic style have led Christine Alexander to comment that, in the work, "it is clear that Brontë was becoming tired of the gothic mode ''per se''".
"At the end of 1839, Brontë said goodbye to her fantasy world in a manuscript called Farewell to Angria. More and more, she was finding that she preferred to escape to her imagined worlds over remaining in reality – and she feared that she was going mad. So she said goodbye to her characters, scenes and subjects.
..She wrote of the pain she felt at wrenching herself from her 'friends' and venturing into lands unknown".
Novels
* ''
Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The firs ...
'', published in 1847
* ''
Shirley'', published in 1849
* ''
Villette'', published in 1853
* ''
The Professor'', written before ''Jane Eyre'', was first submitted together with ''
Wuthering Heights
''Wuthering Heights'' is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the ...
'' by
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English writer best known for her 1847 novel, ''Wuthering Heights''. She also co-authored a book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte Brontë, Charlotte and Anne Bront� ...
and ''
Agnes Grey'' by
Anne Brontë. Subsequently, ''The Professor'' was resubmitted separately, and rejected by many publishing houses. It was published posthumously in 1857
* ''Emma'', unfinished; Brontë wrote only 20 pages of the manuscript, published posthumously in 1860. In recent decades, at least two continuations of this fragment have appeared:
** ''Emma'', by "Charlotte Brontë and Another Lady", published 1980; although this has been attributed to
Elizabeth Goudge, the actual author was
Constance Savery.
** ''
Emma Brown'', by
Clare Boylan, published 2003
Poetry
*
* ''Selected Poems of the Brontës'', Everyman Poetry (1997)
Media portrayals
* In the 1946
Curtis Bernhardt
Curtis Bernhardt (15 April 1899 – 22 February 1981) was a German film director born in Worms, Germany, under the name Kurt Bernhardt.
Career
He trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film director in ...
film ''
Devotion'', a fictionalized biography of the Brontë sisters,
Olivia de Havilland
Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British and American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her tim ...
plays Charlotte.
* A November 15, 1953 episode of the ''
Loretta Young Show'', "The Bronte Story", features
Loretta Young
Loretta Young (born Gretchen Michaela Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1989. She received numerous honors including an Academy Awards ...
as Charlotte.
* The 2018 comic ''
Die'' features a fictionalised version of Charlotte within the Brontes' fictional kingdom of Angria.
* In the 2022
Frances O'Connor film ''
Emily'', about Emily Brontë,
Alexandra Dowling plays Charlotte.
Notes
References
Sources
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Further reading
* ''The Letters of Charlotte Brontë'', 3 volumes edited by Margaret Smith, 2007
* ''
The Life of Charlotte Brontë'',
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (''née'' Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer, and short story writer. Her novels offer detailed studies of Victorian era, Victoria ...
, 1857
* ''Charlotte Brontë'',
Winifred Gérin
* ''Charlotte Brontë: a passionate life'', Lyndal Gordon
* ''The Literary Protégées of the Lake Poets'', Dennis Low (Chapter 1 contains a revisionist contextualisation of Robert Southey's infamous letter to Charlotte Brontë)
* ''Charlotte Brontë: Unquiet Soul'', Margot Peters
* ''In the Footsteps of the Brontës'', Ellis Chadwick
* ''The Brontës'',
Juliet Barker
* ''Charlotte Brontë and her Dearest Nell'', Barbara Whitehead
* ''The Brontë Myth'',
Lucasta Miller
* ''A Life in Letters'', selected by Juliet Barker
* ''Charlotte Brontë and Defensive Conduct: The Author and the Body at Risk'',
Janet Gezari, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992
* ''Charlotte Brontë: Truculent Spirit'', by
Valerie Grosvenor Myer, 1987
* ''Charlotte Brontë and her Family'', Rebecca Fraser
* ''The Oxford Reader's Companion to the Brontës'', Christine Alexander & Margaret Smith
* ''Charlotte & Arthur'', Pauline Clooney (2021) . Reimagining Charlotte Brontë's honeymoon in Ireland & Wales.
* ''A Brontë Family Chronology'', Edward Chitham
* ''The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë'', James Tully, 1999
* A book about Brontë through the eyes of a working-class woman
* Fictionalised account of Arthur Bells Nicholls' romance of Charlotte Brontë
* Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Bell Nicholls' wedding trip and Irish Odyssey.
External links
Website of the Brontë Society and Parsonage Museum in Haworth, YorkshireModern Day Images of Charlotte Brontë Residences(Archived)
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Charlotte's Web: A Hypertext on Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre''(Archived)
Rare Charlotte Bronte book coming home after museum's auction successPoems by Charlotte Brontё
The Brontës
Electronic editions
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Works by Charlotte Brontë in the online library ARHEVE.organd in the fre
ARHEVE app
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronte, Charlotte
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Charlotte
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