Charlotte Bronte is one of our best loved and widely read writers, and produced one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century with Jane Eyre.

Childhood Tragedy

She was born on April 21st 1816 in Thornton, a village near Bradford in Yorkshire. Although originally one of six children, she is best known for being the eldest of the three famous Bronte sisters, along with her siblings Emily and Anne. Her younger brother Branwell also survived childhood, but Charlotte’s early years were blighted by tragedy: her mother died from cancer in 1821 when Charlotte was just five, and her two older sisters Maria and Elizabeth both died in 1825.

Haworth Parsonage

Shortly before Mrs Bronte’s death, Charlotte’s father Patrick moved the family to Haworth to take up the position of Curate. The Brontes lived here from 1820 until 1861, and became so much associated with this location that it has been preserved in their memory as the Bronte Parsonage Museum, where visitors can look around the house and view some of the family’s belongings.

Autobiographical Elements in Jane Eyre

Charlotte’s most famous work was published in 1847, and contains many aspects of her earlier life. All of the sisters except Anne attended the Clergy Daughter’s School at Cowan Bridge, and it was here that Elizabeth and Maria died from tuberculosis, events mirrored by the death of Helen Burns at Lowood.

After a spell back at Haworth, where she and her siblings began writing stories of an imaginary land called Angria, Charlotte attended a school in Roe Head in 1831. She then worked as a teacher for three years at the same school, a pattern matching that of Jane Eyre. Like Jane, Charlotte also resigned from this position and went to work as a governess.

The Professor and Villette

Although Jane Eyre was Charlotte’s first published novel, she had already written two others: The Professor, which was widely rejected by publishers until after her death, and Villette. These two works also had autobiographical aspects, being inspired by Charlotte’s journey to Brussels in 1842 with Emily to study French and learn about setting up their own school. This project was a failure: when Charlotte returned from Brussels in 1844 the sisters were unable to attract any public interest in their school whatsoever.

Successful Years

Despite the failure of the school, the Brontes were about to embark upon a period of huge publishing success. In 1846 a volume of the Poems of all three sisters was published, under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (Charlotte’s was Currer). Jane Eyre was published the following year under the same pen name, along with Wuthering Heights by Emily and Agnes Grey by Anne.

Jane Eyre was very successful, and allowed Charlotte to publish another novel, Shirley, in 1849.

Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte

After the deaths of both her sisters and her brother in the late 1840s, Charlotte began to take a more active role in literary life. In 1850 she met Elizabeth Gaskell, who would publish perhaps the most famous biography of Charlotte. Encouraged by the success of her two previous novels, Charlotte finally published Villette in 1853.

Marriage but no Happy Ever After

In 1854 Charlotte agreed to marry the Rev. A. B. Nicholls, who had been curate of Haworth since 1845. She had previously refused him, but he was persistant. By most accounts theirs was not a happy marriage, although Charlotte was expecting his child when she died of pneumonia in 1854.

Her reputation lived on, however: 1857 saw the publication not only of her first novel, The Professor, but of Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte.

Other articles on Jane Eyre:

Gothic and Supernatural Elements in Jane Eyre