Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)

Charlotte Brontë, drawn around 1850 by the famous artist George Richmond

Of the three sisters is writing Charlotte Bronte (pseudonym compete Bell) the only one who lived long enough to build a modest oeuvre. Charlotte was born on April 21, 1816 in Thornton, in Bradford in Yorkshire. Charlotte began in 1824 along with her older sisters Maria and Elizabeth, to Cowan Bridge School. This school will return in Jane Eyre, as Lowood Institution. The emotional experiences in the book, are largely based on Charlotte's own experience. At Cowan Bridge and Mary Elizabeth were seriously ill, they are both deceased shortly after each other in May 1825. Charlotte and her younger sister Emily were immediately taken out of school and were thereafter education of their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell.

Brussels
The rest of her school at Roe Head off Charlotte School, where she then worked briefly as a teacher. Contrary to the impression that long existed in the Brontë sisters - three lonely women on the remote British moor - they got to see the world more than many other women at that time. Charlotte and Emily studied for a year to Pensionnat Heger in Brussels. While Emily was seen after one year - she was very homesick - Charlotte came back for another year. Not in the capacity of student, but as an English teacher.

First novel
Charlotte began, just like her sisters and brother at a young age to write. Something that father Patrick Bronte was encouraged. The first novel she wrote, The Professor, however, was rejected by all publishers. A publisher, Smith, Elder and Company, wanted to read something of this' competing Bell, the male pseudonym that Charlotte used. Soon after she sent the manuscript of Jane Eyre to. The publisher decided after having read through the night that he definitely wanted to spend Jane Eyre. That was not a bad decision, because three months after the first edition, the book was to have a reprint. The book was praised, but reviled. Critics thought it was too coarse and too contrary to all existing conventions.

In her short life wrote two other books Charlotte: Shirley and Villette. After completing her last book, she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. The marriage did not last long: less than a year later she died from complications during her pregnancy. Posthumously two years later The Professor, her first novel published.

Biographical work about Charlotte Brontë:
• Gaskell, Elizabeth, The Life of Charlotte Brontë
• Gerin, Winifred, Charlotte Brontë: The Evolution of Genius
• Fraser, Rebecca, Charlotte Brontë