Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë

Pseudonym: Currer Bell Born: 21/04/1816 Died: 31/03/1855 Gender: Female Occupation: Novelist

Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, sister to the novelists Anne and Emily Brontë. All three sisters originally published under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Though acutely shy in person, through her work Charlotte Brontë challenged the social conventions of her day. She faced widespread criticism for the ‘immoral’ qualities of her strong female characters, who in several ways were influenced by her own experience as a teacher and governess. The daughter of an Anglican clergyman, in 1854 Charlotte married her father’s curate, the Reverend A B Nicholls, who had long been a loyal suitor, but she died the following year at the age of 38. Most famous for her passionate novel Jane Eyre (1847), Charlotte Brontë also published poems and three other novels.

Image source: Charlotte Brontë by George Richmond © National Portrait Gallery, London

Featured works

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre

Title: Jane Eyre Published: 1847 Format: Novel Period: Victorian Learn more
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