Charlotte Brontë

1816–1855

Charlotte Brontë was the eldest of the Brontë sisters to survive childhood. Two older sisters died after catching tuberculosis at a harsh boarding school, which she later turned into Lowood in Jane Eyre. She worked as a teacher and governess, and hated it.

Jane Eyre came out in 1847 under the name "Currer Bell" and was an instant success. Within nine months of its publication her brother and both her sisters had died. She wrote Shirley and Villette alone, married in 1854, and died the next year, aged thirty-eight.

Charlotte Brontë on the site

Jane EyrePublished in 1847 About 13 hours read Jane Eyre is an orphan, locked in a red room by her aunt and sent to a charity school where children die of hunger and cold. She grows up to become governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her dark, sharp-tongued employer, Mr. Rochester, and where someone laughs in the attic at night. Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel is told by Jane herself, a plain, poor woman who refuses to be anyone's inferior.

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