Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire. She was the daughter of an Anglican clergyman who had moved with his family to Haworth amid the Yorkshire moors in 1820. After their mother and two eldest children died, Chalotte was left with her sisters Emily and Anne and brother Branwell to the care of their father, and an aunt, Elisabeth Branwell. To escape their unhappy surroundings, the children created imaginary kingdoms, which were built around Branwell's toy soldiers, and which inspired them to create continuing stories of fantasylands of Angria and Gondal.
Charlotte attended Clergy Daughter's School in Lancashire in 1824, but she returned home next year because of the harsh conditions. In 1831 she went to school at Roe Head, where she later worked as a teacher. However, she fell ill, suffered from melancholia and gave up this post.
In 1842 Charlotte travelled to Brussels with Emily to learn French and German and management. Her attempt to open a school failed in 1844 and the collection of poems, POEMS BY CURRER, ELLIS AND ACTON BELL (1846), which she wrote with her sisters, sold only two copies. By this time the sisters had finished a novel; Charlotte's first, THE PROFESSOR, never found a publisher in her lifetime, but Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were accepted by Thomas Newby in 1847 and published next year.
Undeterred by her own rejection, Charlotte began Jane Eyre, which appeared in 1847, and became immediate success. The heroine is a penniless orphan who becomes a teacher, obtains a post as governess, inherits money from an uncle, and marries after several turns of the plot the Byronic hero. It was followed by SHIRLEY (1848) and VILLETTE (1853), based on her memories of Brussels. Although her identity was well known, Charlotte continued to publish as Currer Bell. Her tragedy, BELISAIOUS, is lost.
Branwell, whose wildness and intemperance had caused the sisters much distress, died in September 1848, Emily in December of the same year, and Anne the following summer. In 1854 Charlotte married her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls. She died during her pregnancy on March 31, 1855 in Haworth, Yorkshire.
For further reading: The Life of Charlotte Brontë by E. Gaskell (1857); The Brontë's Web of Childhood by Fannie Ratchford (1941); Passionate Search by M. Cromton (1955); Their Proper Sphere by Inga-Stina Ewbank (1966); Weaver of Dreams: Charlotte Brontë by William S. Braithwaite (1966); The Accents of Persuasion by Robert Martin (1966); Charlotte Brontë by Winifred Gerin (1967); The Bronte Novels by W.A. Craig (1968); The Brontes. The Critical Heritage by, ed. by M. Allott (1974); Unquiet Soul by M. Peters (1975); Myth of Power by Terry Eagleton (1975); The Early Writings of Charlotte Brontë by Elfrida Vipont (1893); The Brontes Irish Background by E. Chitham (1986); The Brontës and Their Background by Tom Winnifrith (2nd ed. 1988); The Brontës by Juliet Barker (1994); Chalotte Brontë by Lyndall Gordon (1994); Charlotte Bronte by Diane Long Hoeveler, Lisa Jadwin (1997); Charlotte Brontë and Victorian Psychology by Sally Shuttleworth (1997) - See also: Jean Rhys
Museums and places to visit: Brontë Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, Keighley; Brontë Way - a forty mile walk in four section to sites associated with the Brontës; Oakwell Hall County Park, Nutter Lane, Birstall - house features as "Fieldhead" in Charlotte's Shirley; The Red House Museum, Oxford Rd, Gomersal, Cleckheaton - House appears as "Briarmains in Charlotte's Shirley; Wuthering Heights Walk, a six mile walk to Top Withins, the setting for Wuthering Heights
Patrick Branwell Brontë (1817-1848) - collaborated with Charlotte in creating the imaginary world of Angria. After failing as a paiter and writer he took to drink and opium, worked then as a tutor and assistant clerk to a railway company. In 1842 he was dismissed and joined his sister Anne at Thorp Green Hall as tutor. His affair with his employer's wife ended disastrously. Patrick Brontë returned to Haworth in 1845, where he rapidly declined and died three years later.
Selected works:
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