Brontë, Charlotte

Brontë, Charlotte (1816–55), daughter of Patrick Brontë, an Irishman, perpetual curate of Haworth, Yorkshire. Charlotte's mother died in 1821, leaving five daughters and a son, Branwell, to the care of their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. Four of the daughters were sent to a Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge (which Charlotte portrayed as Lowood in Jane Eyre), an unfortunate step which Charlotte believed to have hastened the death in 1825 of her two elder sisters and to have permanently impaired her own health. The surviving children pursued their education at home; they became involved in a rich fantasy life that owes much to their admiration of Byron, Sir W. Scott, the Arabian Nights and Tales of the Genii. They began to write stories, and Charlotte and Branwell collaborated in the elaborate invention of the imaginary kingdom of Angria, Emily and Anne in the invention of Gondal. In 1831–2 Charlotte was at Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head, whither she returned as a teacher in 1835–8. She was subsequently a governess and in 1842 she and Emily went to study languages at the Pensionnat Heger in Brussels. Charlotte fell deeply in love with M. Heger, who failed to respond to the letters she wrote to him after her return to Haworth. In 1845 she ‘discovered’ (or so she alleged) the poems of Emily, and projected a joint publication; a volume of verse entitled Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (the pseudonyms of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) appeared in 1846. Charlotte's first novel, The Professor, never found a publisher in her lifetime, but Jane Eyre, published in 1847 by Smith, Elder, achieved immediate success, arousing much speculation about its authorship. To quell the suspicion that the Bell pseudonyms concealed but one author, Charlotte and Anne visited Smith, Elder in July 1848 and made themselves known.

She was not able to enjoy her success and a tragic period of her life followed. Branwell, whose wildness and intemperance had caused the sisters much distress, died in Sept. 1848, Emily in Dec. of that year, and Anne the following summer. Charlotte nevertheless persevered with the composition of Shirley (1849). The loneliness of her later years was alleviated by friendship with Mrs Gaskell, whom she met in 1850 and who was to write her biography (1857). Villette, founded on her memories of Brussels, appeared in 1853. Although her identity was by this time well known in the literary world, she continued to publish as Currer Bell. In 1854 she married her father's curate, A. B. Nicholls, but died a few months later of an illness probably associated with pregnancy. ‘Emma’, a fragment, was published in 1860 in the Cornhill Magazine with an introduction by Thackeray, and many of her juvenile works have subsequently been published, adding to our knowledge of the intense creativity of her early years. In her lifetime, Charlotte was the most admired of the Brontë sisters, although she came in for some criticism (which deeply wounded her) on the grounds of alleged ‘grossness’ and emotionalism, considered particularly unbecoming in a clergyman's daughter. More widespread was praise for her depth of feeling and her courageous realism.