Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë was a British novelist and poet, born on 21 April 1816 in Thornton, in Yorkshire, and she died on 31 March 1855. The daughter of a clergyman, she grew up in the parsonage at Haworth with her siblings, including her sisters Emily and Anne, who also became writers. As children they invented imaginary worlds and wrote tiny books about them. Charlotte worked as a teacher and governess, and the three sisters first published poems under the male pen names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Her novel Jane Eyre appeared in 1847 under the name Currer Bell and was an immediate success. She went on to write Shirley and Villette, and The Professor was published after her death. Her work matters for its frank, passionate heroines who insist on dignity, independence and moral integrity, and for its vivid blend of realism and gothic atmosphere.