Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which she published under the androgynous name Currer Bell. Jane Eyre went on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in the gothic fiction genre of literature.
Roe Head School, in Mirfield
Plaque in Brussels, on the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels
Title page of the first edition of Jane Eyre
This photo-portrait of Ellen Nussey has long been mistaken for one of her friend Charlotte Brontë. The photo is a copy made c. 1918 by the photographer, Sir Emery Walker, from an original carte de visite photo which was then privately owned.
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848) and Anne (1820–1849), are well-known poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories attracted attention for their passion and originality immediately following their publication. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily's Wuthering Heights, Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were accepted as masterpieces of literature after their deaths.
Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, by their brother Branwell (c. 1834). He painted himself among his sisters, but later removed his image so as not to clutter the picture. National Portrait Gallery, London
Portrait of Patrick Brontë around 1860
View of St John's College, Cambridge, where Patrick Brontë was a student
Haworth parsonage soon after Patrick Brontë's death