Charlotte Brontë(1816-1855)
- Writer
Charlotte was born 1816, the third of the six children of Patrick
Brontë, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife Maria Branwell Brontë.
After their mother's death in 1821, Charlotte and her sisters, Maria
and Elizabeth, were sent to Cowan Bridge Clergy Daughters' School,
which Charlotte would later immortalize as the brutal Lowood school in
"Jane Eyre". Conditions at the school were so bad that both Maria and
Elizabeth became ill with consumption (tuberculosis) which killed them
in 1825. Charlotte was very close to her surviving siblings,
Anne Brontë, Branwell, and
Emily Brontë. The children invented the
imaginary kingdoms of Angria and Gondal, and spent much of their
childhood writing poetry and stories about their make-believe realms.
In 1846 the three sisters published a collected work of their poetry
called, appropriately enough, "Poems", and in 1847 Charlotte published
her most famous book, "Jane Eyre", under a male pseudonym, Currer Bell.
Charlotte lost her remaining siblings within a brief time -- Branwell
from alcoholism and Emily from consumption, both in 1848; Anne also
from consumption in 1849. Charlotte was devastated, and became a
lifelong hypochondriac. She resided in London, where she made the
acquaintance and admiration of
William Makepeace Thackeray.
In 1854, she married Reverend A. B. Nicholls, curate of Haworth,
against her father's wishes. Charlotte found she was pregnant not long
after her marriage, and it was felt she would have a difficult
pregnancy due to previous ill-health. She died on 31 March 1855.
