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Charlotte
Bronte lived from 1816 to 1855. In 1824 she was sent away
to school with her four sisters and they were treated so
badly that their father brought them home to Haworth in
Yorkshire. The elder two sisters died within a few days
and Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne were brought
up in the isolated village. They were often lonely and loved
to walk on the moors. They were all great readers and soon
began to write small pieces of verse and stories.
Once
Charlotte’s informal education was over she began to
work as a governess and teacher in Yorkshire and Belgium
so that she could add to the low family income and help
to pay for her brother Branwell’s art education. Charlotte
was a rather nervous young woman and didn’t like to
be away from home for too long. The sisters began to write
more seriously and published poetry in 1846 under male pen
names - there was a lot of prejudice against women writers.
The book was not a success and the sisters all moved on
to write novels. Charlotte’s best-known book, Jane
Eyre, appeared in 1847 and was soon seen as a work of genius.
Charlotte really knew how to make characters and situations
come alive.
Charlotte’s life was full of tragedy, never more so
than when her brother Branwell and sisters Emily and Anne
died within a few months in 1848/49. She married her father’s
curate in 1854 but died in 1855, before her fortieth birthday
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