Charlotte Brontë

Introduction & Top Questions
Life
Jane Eyre and other novels

Quotes References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Oil painting by Branwell Bronte showing Anne, Emily, and Charlotte Bronte standing together, with visible cracks and damage across the canvas.

John Abbott, Orson Welles, and Joan Fontaine in a black-and-white scene from the 1943 film Jane Eyre, with Fontaine in a bridal veil and gown beside stone walls.

Quizzes

Textbook chalkboard and apple. Fruit of knowledge. Hompepage blog 2009, History and Society, school education students

The Literary World (Famous Novels)

Illustration of "The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" by William Blake, 1879. poem; poetry

A Study of Poetry

4:043 Dickinson, Emily: A Life of Letters, This is my letter to the world/That never wrote to me; I'll tell you how the Sun Rose/A Ribbon at a time; Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul

Famous Poets and Poetic Form

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

Poetry: First Lines

Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl S. Buck, at her home, Green Hills Farm, near Perkasie, Pennsylvania, 1962. (Pearl Buck)

Novels and Novelists Quiz

Related Questions

How did Charlotte Brontë try to make Shirley less romantic than Jane Eyre?
How did Charlotte Brontë use her experiences at Clergy Daughters’ School in Jane Eyre?
How did Charlotte Brontë use the Brussels setting in Villette?
How did Charlotte Brontë’s novels present love from a woman’s viewpoint?
How did Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë use firsthand material?
How did Samuel Richardson’s Pamela influence Jane Eyre?
How did Shirley portray Yorkshire life and the cloth workers?
How did the Yorkshire moors influence the Brontë children’s imaginative play?
How do Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester reunite at the end of Jane Eyre?
How does Jane Eyre become Mr. Rochester’s governess?
How does Jane Eyre combine Gothic elements with moral realism?
How does the fire at Thornfield change Mr. Rochester’s life?
How many copies of Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell were sold at first?
How many siblings did Charlotte Brontë have?
When and where was Charlotte Brontë born?
When was Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley published?
When was Jane Eyre first published?
When was The Professor published after Charlotte Brontë’s death?
When was Villette published?
Where did Charlotte Brontë study after attending Miss Wooler’s school at Roe Head?
Which Jane Eyre character was based on the head of Clergy Daughters’ School?
Which aunt helped raise Charlotte Brontë and her surviving siblings at Haworth?
Which family losses did Charlotte Brontë experience between 1848 and 1849?
Which imaginary kingdoms did the Brontë children create in their childhood writings?
Which major themes are explored in Jane Eyre?
Which of Charlotte Brontë’s siblings became writers?
Which poetry collection did Charlotte Brontë publish with Emily and Anne Brontë in 1846?
Which pseudonyms did Charlotte Brontë and her sisters use for their poetry collection?
Which school did Charlotte Brontë attend as a child in Lancashire?
Which unfinished novel was Charlotte Brontë writing near the end of her life?
Who is the narrator of Jane Eyre?
Who were Charlotte Brontë’s parents?
Who wrote the first biography of Charlotte Brontë?
Whom did Charlotte Brontë marry in 1854?
Why did Charlotte Brontë and Emily Brontë travel to Brussels in 1842?
Why did Charlotte Brontë die in 1855?
Why did Charlotte Brontë publish under the name Currer Bell?
Why did Charlotte Brontë work as a governess at Upperwood House?
Why did Jane Eyre become an immediate success?
Why did the Brontë sisters use masculine pen names?
Why is Jane Eyre considered important to Victorian fiction?
Why was The Professor not published during Charlotte Brontë’s lifetime?
What was Charlotte Brontë’s childhood like?
Where did Charlotte Brontë go to school?
Why is Alfred, Lord Tennyson, important?
What was the childhood of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, like?
Where was Alfred, Lord Tennyson, educated?
What did Alfred, Lord Tennyson, write?
Why is Robert Louis Stevenson important?
What was Robert Louis Stevenson’s occupation?
Was Robert Louis Stevenson married?
Why is John Keats important?

Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists A-K

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External Websites

Historic UK - Biography of Charlotte Brontï¿½
Poetry Foundation - Charlotte BrontÃ«
ABC Radio National - Booksplus - Happy 200th Birthday Charlotte Bronte
Royal Society of Literature - Charlotte Brontï¿½
BBC - The Essay - I Am, Yours Sincerely, C Bronte - Claire Harman on Charlotte Bronte in Belgium
University of Virginia - Department of English - Collective Biographies of Women - Charlotte BrontÃ«
National Geographic - The scandal that engulfed the last BrontÃ« sister's death
The Victorian Web - Charlotte BrontÃ«

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Charlotte Brontë - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Charlotte Brontë

English novelist

Also known as: Currer Bell, Mrs. Arthur Bell Nicholls

Written by

Joyce M.S. Tompkins

Reader in English, University of London, 1948–65. Author of The Popular Novel in England, 1770–1800.

Joyce M.S. Tompkins

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Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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Last updated

Oct. 24, 2026 •History

Charlotte Brontë (born April 21, 1816, Thornton, Yorkshire, England—died March 31, 1855, Haworth, Yorkshire) was an English novelist noted for Jane Eyre (1847), a strong narrative of a woman in conflict with her natural desires and social condition. The novel gave new truthfulness to Victorian fiction. She later wrote Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853). Her father was Patrick Brontë (1777–1861), an Anglican clergyman. Irish-born, he had changed his name from the more commonplace Brunty. After...

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