Charlotte Brontë | |
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Portrait by George Richmond
(1850, chalk on paper) |
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Born |
Thornton, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
21 April 1816
Died | 31 March 1855 Haworth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
(aged 38)
Pen name | Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley Currer Bell |
Occupation | Novelist, poet, governess |
Nationality | British |
Genre | Fiction, poetry |
Notable works |
Jane Eyre Villette |
Spouse | Arthur Bell Nicholls (1854–1855; her death) |
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Signature |
Charlotte Brontë (/ˈbrɒnti/, commonly /ˈbrɒnteɪ/; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels have become classics of English literature. She first published her works (including her best known novel, Jane Eyre) under the pen name Currer Bell.
Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, west of Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1816, the third of the six children of Maria (née Branwell) and Patrick Brontë (formerly surnamed Brunty or Prunty), an Irish Anglican clergyman. In 1820 her family moved a few miles to the village of Haworth, where her father had been appointed perpetual curate of St Michael and All Angels Church. Maria died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and a son, Branwell, to be taken care of by her sister, Elizabeth Branwell.