Editing Charlotte Brontë

{{Short description|English novelist and poet (1816–1855)}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Charlotte Brontë
| image = CBRichmond.png
| caption = Portrait by [[George Richmond (painter)|George Richmond]]<br />(1850, chalk on paper)
| pseudonym = {{plainlist|
* Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley
* Currer Bell}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1816|4|21}}
| birth_place = [[Thornton, West Yorkshire|Thornton]], Yorkshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1855|3|31|1816|4|21}}
| death_place = [[Haworth]], Yorkshire, England
| resting_place = [[St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth]]
| occupation = Novelist, poet, governess
| genre = Fiction, poetry
| notableworks = {{plainlist|
* ''[[Jane Eyre]]''
* ''[[Villette (novel)|Villette]]''}}
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Arthur Bell Nicholls]]|1854}}
| parents = {{plain list|
* [[Patrick Brontë]]
* [[Maria Branwell]]
}}
| relatives = [[Brontë family]]
| signature = Charlotte Bronte Signature.jpg
}}
'''Charlotte Nicholls''' ({{Née|Brontë}}; 21 April 1816&nbsp;– 31 March 1855), commonly known as '''Charlotte Brontë''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʃ|ɑr|l|ə|t|_|ˈ|b|r|ɒ|n|t|i}}, <small>commonly</small> {{IPAc-en|-|t|eɪ}}),<ref>As given by ''Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature'' (Merriam-Webster, incorporated, Publishers: Springfield, Massachusetts, 1995), p. viii: "When our research shows that an author's pronunciation of his or her name differs from common usage, the author's pronunciation is listed first, and the descriptor ''commonly'' precedes the more familiar pronunciation." See also entries on Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë, pp. 175–176.</ref> was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three [[Brontë family|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 male pseudonym '''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.

Brontë enrolled in school at Roe Head, [[Mirfield]], in January 1831, aged 14 years. She left the year after to teach her sisters, [[Emily Brontë|Emily]] and [[Anne Brontë|Anne]], at home, then returned to Roe Head in 1835 as a teacher. In 1839, she undertook the role of governess for the Sidgwick family, but left after a few months. The three sisters attempted to open a school in Haworth but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing; they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although her first novel, ''[[The Professor (novel)|The Professor]]'', was rejected by publishers, her second novel, ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', was published in 1847. The sisters admitted to their Bell pseudonyms in 1848, and by the following year were celebrated in London literary circles.

Brontë was the last to die of all her siblings. She became pregnant shortly after her wedding in June 1854 but died on 31 March 1855, almost certainly from [[hyperemesis gravidarum]], a complication of pregnancy which causes excessive nausea and vomiting.{{efn|"Hyperemesis", Greek: "overvomiting"; "gravidarum", Latin: "of pregnant females".}}

==Early years and education==
Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816 in Market Street, [[Thornton, West Yorkshire|Thornton]] (in a house now known as the [[Brontë Birthplace]]), west of [[Bradford]] in the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], the third of the six children of [[Maria Branwell|Maria]] (née Branwell) and [[Patrick Brontë]] (formerly surnamed Brunty), an Irish [[Anglican]] clergyman. In 1820 [[Brontë family|her family]] moved a few miles to the village of [[Haworth]], on the edge of the moors, where her father had been appointed [[perpetual curate]] of [[St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth|St Michael and All Angels Church]]. Maria died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters, [[Maria Brontë|Maria]], [[Elizabeth Brontë|Elizabeth]], Charlotte, [[Emily Brontë|Emily]] and [[Anne Brontë|Anne]], and a son, [[Branwell Brontë|Branwell]], to be taken care of by her sister, [[Elizabeth Branwell]].

In August 1824, Patrick sent Charlotte, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth to the [[Cowan Bridge School|Clergy Daughters' School]] at [[Cowan Bridge]] in Lancashire. Charlotte maintained that the school's poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development, and hastened the deaths of Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who both died of [[tuberculosis]] in May (Maria) and June (Elizabeth) 1825. After the deaths of his older daughters, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school.{{sfn|Fraser|2008|p=261}} Charlotte used the school as the basis for Lowood School in ''[[Jane Eyre]],'' which is similarly affected by tuberculosis that is exacerbated by the poor conditions.

At home in [[Haworth Parsonage]], Brontë acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters".<ref>{{cite book|last=Cousin|first=John|title=A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature|year=1910|publisher=E.P. Dutton & Co.}}</ref> Brontë wrote her first known poem at the age of 13 in 1829, and was to go on to write more than 200 poems in the course of her life.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=119}} Many of her poems were "published" in their homemade magazine ''[[Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine]]'', and concerned the fictional world of ''[[Glass Town]]''.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=119}} She and her surviving siblings&nbsp;– Branwell, Emily and Anne&nbsp;– created this shared  world, and began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of their imaginary kingdom in 1827.{{sfn|Miller|2005|p=5}}<ref name="fr2">{{cite book|last=Harrison|first=David W|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5F_n_qxvHSYC|title=The Brontes of Haworth|publisher=Trafford Publishing|year=2003|isbn=978-1-55369-809-8}}</ref> Charlotte, in private letters, called ''Glass Town'' "her 'world below', a private escape where she could act out her desires and multiple identities".<ref name=":1">{{cite web|date=21 April 2016|title=The secret history of Jane Eyre: Charlotte Brontë's private fantasy stories|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/21/the-secret-history-of-jane-eyre-charlotte-brontes-private-fantasy-stories|access-date=6 June 2021|website=The Guardian}}</ref> Charlotte's "predilection for romantic settings, passionate relationships, and high society is at odds with Branwell's obsession with battles and politics and her young sisters' homely North Country realism, none the less at this stage there is still a sense of the writings as a family enterprise".<ref name=":9">{{cite journal|last=Thomson|first=Patricia|date=1989|title=Review|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/516528|journal=The Review of English Studies|volume=40|issue=158|pages=284|jstor=516528|issn=0034-6551|accessdate=13 June 2021|archivedate=7 June 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607154155/https://www.jstor.org/stable/516528|url-status=live}}</ref>

However, from 1831 onwards, Emily and Anne 'seceded' from the ''Glass Town Confederacy'' to create a 'spin-off' called ''[[Gondal (fictional country)|Gondal]]'', which included many of their poems.<ref name=":3">{{cite news|last=Maye|first=Brian|title=Understanding Emily Brontë: 'Stronger than a man, simpler than a child'|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/understanding-emily-bront%C3%AB-stronger-than-a-man-simpler-than-a-child-1.3570351|access-date=6 June 2021|newspaper=The Irish Times|archivedate=21 January 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121215959/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/understanding-emily-bront%C3%AB-stronger-than-a-man-simpler-than-a-child-1.3570351|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Price|first=Sandra Leigh|date=17 May 2018|title=Emily Bronte and Me|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/emily-bronte-and-me-20180511-h0zxzc.html|access-date=6 June 2021|website=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref> After 1831, Charlotte and Branwell concentrated on an evolution of the ''Glass Town Confederacy'' called ''Angria''.{{sfn|Miller|2005|p=5}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Brontë juvenilia: The History of Angria|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/bront-juvenilia-the-history-of-angria|access-date=7 June 2021|website=The British Library|archivedate=20 April 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420162902/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/bront-juvenilia-the-history-of-angria|url-status=deviated}}</ref> Christine Alexander, a Brontë juvenilia historian,<ref name=":10">{{cite web|last=Plater|first=Diana|date=6 June 2016|title=Professor Christine Alexander and Charlotte Bronte's juvenilia|url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/professor-christine-alexander-and-charlotte-brontes-juvenilia-20160603-gpapss.html|access-date=7 June 2021|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|archivedate=27 May 2023|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527222049/https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/professor-christine-alexander-and-charlotte-brontes-juvenilia-20160603-gpapss.html|url-status=live}}</ref> wrote "both Charlotte and Branwell ensured the consistency of their imaginary world. When Branwell exuberantly kills off important characters in his manuscripts, Charlotte comes to the rescue and, in effect, resurrects them for the next stories [...]; and when Branwell becomes bored with his inventions, such as the Glass Town magazine he edits, Charlotte takes over his initiative and keeps the publication going for several more years".<ref name=":02">{{cite journal|last=Alexander|first=Christine|date=4 July 2018|title=In Search of the Authorial Self: Branwell Brontë's Microcosmic World|url=https://journalofjuveniliastudies.com/index.php/jjs/article/view/17|journal=Journal of Juvenilia Studies|volume=1|pages=3–19|doi=10.29173/jjs126|issn=2561-8326|doi-access=free|accessdate=13 June 2021|archivedate=27 January 2023|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127074334/https://journalofjuveniliastudies.com/index.php/jjs/article/view/17|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|6–7}} The sagas the siblings created were episodic and elaborate, and they exist in incomplete manuscripts, some of which have been published as [[juvenilia]]. They provided them with an obsessive interest during childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for literary vocations in adulthood.{{sfn|Miller|2005|p=5}}
[[File:Roe Head, Mirfield - geograph.org.uk - 55901.jpg|thumb|Roe Head School, in [[Mirfield]]]]
Between 1831 and 1832, Brontë continued her education at a boarding school twenty miles away in [[Mirfield]], Roe Head (now part of [[Holly Bank Trust|Hollybank Special School]]<ref>[http://www.johnhalley.uk/BP%20-%20Roe%20Head%20Schhol.htm Roe Head School (Bronte location)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228215443/http://www.johnhalley.uk/BP%20-%20Roe%20Head%20Schhol.htm |date=28 February 2023 }} Retrieved 11 March 2023</ref>), where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents [[Ellen Nussey]] and [[Mary Taylor (women's rights advocate)|Mary Taylor]].{{sfn|Fraser|2008|p=261}} In 1833 she wrote a novella, ''The Green Dwarf'', using the name Wellesley. Around about 1833, her stories shifted from tales of the supernatural to more realistic stories.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=8}} She returned to Roe Head as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. Unhappy and lonely as a teacher at Roe Head, Brontë took out her sorrows in poetry, writing a series of melancholic poems.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=120}} In "We wove a Web in Childhood" written in December 1835, Brontë drew a sharp contrast between her miserable life as a teacher and the vivid imaginary worlds she and her siblings had created.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=120}} In another poem "Morning was its freshness still" written at the same time, Brontë wrote "Tis bitter sometimes to recall/Illusions once deemed fair".{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=120}} Many of her poems concerned the imaginary world of Angria, often concerning [[Byronic hero]]es, and in December 1836 she wrote to the Poet Laureate [[Robert Southey]] asking him for encouragement of her career as a poet. Southey replied,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/letter-from-robert-southey-to-charlotte-bronte-12-march-1837 |title=Letter from Robert Southey to Charlotte Brontë |publisher=Brontë Parsonage Museum |access-date=13 December 2023 |archive-url=
https://web.archive.org/web/20200417103254/https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/letter-from-robert-southey-to-charlotte-bronte-12-march-1837 |archive-date=17 April 2020 |url-status=deviated }}</ref> famously, that "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it even as an accomplishment and a recreation." This advice she respected but did not heed.

In 1839 Brontë took up the first of many positions as [[governess]] to families in [[Yorkshire]], a career she pursued until 1841. In particular, from May to July 1839 she was employed by the Sidgwick family at their summer residence, [[Stone Gappe]], in Lothersdale, where one of her charges was John Benson Sidgwick (1835–1927), an unruly child who on one occasion threw the Bible at Charlotte, an incident that may have been the inspiration for a part of the opening chapter of ''[[Jane Eyre]]'' in which John Reed throws a book at the young Jane.{{sfn|Phillips-Evans|2012|pp=260–261}} Brontë did not enjoy her work as a governess, noting her employers treated her almost as a slave, constantly humiliating her.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=18}} She was of slight build and was less than {{convert|5|ft}} tall.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bronte.org.uk/the-brontes-and-haworth/family-and-friends/charlotte-bronte|title=Charlotte Brontë|publisher=[[Bronte Parsonage Museum]]|access-date=26 March 2016|website=bronte.org.uk|archivedate=7 April 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407115552/http://www.bronte.org.uk/the-brontes-and-haworth/family-and-friends/charlotte-bronte|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Brussels and Haworth==
[[File:Pensionnat Heger plaque.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque in Brussels, on the [[Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels]]]]
In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to [[Brussels]] to <!-- This article is written in British English, in which "enrol" is correct; do not change to "enroll" -->enrol at the boarding school run by [[Constantin Heger]] (1809–1896) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1804–1887). During her time in Brussels, Brontë, who favoured the [[Protestant]] ideal of an individual in direct contact with God, objected to the stern [[Catholicism]] of Madame Heger, which she considered a tyrannical religion that enforced conformity and submission to the Pope.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=29}} In return for board and tuition Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the school was cut short when their aunt Elizabeth Branwell, who had joined the family in Haworth to look after the children after their mother's death, died of [[Bowel obstruction|internal obstruction]] in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the school. Her second stay was not happy: she was homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Heger. She returned to Haworth in January 1844 and used the time spent in Brussels as the inspiration for some of the events in ''[[The Professor (novel)|The Professor]]'' and ''[[Villette (novel)|Villette]]''.

After returning to Haworth, Charlotte and her sisters made headway with opening their own boarding school in the family home. It was advertised as "The Misses Brontë's Establishment for the Board and Education of a limited number of Young Ladies" and inquiries were made to prospective pupils and sources of funding. But none were attracted and in October 1844, the project was abandoned.<ref>{{cite book|title= Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart|last= Harman |first=Claire |author-link=Claire Harman (writer) |publisher= Vintage |year= 2015|isbn=978-0-30796208-9 |pages= 206–8}}</ref>

==First publication==
In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne self-financed the publication of a joint collection of poems under their assumed names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The pseudonyms veiled the sisters' sex while preserving their initials; thus Charlotte was Currer Bell. "Bell" was the middle name of Haworth's curate, [[Arthur Bell Nicholls]] whom Charlotte later married, and "Currer" was the surname of [[Frances Mary Richardson Currer]] who had funded their school (and maybe their father).<ref name=odnb>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Colin |last=Lee|title= Currer, Frances Mary Richardson (1785–1861)|volume=1|encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6951| access-date= 1 November 2014|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/6951}}</ref> Of the decision to use ''noms de plume'', Charlotte wrote:
{{blockquote| Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because&nbsp;– without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called "feminine"&nbsp;– we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise.<ref>"Biographical Notice of Ellis And Acton Bell", from the preface to the 1910 edition of ''Wuthering Heights''.</ref>}}
Although only two copies of the collection of poems were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels, continuing to use their ''noms de plume'' when sending manuscripts to potential publishers.

==''The Professor'' and ''Jane Eyre''==
{{main|Jane Eyre}}
[[File:Jane Eyre title page.jpg|thumb|upright|Title page of the first edition of ''[[Jane Eyre]]'']]
Brontë's first manuscript, 'The Professor', did not secure a publisher, although she was heartened by an encouraging response from [[Smith, Elder & Co.]] of Cornhill, who expressed an interest in any longer works Currer Bell might wish to send.{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=14}} Brontë responded by finishing and sending a second manuscript in August 1847. Six weeks later, ''Jane Eyre'' was published. It tells the story of a plain governess, [[Jane Eyre (character)|Jane]], who, after difficulties in her early life, falls in love with her employer, [[Mr Rochester]]. They marry, but only after Rochester's insane first wife, of whom Jane initially has no knowledge, dies in a dramatic house fire. The book's style was innovative, combining Romanticism, [[Naturalism (literature)|naturalism]] with [[Gothic fiction|gothic]] [[melodrama]], and broke new ground in being written from an intensely evoked first-person female perspective.{{sfn|Miller|2002|pp=12–13}} Brontë believed art was most convincing when based on personal experience; in ''Jane Eyre'' she transformed the experience into a novel with universal appeal.{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=13}}

''Jane Eyre'' had immediate commercial success and initially received favourable reviews. [[George Henry Lewes|G. H. Lewes]] wrote that it was "an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit", and declared that it consisted of "''suspiria de profundis''!" (sighs from the depths).{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=13}} Speculation about the identity and gender of the mysterious Currer Bell heightened with the publication of ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' by Ellis Bell (Emily) and ''[[Agnes Grey]]'' by Acton Bell (Anne).{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=15}} Accompanying the speculation was a change in the critical reaction to Brontë's work, as accusations were made that the writing was "coarse",{{sfn|Fraser|2008|p=24}} a judgement more readily made once it was suspected that Currer Bell was a woman.{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=17}} However, sales of ''Jane Eyre'' continued to be strong and may even have increased as a result of the novel developing a reputation as an "improper" book.<ref>''North American Review'', October 1848, cited in ''The Brontës: The Critical Heritage'' by Allott, M. (ed.), Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974, cited in Miller (p18)</ref> A talented amateur artist, Brontë personally did the drawings for the second edition of ''Jane Eyre'' and in the summer of 1834 two of her paintings were shown at an exhibition by the Royal Northern Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Leeds.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=29}}

==''Shirley'' and bereavements==
In 1848 Brontë began work on the manuscript of her second novel, [[Shirley (novel)|''Shirley'']]. It was only partially completed when the Brontë family suffered the deaths of three of its members within eight months. In September 1848 Branwell died of [[Bronchitis#Chronic bronchitis|chronic bronchitis]] and [[marasmus]], exacerbated by heavy drinking, although Brontë believed that his death was due to [[tuberculosis]]. Branwell may have had a [[laudanum]] addiction. Emily became seriously ill shortly after his funeral and died of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848. Anne died of the same disease in May 1849. Brontë was unable to write at this time.

After Anne's death Brontë resumed writing as a way of dealing with her grief,<ref>Letter from Charlotte to her publisher, 25 June 1849, from {{cite book |title=The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: Volume Two, 1848 – 1851 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=M |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1995}} cited in {{harvnb|Miller|2002|p=19}}</ref> and ''Shirley'', which deals with themes of industrial unrest and the role of women in society, was published in October 1849. Unlike ''Jane Eyre'', which is written in the first person, ''Shirley'' is written in the third person and lacks the emotional immediacy of her first novel,{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=19}} and reviewers found it less shocking.  Brontë, as her late sister's heir, [[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall#Suppression and subsequent criticism|suppressed]] the republication of Anne's second novel, ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'', an action which had a deleterious effect on Anne's popularity as a novelist and has remained controversial among the sisters' biographers ever since.<ref>[http://www.mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk/anne/an-novls.html The Novels of Anne Brontë]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513024120/http://www.mick-armitage.staff.shef.ac.uk/anne/an-novls.html|date=13 May 2021}}</ref>

==In society==
In view of the success of her novels, particularly ''Jane Eyre'', Brontë was persuaded by her publisher to make occasional visits to London, where she revealed her true identity and began to move in more exalted social circles, becoming friends with  [[Elizabeth Gaskell]] and [[Harriet Martineau]] whose sister Rachel had taught Gaskell's daughters.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6iNXAAAAYAAJ&q=Manchester+ladies+educational+association+meta+gaskell|journal=The Gaskell Society Journal, Volume 22|publisher=The Gaskell Society |year= 2008 |   page =57|access-date=25 April 2017|quote=Meta (Margaret Emily), the second daughter, was sent at about the same age as Marianne to Miss Rachel Martineau, ... |title=The Gaskell Society Journal }}</ref> Brontë sent an early copy of ''Shirley''  to Martineau whose home  at [[Ambleside]] she   visited.  The two friends  shared an interest in [[racial relations]] and the [[abolitionist movement]]; recurrent themes in their writings.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=R. |title=Charlotte Brontë and Harriet Martineau |journal=Nineteenth-Century Fiction |date=1952 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=198–201 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.2307/3044359 |jstor=3044359 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3044359 |access-date=8 February 2023 |archivedate=8 February 2023 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208090732/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3044359 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Tolbert |first1=L. |title=Images of race and the influence of abolition in Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights |date=2018 |url=https://ir.ua.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/3643/file_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |type=Masters thesis |accessdate=8 February 2023 |archivedate=8 February 2023 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208090737/https://ir.ua.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/3643/file_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref>  Brontë was also  acquainted with [[William Makepeace Thackeray]] and G. H. Lewes. She never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time, as she did not want to leave her ageing father.  Thackeray's daughter, writer [[Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie]], recalled a visit to her father by Brontë:
{{blockquote| ...two gentlemen come in, leading a tiny, delicate, serious, little lady, with fair straight hair and steady eyes. She may be a little over thirty; she is dressed in a little ''[[wikt:barège|barège]]'' dress with a pattern of faint green moss. She enters in mittens, in silence, in seriousness; our hearts are beating with wild excitement. This then is the authoress, the unknown power whose books have set all London talking, reading, speculating; some people even say our father wrote the books&nbsp;– the wonderful books.  ...The moment is so breathless that dinner comes as a relief to the solemnity of the occasion, and we all smile as my father stoops to offer his arm; for, genius though she may be, Miss Brontë can barely reach his elbow. My own personal impressions are that she is somewhat grave and stern, specially to forward little girls who wish to chatter.  ...Everyone waited for the brilliant conversation which never began at all. Miss Brontë retired to the sofa in the study, and murmured a low word now and then to our kind governess... the conversation grew dimmer and more dim, the ladies sat round still expectant, my father was too much perturbed by the gloom and the silence to be able to cope with it at all... after Miss Brontë had left, I was surprised to see my father opening the front door with his hat on. He put his fingers to his lips, walked out into the darkness, and shut the door quietly behind him... long afterwards... Mrs Procter asked me if I knew what had happened.  ...It was one of the dullest evenings [Mrs Procter] had ever spent in her life... the ladies who had all come expecting so much delightful conversation, and the gloom and the constraint, and how finally, overwhelmed by the situation, my father had quietly left the room, left the house, and gone off to his club.<ref>Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie. Chapters from Some Memoirs, cited in [[James Runcieman Sutherland|Sutherland, James]] (ed.) ''The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes''.  OUP, 1975. {{ISBN|0-19-812139-3}}.</ref>}}
Brontë's friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell, while not particularly close, was significant in that Gaskell wrote the first biography of Brontë after her death in 1855.

==''Villette''==
Brontë's third novel, the last published in her lifetime, was ''[[Villette (novel)|Villette]]'', which appeared in 1853. Its main themes include isolation, how such a condition can be borne,<ref>{{cite book|last=Reid Banks|first= L.|title=Path to the Silent Country|publisher= Penguin|year= 1977|page=113}}</ref> and the internal conflict brought about by social repression of individual desire.{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=47}} Its main character, Lucy Snowe, travels abroad to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette, where she encounters a culture and religion different from her own and falls in love with a man (Paul Emanuel) whom she cannot marry. Her experiences result in a breakdown but eventually, she achieves independence and fulfilment through running her own school. A substantial amount of the novel's dialogue is in the French language. ''Villette'' marked Brontë's return to writing from a first-person perspective (that of Lucy Snowe), the technique she had used in ''Jane Eyre''. Another similarity to ''Jane Eyre'' lies in the use of aspects of her own life as inspiration for fictional events,{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=47}} in particular her reworking of the time she spent at the ''pensionnat'' in Brussels. ''Villette'' was acknowledged by critics of the day as a potent and sophisticated piece of writing although it was criticised for "coarseness" and for not being suitably "feminine" in its portrayal of Lucy's desires.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bronte.org.uk/bronte-shop/greetings-cards/194/vintage-ink-im-just-going-to-write-blank-greetings-card|website=bronte.org.uk|publisher=[[Brontë Parsonage Museum]]|first=Charlotte|last=Brontë|year=1855|title=I'm just going to write because I cannot help it|access-date=10 April 2024|archivedate=10 April 2024|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240410083807/https://www.bronte.org.uk/bronte-shop/greetings-cards/194/vintage-ink-im-just-going-to-write-blank-greetings-card|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=52}}

==Marriage==
[[File:CharlotteBronte.jpg|thumb|upright|This photo-portrait of [[Ellen Nussey]] has long been mistaken for one of her friend Charlotte Brontë. The photo is a copy made {{circa|1918}} by the photographer, Sir [[Emery Walker]], from an original [[carte de visite]] photo which was then privately owned.<ref>{{cite web |work=Post |url=http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1613719.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304194617/http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1613719.ece |archive-date=4 March 2016 |title=To walk invisible |publisher=TLS |date=30 September 2015 |access-date=26 March 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brontesisters.co.uk/Photo-of-Charlotte-Bronte.html|title=The Bronte Sisters – A True Likeness? – Photo of Charlotte Bronte|website=brontesisters.co.uk|access-date=6 September 2017|archivedate=7 September 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907033315/http://www.brontesisters.co.uk/Photo-of-Charlotte-Bronte.html|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Before the publication of ''Villette'', Brontë received an expected proposal of marriage from Irishman [[Arthur Bell Nicholls]], her father's [[curate]], who had long been in love with her.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=19}} She initially refused him and her father objected to the union at least partly because of Nicholls's poor financial status. [[Elizabeth Gaskell]], who believed that marriage provided "clear and defined duties" that were beneficial for a woman,{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=54}} encouraged Brontë to consider the positive aspects of such a union and tried to use her contacts to engineer an improvement in Nicholls's finances. According to [[James Pope-Hennessy]] in ''The Flight of Youth,'' it was the generosity of [[Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton|Richard Monckton Milnes]] that made the marriage possible. Brontë, meanwhile, was increasingly attracted to Nicholls and by January 1854, she had accepted his proposal. They gained the approval of her father by April and married on 29 June.{{sfn|Miller|2002|pp=54–55}} Her father Patrick had intended to give Charlotte away, but at the last minute decided he could not, and Charlotte had to make her way to the church without him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03n0wsy/p03n0s7x|title=Being the Brontes – Charlotte Bronte's marriage with The Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls|publisher=BBC|date=26 March 2016|access-date=26 March 2016|archivedate=28 March 2016|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328211134/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03n0wsy/p03n0s7x|url-status=live}}</ref>
Because her father did not attend it was Miss Wooler (Charlotte's former teacher at Roe Head School, and life-long friend), as "friend", who "gave away" Charlotte (Gaskell: Vol II, Chap XIII).
The married couple took their honeymoon in [[Banagher]], County Offaly, Ireland.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/artofbrontes0000alex|url-access=registration|title=The Art of the Brontës|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-43248-1|first1=Christine|last1=Alexander|first2=Jane|last2=Sellars|year=1995|page=[https://archive.org/details/artofbrontes0000alex/page/402 402]}}</ref> By all accounts, her marriage was a success and Brontë found herself very happy in a way that was new to her.{{sfn|Paddock|Rollyson|2003|p=19}}

==Death==
[[File:Emily Brontë and Charlotte Brontë resting place.jpg|thumb|right|Brass plaque on family vault of Charlotte Brontë and Emily Brontë at [[St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth]]]]
Brontë became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness".<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/09/25/mf.plot.twists/ | title = Real life plot twists of famous authors | publisher = CNN | date = 25 September 2007 | access-date = 12 June 2013 | archivedate = 10 November 2022 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20221110143504/http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/worklife/09/25/mf.plot.twists/ | url-status = live }}</ref> She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, three weeks before her 39th birthday. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as [[Phthisis pulmonalis|phthisis]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Death certificate |url=https://mobile.twitter.com/BronteParsonage/status/1103988400632283137/photo/1 |website=twitter.com |access-date=21 December 2021 |archivedate=21 April 2022 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421051446/https://mobile.twitter.com/BronteParsonage/status/1103988400632283137/photo/1 |url-status=live }}</ref> but biographers including [[Claire Harman (writer)|Claire Harman]] and others suggest that she died from dehydration and malnourishment due to vomiting caused by severe [[morning sickness]] or [[hyperemesis gravidarum]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Allison |first1=SP |last2=Lobo |first2=DN |title=The death of Charlotte Brontë from hyperemesis gravidarum and refeeding syndrome: A new perspective. |journal=Clinical Nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland) |date=10 February 2019 |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=304–305 |doi=10.1016/j.clnu.2019.01.027 |pmid=30777294|s2cid=73468434 |url=https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1547789 }}</ref> Brontë was buried in the family vault in the [[St Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth|Church of St Michael and All Angels]] at Haworth.

''The Professor'', the first novel Brontë had written, was published posthumously in 1857. The fragment of a new novel she had been writing in her last years has been twice completed by recent authors, the more famous version being ''[[Emma Brown]]: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë'' by [[Clare Boylan]] in 2003. Most of her writings about the imaginary country Angria have also been published since her death. In 2018, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published a belated obituary for her.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/obituaries/overlooked-charlotte-bronte.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/obituaries/overlooked-charlotte-bronte.html |archive-date=2022-01-01 |url-access=limited|title=Overlooked No More: Charlotte Brontë, Novelist Known for 'Jane Eyre'|date=8 March 2018|newspaper=The New York Times|last1=Dominus|first1=Susan}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Religion==
The daughter of an Irish [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] clergyman, Brontë was herself an Anglican. In a letter to her publisher, she claims to "love the Church of England. Her Ministers indeed, I do not regard as infallible personages, I have seen too much of them for that – but to the Establishment, with all her faults – the profane [[Athanasian Creed]] excluded – I am sincerely attached."<ref name="Griesinger">{{cite journal |first=Emily |last=Griesinger |title= Charlotte Bronte's Religion: Faith, Feminism, and Jane Eyre |journal=Christianity and Literature |volume=58 |number=1 |date=Autumn 2008|pages=29–59|doi=10.1177/014833310805800103 }}</ref>

In a letter to [[Ellen Nussey]] she wrote:
{{blockquote|If I could always live with you, and daily read the bible with you, if your lips and mine could at the same time, drink the same draught from the same pure fountain of Mercy – I hope, I trust, I might one day become better, far better, than my evil wandering thoughts, my corrupt heart, cold to the spirit, and warm to the flesh will now permit me to be.<ref name="Griesinger"/>}}

==''The Life of Charlotte Brontë''==
[[File:CharlotteBrontePortrait.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait by J. H. Thompson at the Brontë Parsonage Museum]]
[[Elizabeth Gaskell]]'s biography ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'' was published in 1857. It was an important step for a leading female novelist to write a biography of another,{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=57}} and Gaskell's approach was unusual in that, rather than analysing her subject's achievements, she concentrated on private details of Brontë's life, emphasising those aspects that countered the accusations of "coarseness" that had been levelled at her writing.{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=57}} The biography is frank in places, but omits details of Brontë's love for [[Constantin Heger]], a married man, as being too much of an affront to contemporary morals and a likely source of distress to Brontë's father, widower, and friends.{{sfn|Lane|1953|pp= 178–83}} Mrs. Gaskell also provided doubtful and inaccurate information about Patrick Brontë, claiming that he did not allow his children to eat meat. This is refuted by one of Emily Brontë's diary papers, in which she describes preparing meat and potatoes for dinner at the parsonage.<ref>[[Juliet Barker]], ''The Brontës''</ref> It has been argued that Gaskell's approach transferred the focus of attention away from the 'difficult' novels, not just Brontë's, but all the sisters', and began a process of sanctification of their private lives.{{sfn|Miller|2002|pp=57–58}}

==Nussey letters==
Brontë held lifelong correspondence with her former schoolmate [[Ellen Nussey]]. 350 of the some 500 letters sent by Brontë to Nussey survive, whereas all of Nussey's letters to Brontë were burned at Nicholls's request.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Elaine |title=Not A Passing Phase: Reclaiming Lesbians in History 1840-1985 |date=1989 |publisher=The Women's Press |location=London |isbn=0-7043-4175-1 |pages=29–45 |edition=1st}}</ref> The surviving letters provide most of the information known on Charlotte Brontë's life and are the backbone of her biographies.

Brontë's letters to Nussey seem to have romantic undertones:
{{blockquote|What shall I do without you? How long are we likely to be separated? Why are we to be denied each other's society- I long to be with you. Why are we to be divided? Surely, Ellen, it must be because we are in danger of loving each other too well-<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Elaine |title=Not A Passing Phase: Reclaiming Lesbians in History 1840-1985 |date=1989 |publisher=The Women's Press |location=London |isbn=0-7043-4175-1 |page=35 |edition=1st}}</ref>}}
{{blockquote|Ellen, I wish I could live with you always. I begin to cling to you more fondly than ever I did. If we had but a cottage and a competency of our own, I do think we might live and love on till Death without being dependent on any third person for happiness...
<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Elaine |title=Not A Passing Phase: Reclaiming Lesbians in History 1840-1985 |date=1989 |publisher=The Women's Press |location=London |isbn=0-7043-4175-1 |page=36 |edition=1st}}</ref>}}
{{blockquote|how sorely my heart longs for you I need not say... Less than ever can I taste or know pleasure till this work is wound up. And yet I often sit up in bed at night, thinking of and wishing for you.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Elaine |title=Not A Passing Phase: Reclaiming Lesbians in History 1840-1985 |date=1989 |publisher=The Women's Press |location=London |isbn=0-7043-4175-1 |page=46 |edition=1st}}</ref>}}

Some scholars believe it is possible, given their passionate friendship, that Charlotte Brontë was in a romantic or sexual relationship with Ellen Nussey.<ref>{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Elaine |title=Not A Passing Phase: Reclaiming Lesbians in History 1840-1985 |publisher=The Women's Press |year=1989 |isbn=0-7043-4175-1 |edition=1st |location=London |pages=29–54}}</ref>

==Heger letters==
On 29 July 1913 ''[[The Times]]'' of London printed four letters Brontë had written to [[Constantin Heger]] after leaving Brussels in 1844.{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=109}} Written in French except for one postscript in English, the letters broke the prevailing image of Brontë as an angelic martyr to Christian and female duties that had been constructed by many biographers, beginning with Gaskell.{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=109}} The letters, which formed part of a larger and somewhat one-sided correspondence in which Heger frequently appears not to have replied, reveal that she had been in love with a married man, although they are complex and have been interpreted in numerous ways, including as an example of literary self-dramatisation and an expression of gratitude from a former pupil.{{sfn|Miller|2002|p=109}}

In 1980 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the [[Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels]], on the site of the Madam Heger's school, in honour of Charlotte and Emily.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Plaque is Unveiled in Brussels to Commemorate the Stay of Charlotte and Emily Brontë at the Pensionnat Heger |journal=Brontë Society Transactions
|volume=17 |year=1980 |issue=5 |pages=371–374 |doi=10.1179/030977680796471592 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Kazuo Ishiguro]], when asked to name his favourite novelist, answered "Charlotte Brontë's recently edged out [[Dostoevsky]]...I owe my career, and a lot else besides, to ''Jane Eyre'' and ''Villette.''"<ref>{{cite news| author=[[Kazuo Ishiguro]]| date=March 5, 2015| title=Kazuo Ishiguro: By the Book| work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

==Publications==
{{Portal|Novels|Poetry|Biography}}
[[File:Painting of Brontë sisters.png|thumb|upright|[[Branwell Brontë]], ''Painting of the 3 Brontë Sisters,'' left to right: [[Anne Brontë|Anne]], [[Emily Brontë|Emily]] and Charlotte Brontë. Branwell painted himself out of this portrait of his three sisters. [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]], London.]]
[[File:Charlotte Brontë.jpg|thumb|upright|An idealised [[wikt:posthumous|posthumous]] [[portrait]] by Duyckinick, 1873, based on a drawing by [[George Richmond (painter)|George Richmond]]]]

===Juvenilia===
* ''[[The Young Men's Magazine]]'', Volumes 1–3 (August 1830)<ref>{{cite book|last=Barnard|first=Robert|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/76064670|title=A Brontë encyclopedia|date=2007|publisher=Blackwell Pub|others=Louise Barnard|isbn=978-1-4051-5119-1|location=Malden, MA|pages=29, 34–35|oclc=76064670}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Glen|first=Heather|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/139984116|title=Charlotte Brontë : the imagination in history|date=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-1-4294-7076-6|location=Oxford|pages=9|oclc=139984116}}</ref>
* ''[[A Book of Ryhmes]]'' (1829)<ref>{{cite web | last=Nathan-Kazis | first=Josh | title=Brontë Manuscript Buyer Will Donate Book To Museum | url=https://www.barrons.com/articles/bronte-manuscript-museum-family-home-51650896726 | website=[[Barron's (newspaper)|Barron's]] | date=25 April 2022 | accessdate=27 April 2022 | archivedate=27 April 2022 | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220427105217/https://www.barrons.com/articles/bronte-manuscript-museum-family-home-51650896726 | url-status=live }}</ref>
* ''The Spell<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Butcher|first=Emma|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1130021690|title=The Brontës and War : Fantasy and Conflict in Charlotte and Branwell Brontë's Youthful Writings|date=2019|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-3-319-95636-7|location=Cham|oclc=1130021690}}</ref>{{rp|146}}''
* ''The Secret''
* ''Lily Hart<ref name=":0" />{{rp|157}}''
* ''The Foundling''<ref>{{cite web|date=13 November 2015|title=Charlotte Brontë's Unpublished Works Discovered|url=https://www.newsweek.com/charlotte-bronts-unpublished-works-discovered-394044|access-date=13 June 2021|website=Newsweek|archivedate=13 June 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613055508/https://www.newsweek.com/charlotte-bronts-unpublished-works-discovered-394044|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Albion and Marina''<ref name=":0" />{{rp|129}}
* ''Tales of the Islanders''<ref>{{cite web|title=Tales of the Islanders|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803101946115|website=Oxford Reference|quote=Volumes 1–4, written between 31 [sic] June 1829 and 30 June 1830, is Charlotte Brontë's first extended attempt at storytelling|access-date=13 June 2021|archivedate=9 August 2020|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809003859/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803101946115|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Tales of Angria'' (written 1838–1839 – a collection of childhood and young adult writings including five short novels)
** Mina Laury''<ref name=":0" />{{rp|119}}''
** Stancliffe's Hotel''<ref name=":0" />{{rp|166}}''
** The Duke of Zamorna
** Henry Hastings{{efn|Charlotte wrote this piece, however, Branwell also used the name Henry Hastings as a pseudonym in their juvenilia.|group=a}}''<ref name=":0" />{{rp|15,100}}''
** Caroline Vernon''<ref name=":0" />{{rp|46}}''
** The Roe Head Journal Fragments''<ref name=":0" />{{rp|147}}''
** Farewell to Angria<ref name=":1" />
<!-- ''My Angria and the Angrians'' is attributed to Branwell. See: <ref>{{cite web|title=Brontë juvenilia: The History of Angria|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/bront-juvenilia-the-history-of-angria|access-date=13 June 2021|website=The British Library}}</ref>-->
''The Green Dwarf, A Tale of the Perfect Tense'' was written in 1833 under the pseudonym Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6aiHAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA431|title=The Brontës Life and Letters: Being an Attempt to Present a Full and Final Record of the Lives of the Three Sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë|first=Clement King|last=Shorter|author-link=Clement King Shorter|date=19 September 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108065238|access-date=2 February 2019|via=Google Books}}</ref> It shows the influence of [[Walter Scott]], and Brontë's modifications to her earlier gothic style have led Christine Alexander to comment that, in the work, "it is clear that Brontë was becoming tired of the gothic mode ''per se''".{{sfn|Alexander|1993|pp=430–432}}

"At the end of 1839, Brontë said goodbye to her fantasy world in a manuscript called Farewell to Angria. More and more, she was finding that she preferred to escape to her imagined worlds over remaining in reality – and she feared that she was going mad. So she said goodbye to her characters, scenes and subjects. [...] She wrote of the pain she felt at wrenching herself from her 'friends' and venturing into lands unknown".<ref name=":1" />

===Novels===
* ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', published in 1847
* ''[[Shirley (novel)|Shirley]]'', published in 1849
* ''[[Villette (novel)|Villette]]'', published in 1853
* ''[[The Professor (novel)|The Professor]]'', written before ''Jane Eyre'', was first submitted together with ''[[Wuthering Heights]]'' by [[Emily Brontë]] and ''[[Agnes Grey]]'' by [[Anne Brontë]]. Subsequently, ''The Professor'' was resubmitted separately, and rejected by many publishing houses. It was published posthumously in 1857
* ''Emma'', unfinished; Brontë wrote only 20 pages of the manuscript, published posthumously in 1860. In recent decades at least two continuations of this fragment have appeared:
** ''Emma'', by "Charlotte Brontë and Another Lady", published 1980; although this has been attributed to [[Elizabeth Goudge]],<ref>{{cite news |date=13 September 2003 |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |title=Review of Emma Brown by Charlotte Cory |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/emma-brown-by-clare-boylan-579707.html |access-date=12 June 2013 |archivedate=21 May 2009 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521161052/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/emma-brown-by-clare-boylan-579707.html }}</ref> the actual author was [[Constance Savery]].<ref>Bronte, Charlotta and Another Lady. ''Emma''. Moscow: Folio. 2001. 11.</ref>
** ''[[Emma Brown]]'', by [[Clare Boylan]], published 2003

===Poetry===
* {{cite book |last1=Bell |first1=Currer |last2=Bell |first2=Ellis |last3=Bell |first3=Acton |author1-link=Charlotte Brontë |author2-link=Emily Brontë |author3-link=Anne Brontë |title=[[Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell|Poems]] |date=1846}}
* ''Selected Poems of the Brontës'', Everyman Poetry (1997)

==Media portrayals==
* In the 1946 [[Curtis Bernhardt]] film ''[[Devotion (1946 film)|Devotion]]'', a fictionalized biography of the Brontë sisters, [[Olivia de Havilland]] plays Charlotte.
* A November 15, 1953 episode of the ''[[Loretta Young Show]]'', "The Bronte Story", features [[Loretta Young]] as Charlotte.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Bronte Story|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0630976/|access-date=17 September 2023|website=IMDb|archivedate=30 August 2022|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830022833/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0630976/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* The 2018 comic ''[[Die (comics)|Die]]'' features a fictionalised version of Charlotte within the Brontes' fictional kingdom of Angria.
* In the 2022 [[Frances O'Connor]] film ''[[Emily (2022 film)|Emily]]'', about Emily Brontë, [[Alexandra Dowling]] plays Charlotte.

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite journal|last=Alexander |first=Christine |date=March 1993 |title='That Kingdom of Gloo': Charlotte Brontë, the Annuals and the Gothic |journal=[[Nineteenth-Century Literature]] |volume=47 |number=4 |pages=409–436|doi=10.2307/2933782 |jstor=2933782 }}
* {{cite book|last=Fraser |first=Rebecca |year=2008 |title=Charlotte Brontë: A Writer's Life  |edition=2  |publisher=Pegasus Books LLC |location=New York |isbn=978-1-933648-88-0 |page=261}}
* {{cite book|first=Margaret |last=Lane |year=1953 |title=The Brontë Story: a reconsideration of Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë|url=https://archive.org/details/brontstoryrecons0000lane |url-access=registration }}
* {{cite book|first=Lucasta |last=Miller |year=2002 |title=The Brontë Myth |location=London |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-09-928714-8}}
* {{cite book|first=Lucasta |last=Miller |year=2005 |title=The Brontë Myth |url=https://archive.org/details/brontmyth0000mill |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Anchor |isbn=  978-1400078356}}
* {{cite book| last1=Paddock | first1=Lisa |last2=Rollyson |first2=Carl |year=2003 |title=The Brontës A to Z|url=https://archive.org/details/brontstozessenti0000padd|url-access=registration| location=New York |publisher=Facts on File |isbn=978-0-8160-4303-3}}
* {{cite book|last=Phillips-Evans |first=James  |year=2012 |title=The Longcrofts: 500 Years of a British Family |publisher=Amazon |pages=260–261 |isbn=978-1481020886}}
* {{cite journal|last=Potter |first=Dawn |date=Summer 2010 |title=Inventing Charlotte Brontë |journal=The Sewanee Review |volume=118|number=3|pages=393–399|doi=10.1353/sew.2010.0014 |s2cid=161213323 }}
* {{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature}}

==Further reading==
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=yes|viaf=71388025}}
* ''The Letters of Charlotte Brontë'', 3 volumes edited by Margaret Smith, 2007
* ''[[The Life of Charlotte Brontë]]'', [[Elizabeth Gaskell]], 1857
* ''Charlotte Brontë'', [[Winifred Gérin]]
* ''Charlotte Brontë: a passionate life'', Lyndal Gordon
* ''The Literary Protégées of the Lake Poets'', Dennis Low (Chapter 1 contains a revisionist contextualisation of Robert Southey's infamous letter to Charlotte Brontë)
* ''Charlotte Brontë: Unquiet Soul'', Margot Peters
* ''In the Footsteps of the Brontës'', Ellis Chadwick
* ''The Brontës'', [[Juliet Barker]]
* ''Charlotte Brontë and her Dearest Nell'', Barbara Whitehead
* ''The Brontë Myth'', [[Lucasta Miller]]
* ''A Life in Letters'', selected by Juliet Barker
* ''Charlotte Brontë and Defensive Conduct: The Author and the Body at Risk'', [[Janet Gezari]], University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992
* ''Charlotte Brontë: Truculent Spirit'', by [[Valerie Grosvenor Myer]], 1987
* ''Charlotte Brontë and her Family'', Rebecca Fraser
* ''The Oxford Reader's Companion to the Brontës'', Christine Alexander & Margaret Smith
* ''Charlotte & Arthur'', Pauline Clooney (2021) {{ISBN|978-1916501676}}. Reimagining Charlotte Brontë's honeymoon in Ireland & Wales.
* ''A Brontë Family Chronology'', Edward Chitham
* ''The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë'', James Tully, 1999
* {{cite book |last=Daly |first=Michelle |title=I Love Charlotte Brontë |year=2013 |publisher=Michelle Daly |isbn=978-0957048751}} A book about Brontë through the eyes of a working-class woman
* {{cite book|last=Heslewood|first=Juliet|title=Mr Nicholls|year=2017|publisher=Scratching Shed|location=Yorkshire|isbn=978-0993510168}} Fictionalised account of Arthur Bells Nicholls' romance of Charlotte Brontë
* {{cite book|last=O'Dowd|first=Michael|title=Charlotte Brontë, An Irish Odyssey: My Heart is Knit to Him-The Honeymoon|year=2021|publisher=Pardus Media|isbn=978-1914939051}} Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Bell Nicholls' wedding trip and Irish Odyssey.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource author}}
* [http://www.bronte.org.uk/ Website of the Brontë Society and Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire]
* [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1109794 Modern Day Images of Charlotte Brontë Residences] (Archived)
* {{IBList |type=author|id=74|name=Charlotte Brontë}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090220202739/http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/ Charlotte's Web: A Hypertext on Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre''] (Archived)
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50458343  Rare Charlotte Bronte book coming home after museum's auction success]
* [http://www.eng-poetry.ru/english/Poet.php?PoetId=75 Poems by Charlotte Brontё]
{{Archival records|title=Charlotte Brontë papers 1829-1990s|location= [[The New York Public Library]]|description_URL=https://archives.nypl.org/brg/186119}}
* [https://www.thebrontes.net/ The Brontës]

===Electronic editions===
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/charlotte-bronte}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=408}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Brontë, Charlotte|name=Charlotte Brontë|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Charlotte Brontë |sopt=w}}
* {{Librivox author |id=931}}
* [https://arheve.org/en/bronte-c Works by Charlotte Brontë in the online library ARHEVE.org] and in the free [https://library.arheve.org/ ARHEVE app]

{{Brontë sisters}}
{{Jane Eyre}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronte, Charlotte}}
[[Category:1816 births]]
[[Category:1855 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:19th-century English writers]]
[[Category:19th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:Brontë family|Charlotte]]
[[Category:Burials in West Yorkshire]]
[[Category:Anglican writers]]
[[Category:Christian novelists]]
[[Category:Deaths from typhus in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:English Anglicans]]
[[Category:English governesses]]
[[Category:English people of Cornish descent]]
[[Category:English people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:English women poets]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in England]]
[[Category:People from Thornton and Allerton]]
[[Category:Writers from Bradford]]
[[Category:Pseudonymous women writers]]
[[Category:Victorian novelists]]
[[Category:Victorian women writers]]
[[Category:Victorian writers]]
[[Category:Writers of Gothic fiction]]