The Brontë Sisters - The Beginning | The Brontë Sisters - Childhood | Charlotte Brontë 1816 – 1855 | Emily Jane Brontë (1818 - 1848) | Anne Brontë (1820 – 1849)

Charlotte was the oldest of the three surviving Brontë sisters. As a child she had attended Cowen Bridge, a school for clergymen's daughters. But had been removed from there, along with her younger sister Emily, when their two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, became ill with a fever and died within a month of each other, which may have been partly due to the bleak conditions at the school.

For the next five years most of her education was from home and the many thought-provoking books on her father's bookshelves.

Charlotte then attended Roe Head school, and was later a teacher there. Which was short live when she became ill, and depressed resigned her position.

Charlotte's endeavour to be employed as a governess failed, due to her chronic timidity, lack of knowledge of typical children, and her desire to be with her sisters.

Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels in 1842 to develop their French, German and management skills.

Charlotte's time at Pensionate Heger, a school for girls, where she went on to become a teacher, was marred by the one sided love she felt for its married owner. She later wrote her first novel, The Professor, which was based on her time as a teacher in Brussels. This novel was not published in her lifetime.

Charlotte continued writing poems, and in 1846 her combined work along with Anne and Emily's were published using their pseudonym names. Poems by Currier, Ellis and Acton Bell . (1846)

In 1854, while pregnant with her first child, Charlotte caught pneumonia. After a prolonged illness, Charlotte and her unborn child died in 1855.

Literature Written by Charlotte Brontë - Pseudonym, Currer Bell

Novels

Jane Eyre (1847)

Shirley (1849)

Villette (1853)

The Professor (1857)

Recently Published Writings

Stanliffe's Hotel (2003) - A 34 page novella written by Charlotte on tiny note paper in 1838 was published in The Times newspaper on 14 March, 2003. The short story had been stored at the Brontë's Parsonage Museum, the rectory where the family had lived.

The Foundling (2004) - Charlotte wrote her novelette The Founding when she was 17-years-old. It had also been held at the Brontë Museum, until it was published by (find publisher) in 2004.

Poems

Two poems by Charlotte, one about life, the other about death; the death of Anne, her youngest sister.

Life

Life, believe, is not a dream

So dark as sages say;

Oft a little morning rain

Foretells a pleasant day.

Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,

But these are transient all;

If the shower will make the roses bloom,

O why lament its fall ?

Rapidly, merrily,

Life's sunny hours flit by,

Gratefully, cheerily,

Enjoy them as they fly !

What though death at times steps in

And calls our best away ?

What though sorrow seems to win,

O'er hope, a heavy sway ?

Yet hope again elastic springs,

Unconquered, though she fell;

Still buoyant are her golden wings,

Still strong to bear us well.

Manfully, fearlessly,

The day of trial bear,

For gloriously, victoriously,

Can courage quell despair!

On the Death of Anne Brontë

There's little joy in life for me,

And little terror in the grave;

I've lived the parting hour to see

Of one I would have died to save.

Calmly to watch the failing breath,

Wishing each sigh might be the last;

Longing to see the shade of death

O'er those beloved features cast.

The cloud, the stillness that must part

The darling of my life from me;

And then to thank God from my heart,

To thank Him well and fervently;

Although I knew that we had lost

The hope and glory of our life;

And now, benighted, tempest-tossed,

Must bear alone the weary strife.