Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Nicholls (; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known as Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, and was the elder sister of Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë. She is best known for her novel ''Jane Eyre'', which was published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. ''Jane Eyre'' was a success on publication, and has since become known as a classic of English literature.

In August 1824, Charlotte was sent with her three sisters, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Conditions there were appalling, with frequent outbreaks of disease. Charlotte's two elder sisters fell ill there and died; Charlotte attributed her own lifelong ill-health to her time at Cowan Bridge, and later used it at the model for Lowood School in ''Jane Eyre''.

In 1831, Charlotte became a pupil at Roe Head School in Mirfield, but left the following year in order to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home. In 1835, Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a teacher. In 1839, she accepted a job as governess to a local family, but left after a few months.

In 1842, Charlotte joined the Heger Pensionnat, a girls' boarding school in Brussels, as a student teacher, in the hope of acquiring the skills required to open a school of her own. However she was obliged to leave after falling in love with the school's director, Constantin Heger, a married man, who inspired both the character of Rochester in ''Jane Eyre'', and Charlotte's first novel, ''The Professor''.

Charlotte, Emily and Anne then attempted to open a school in Haworth, but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing; first publishing a collection of their poetry in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although Charlotte's first 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 Charlotte was being celebrated in London literary circles.

In 1854, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate. She became pregnant shortly after her wedding in June 1854, but died on 31 March 1855, possibly of tuberculosis, although there is evidence that she may have died from hyperemesis gravidarum, a complication of pregnancy. Provided by Wikipedia