Charlotte Bronte was a famous 19th century English novelist known for classics like Jane Eyre. She was the eldest of the Bronte sisters, who were all talented writers. Charlotte was ambitious and independent, challenging social norms of her time. She was influenced by Romantic authors and supported her sisters' writing careers. Her first novel Jane Eyre, published under a pen name, was a huge commercial success and helped revolutionize fiction. Later in life, Charlotte married her father's curate Arthur Bell Nicholls, but died shortly after from health complications during her first pregnancy.

1. Charlotte Bronte was a famous English novelist and poet who left behind a rich legacy
of written work which includes classical novels like ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Shirley’ and ‘Villette’. She
was the eldest among the Bronte sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne - all of whom were
writers and poets of the higheststandards. A dominant and ambitious woman from a young
age, she was someone who refused to blindly follow the norms the society demanded of
women during her time. She was a fiercely independent woman who introduced to the
literary world a new kind of heroine who defied age-old societal expectations to emerge as
a courageous and virtuous individual in her own right. She grew up reading the works of the
Romantic authors like Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth and Lord Byron. The three
Bronte sisters supported and encouraged each other in their endeavors and shared
constructive criticisms of each other’s works. As the eldest of her surviving siblings the
responsibility of providing for them financially fell on Charlotte who first worked as a
teacher and then as a governess to earn a living. Later on the sisters collaborated and
worked together to publish their writings for financial gains.
Charlotte’s first published novel was ‘Jane Eyre’ which was released in 1847. It was
published under her pen name Currer Bell. The novel is credited to have revolutionized the
art of fiction. ‘Jane Eyre’ became a highly popular book and was a huge commercial success.
The success of her debut novel motivated Charlotte to continue writing.
She was working on her second novel ‘Shirley’ when multiple tragedies struck the
Bronte household—three family members died within a period of eight months. Charlotte
drowned herself in writing as a means of coping with her grief. Even though she initially
wrote under the male name of Currer Bell, her publisher insisted that she reveal her true
identity following the success of her novels. After revealing herself to the world, she
became friends with Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Gaskell.
Her father’s curate Arthur Bell Nicholls had been in love with Charlotte for a long time
and had proposed marriage. Her father was initially opposed to the match but eventually
agreed. The couple got married in 1854. She began to suffer from health problems when
she became pregnant with her first child. Both the mother and her unborn child died on 31
March 1855. The last novel published during her lifetime, ‘Villette’, was released in 1853.