Historical figure · Pearson Edexcel International GCSE revision on Incandio
Charlotte Brontë
Who Published As Currer Bell · Novelist · 1816–1855
The Yorkshire parson's daughter who published Jane Eyre in 1847 under the name Currer Bell and gave English fiction a plain, poor heroine who insists on her own equal soul.
Defend these ideas against Brontë
Incandio is a free revision platform for the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE, and on it a topic counts as mastered only once you have learned it, proved it in questions, taught it back and defended it against the person with the strongest claim on it. Charlotte Brontë is that person for 10 topics on the course — 8 of them:
- Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre — English Literature
- Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre — English Literature
- St John Rivers in Jane Eyre — English Literature
- Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre — English Literature
- Mrs Reed in Jane Eyre — English Literature
- Independence and equality in Jane Eyre — English Literature
- Religion and conscience in Jane Eyre — English Literature
- Love and passion in Jane Eyre — English Literature
Who was Brontë?
Born in 1816 at Thornton in Yorkshire, Charlotte Brontë grew up at Haworth parsonage. Her mother died in 1821, and her two elder sisters died in 1825 after illness at the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, which she later drew on for Lowood. With her brother Branwell and sisters Emily and Anne she wrote a vast imaginary saga in tiny books. She worked as a teacher and governess, studied in Brussels in 1842–43, and fell unhappily in love with her married teacher Constantin Heger. In 1846 the sisters published poems under the names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; in October 1847 Jane Eyre appeared and was a sensation. Within a year Branwell, Emily and Anne were all dead. Charlotte wrote Shirley and Villette, became friends with Elizabeth Gaskell, and married her father's curate Arthur Bell Nicholls in 1854. She died on 31 March 1855, during pregnancy, aged thirty-eight.
Major achievements
- Wrote Jane Eyre (1847), one of the most influential English novels
- Wrote Villette (1853) and Shirley (1849)
- Gave the novel a first-person heroine with a fierce inner life who demands equality
- Supported and protected her sisters' reputations after their deaths
- Earned a professional living by writing in a world that told her not to
Life in brief
- 1816 — Born at Thornton: Third child of Patrick and Maria Brontë.
- 1825 — Cowan Bridge: Her elder sisters Maria and Elizabeth die after illness at the school.
- 1842 — Brussels: Studies at the Pensionnat Heger with Emily.
- 1846 — Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell: Sells two copies.
- 1847 — Jane Eyre: Published by Smith, Elder and Co. in October.
- 1848–49 — Three deaths: Branwell, Emily and Anne die within eight months.
- 1854 — Marries Arthur Bell Nicholls: 29 June, at Haworth.
- 1855 — Dies at Haworth: 31 March, during pregnancy.
Explore the life of Brontë — five chapters
- Haworth and Cowan Bridge — A motherless household and a school that killed two sisters
- Glass Town and Roe Head — Tiny books, imaginary kingdoms and a poet laureate's warning
- Brussels — A governess, a teacher in Belgium and letters that were never answered
- Currer Bell — Two copies, a rejected novel and a sensation
- The Last Sister — Three deaths in eight months, two more novels and a late marriage
Read the five-chapter life of Charlotte Brontë →
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