Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was an English novelist and poet and the eldest of the Brontë sisters. She was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, and grew up in Haworth, where her father was a clergyman. Brontë is best known for her novel *Jane Eyre* (1847), first published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. The book’s first-person voice and its portrayal of a heroine seeking independence helped secure her reputation. She later published *Shirley* (1849) and *Villette* (1853). In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father’s curate. Brontë died in 1855 in Haworth.