Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Bronte (April 21, 1816-March 31, 1855) is considered one of the leading figures in 19th Century Victorian Literature. She was a renowned English novelist as well as poet. Born in Thornton, Yorkshire to an Irish Anglican clergyman, she was the third of six children . At an age of eight, Bronte went to clergy daughter’s school in Lancashire, whose inhuman condition had permanently taken its toll on her health and physical development. The school has a special mentioning in her novel Jane Eyre in the name of Lowood School. In fact two of her elder sisters succumbed to tuberculosis while attending that school. Along with her surviving siblings, she began chronicling about the life and struggle of the inhabitants of their imaginary country, Angria. Bronte has also worked as governess for various families in Yorkshire till 1841. Her stay in Brussels as an English tutor did not last long because of her feeling lonely, homesick and her growing proximity to Constantine Ledger, the Belgian teacher in the same boarding school.
Bronte’s stay at the boarding school served as an inspiration behind her novel “The Professor and the Villette”. Politically she was a Tory, who believed in preaching tolerance rather than revolution. Lord Charles Albert Florian, Wellesley and Currer Bell are her pen names showcasing the patriarchal Victorian society as well as her inherent shy nature .It was only after the enormous success of Jane Eyre that she revealed her true identity. The novel since long has been dubed as a semi autobiographical piece by critics.
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