Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Nicholls (; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known as Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood. She is best known for her novel ''Jane Eyre'', which she published under the pseudonym Currer Bell. ''Jane Eyre'' was a success on publication, and has since become known as a classic of English literature.

Charlotte Brontë enrolled in school at Roe Head, Mirfield, in January 1831, at the age of 14. She left the following year in order to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home, then returned to Roe Head in 1835 as a teacher. In 1839, she undertook the role of governess for the Sidgwick 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, along with Emily and Anne. 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''.

The three sisters then attempted to open a school in Haworth but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing; they each first published 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, almost certainly from hyperemesis gravidarum, a complication of pregnancy which causes excessive nausea and vomiting. Provided by Wikipedia