Biographical note

The eldest of the famed Brontë sisters, Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was both a lauded novelist and a poet. Born in Yorkshire, England, Charlotte drew upon much of her own experience, both as a student at a reportedly harsh school and as a governess, to write Jane Eyre, her second novel. Like her sisters, Charlotte wrote under a nom de plume. As Currer Bell, she published numerous pieces of poetry before delving into fiction. In the months after Jane Eyre was published, three of Charlotte’s remaining siblings died, and she was said to have channeled her grief into writing. After rejecting three suitors, Charlotte eventually married, but both she and her unborn first child died only weeks before her thirty-ninth birthday. Charlotte left behind a literary legacy, including this classic novel that has influenced generations of readers.