Charlotte Brontë: 10 facts part1

There’s more to Charlotte Brontë than blustery landscapes, sheltered spinsters and tormented romances. On the bicentenary of the author’s birth we uncover some surprising truths.

1. As a child she would create imaginary worlds

After leaving their strict, religious school, the Brontë children became increasingly cut off from the outside world. The siblings would create imaginary worlds and write reams of stories for one another. Charlotte and her brother, Branwell, wrote about their fictional country, Angria. Their imaginations served to entertain the children and ready them for careers as writers. 

2. She didn’t always use the name Charlotte Brontë

The author first published her books, including her classic, Jane Eyre, under the nom de plume Currer Bell. Her sisters adopted the names Ellis and Acton Bell to preserve their privacy and mask their gender.​

3. Her first book only sold two copies

In 1846 Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne pooled their finances to self-publish a joint book of poetry, Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The publication only attracted two sales but it was noticed by other publishers, and two reviews encouraged them to keep writing. They followed up this effort by each writing a novel; Charlotte’s first full manuscript, The Professor, was declined for publication.

4. All her siblings had died by the time she was 33

The third of six children, Charlotte lost her mother to cancer when she was five. Four years later her sisters Maria and Elizabeth died of tuberculosis. Tragically, she lost her three other siblings – her brother Branwell and sisters Emily and Anne – within eight months of each other, between 1848 and 1849.  

5. She was in love with a married man

IIn 1842 Charlotte and her sister Emily travelled to Brussels to find work in a boarding school run by Constantin Héger. While teaching English at the school Charlotte became increasingly attached to Héger, and the letters she sent to him after leaving the school indicate she was in love with him. Héger was a married man and it is certain he didn’t reciprocate the feelings or reply to her letters. Four of these letters were printed by The Times in 1913.