Charlotte Brontë

1816–1855 · English (Haworth, Yorkshire) · Victorian England

Known for: Author of Jane Eyre—one of the greatest English novels, a feminist masterpiece before feminism existed

Charlotte Brontë grew up in a remote Yorkshire parsonage with her siblings Emily and Anne, creating elaborate fantasy worlds as children and publishing under the male pseudonym Currer Bell. Jane Eyre (1847) was a sensation—its fierce, plain heroine who declares 'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me' was revolutionary for its era.

Charlotte was ambitious, passionate, and haunted by loss—her mother died when she was five, her two older sisters died in childhood, and she watched Emily and Anne die within months of each other in 1848-49. She married her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, in 1854 but died the following year, probably from complications of pregnancy. She was 38.

Browse all 1,000 figures by category

Enable JavaScript to view the full "if they lived today" Q&A and personality profile.