Charlotte Brontë - Charlotte Brontë Biography - Poem Hunter Charlotte Brontë - Charlotte Brontë Biography - Poem Hunter Biography Biography of Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell. Early life and education Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, the third of six children, to Maria (née Branwell) and her husband Patrick Brontë (formerly surnamed Brunty or Prunty), an Irish Anglican clergyman. In 1820, the family moved a few miles to the village of Haworth, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate of St Michael and All Angels Church. Charlotte's mother died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to be taken care of by her sister Elizabeth Branwell.

In August 1824, Charlotte was sent with three of her sisters, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire (Charlotte later used the school as the basis for the fictional Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school's poor conditions, Charlotte maintained, permanently affected her health and physical development and hastened the deaths of her two elder sisters, Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who died of tuberculosis in June 1825. Soon after their father removed them from the school. At home in Haworth Parsonage Charlotte acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters". She and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne – created their own literary fictional worlds, and began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of these imaginary kingdoms. Charlotte and Branwell wrote Byronic stories about their imagined country ("Angria") and Emily and Anne wrote articles and poems about theirs ("Gondal").

The sagas which they created were elaborate and convoluted (and still exist in partial manuscripts) and provided them with an obsessive interest during childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for their literary vocations in adulthood. Charlotte continued her education at Roe Head, Mirfield, from 1831 to 32, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period, she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf (1833) under the name of Wellesley. Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. In 1839, she took up the first of many positions as governess to various families in Yorkshire, a career she pursued until 1841. Politically a Tory, she preached tolerance rather than revolution. She held high moral principles, and, despite her shyness in company, she was always prepared to argue her beliefs. Brussels In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels to enroll in a boarding school run by Constantin Heger (1809–96) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1804–87).

In return for board and tuition, Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the boarding school was cut short when Elizabeth Branwell, their aunt who joined the family after the death of their mother to look after the children, died of internal obstruction in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the boarding school. Her second stay at the boarding school was not a happy one; she became lonely, homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Heger. She finally returned to Haworth in January 1844 and later used her time at the boarding school as the inspiration for some experiences in The Professor and Villette. First publication In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne self-financed the publication of a joint collection of poetry under the assumed names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. These pseudonyms deliberately veiled the sisters' gender whilst preserving their real initials, thus Charlotte was "Currer Bell". "Bell" was also the middle name of Haworth's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, whom Charlotte would later marry.

Of the decision to use nom de plumes, Charlotte later wrote: Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because — without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called 'feminine' – we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise. Although only two copies of the collection of poetry were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels, continuing to use their nom de plumes when sending manuscripts to potential publishers. Jane Eyre Charlotte's first manuscript, called The Professor, did not secure a publisher, although she was heartened by an encouraging response she received from Smith, Elder & Co of Cornhill, who expressed an interest in any longer works which "Currer Bell" might wish to send.

Charlotte responded by finishing and sending a second manuscript in August 1847, and six weeks later this second manuscript (titled Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) was published. Jane Eyre was a success, and initially received favourable reviews. Straightaway there was speculation about the identity of Currer Bell, and whether Bell was a man or a woman. A couple of months later this speculation heightened upon the subsequent publication of the first novels by Charlotte's sisters: Emily's Wuthering Heights (by "Ellis Bell") and Anne's Agnes Grey (by "Acton Bell"). Accompanying this speculation was a change in the critical reaction to Charlotte's work; accusations began to be made that Charlotte's writing was "coarse", a judgement which was made more readily once it was suspected that "Currer Bell" was a woman. However sales of Jane Eyre continued to be strong, and may even have increased due to the novel's developing reputation as an 'improper' book. Shirley and family bereavements Following the success of Jane Eyre, Charlotte began work in 1848 on the manuscript of what was to become her second novel, Shirley.

However the manuscript was only partially completed when the Brontë household suffered a tragic turn of events, experiencing the deaths of three family members within a period of only eight months. In September 1848 Charlotte's brother, Branwell, the only son of the family, died of chronic bronchitis and marasmus exacerbated by heavy drinking, although Charlotte believed his death was due to tuberculosis. Branwell was also a suspected "opium eater", (i.e. a laudanum addict). Emily became seriously ill shortly after Branwell's funeral, dying of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848. Anne died of the same disease in May 1849. Charlotte was unable to continue writing during this period. After Anne's death Charlotte resumed writing as a way of dealing with her grief,and Shirley was published in October 1849. Shirley deals with the themes of industrial unrest and the role of women in society. Unlike Jane Eyre, which is written from the first-person perspective of the main character, Shirley is written from the third-person perspective of a narrator. It consequently lacks the emotional immediacy of Jane Eyre, and reviewers found it less shocking.

In society In view of the success of her novels, particularly Jane Eyre, Charlotte was persuaded by her publisher to visit London occasionally, where she revealed her true identity and began to move in a more exalted social circle, becoming friends with Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Gaskell, and acquainted with William Makepeace Thackeray and G. H. Lewes. However Charlotte never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time as she did not want to leave her ageing father's side. Thackeray’s daughter, the writer Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie recalled a visit to her father by Charlotte: …two gentlemen come in, leading a tiny, delicate, serious, little lady, with fair straight hair, and steady eyes. She may be a little over thirty; she is dressed in a little barège dress with a pattern of faint green moss. She enters in mittens, in silence, in seriousness; our hearts are beating with wild excitement.

This then is the authoress, the unknown power whose books have set all London talking, reading, speculating; some people even say our father wrote the books – the wonderful books… The moment is so breathless that dinner comes as a relief to the solemnity of the occasion, and we all smile as my father stoops to offer his arm; for, genius though she may be, Miss Brontë can barely reach his elbow. My own personal impressions are that she is somewhat grave and stern, specially to forward little girls who wish to chatter… Every one waited for the brilliant conversation which never began at all. Miss Brontë retired to the sofa in the study, and murmured a low word now and then to our kind governess… the conversation grew dimmer and more dim, the ladies sat round still expectant, my father was too much perturbed by the gloom and the silence to be able to cope with it at all… after Miss Brontë had left, I was surprised to see my father opening the front door with his hat on. He put his fingers to his lips, walked out into the darkness, and shut the door quietly behind him… long afterwards… Mrs.

Procter asked me if I knew what had happened… It was one of the dullest evenings [Mrs Procter] had ever spent in her life… the ladies who had all come expecting so much delightful conversation, and the gloom and the constraint, and how finally, overwhelmed by the situation, my father had quietly left the room, left the house, and gone off to his club. Friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell Charlotte sent copies of Shirley to selected leading authors of the day, including Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskell and Charlotte subsequently met in August 1850 and began a friendship which, whilst not necessarily close, was significant in that Gaskell would write a biography of Charlotte after Charlotte's death in 1855. The biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, was published in 1857 and was unusual at the time in that, rather than analysing its subject's achievements, it instead concentrated on the private details of Charlotte's life, in particular placing emphasis on aspects which countered the accusations of 'coarseness' which had been levelled at Charlotte's writing.

Though frank in places, Gaskell was selective about which details she revealed; for example, she suppressed details of Charlotte's love for Heger, a married man, as being too much of an affront to contemporary morals and as a possible source of distress to Charlotte's still-living friends, father and husband. Gaskell also provided doubtful and inaccurate information about Patrick Brontë, claiming, for example, that he did not allow his children to eat meat. This is refuted by one of Emily Brontë's diary papers, in which she describes the preparation of meat and potatoes for dinner at the parsonage, as Juliet Barker points out in her recent biography, The Brontës. It has been argued that the particular approach of The Life of Charlotte Brontë transferred the focus of attention away from the 'difficult' novels of not just Charlotte but all the Brontë sisters, and began a process of sanctification of their private lives. Villette Charlotte's third published novel (and her last to be published during her lifetime) was Villette, which came out in 1853.

The main themes of Villette include isolation, and how such a condition can be borne, and the internal conflict brought about by societal repression of individual desire. The book's main character, Lucy Snowe, travels abroad to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette, where she encounters a culture and religion different to her own, and where she falls in love with a man ('Paul Emanuel') whom she cannot marry due to societal forces. Her experiences result in her having a breakdown, but eventually she achieves independence and fulfilment in running her own school. Villette marked Charlotte's return to the format of writing from a first-person perspective (that of Lucy Snowe), a technique which she had used so successfully in Jane Eyre. Also similar to Jane Eyre was Charlotte's use of aspects from her own life history as inspiration for fictional events in the novel, in particular her reworking of her own time spent at the pensionnat in Brussels into Lucy spending time teaching at the boarding school, and her own falling in love with Constantin Heger into Lucy falling in love with 'Paul Emanuel'.

Villette was acknowledged by the critics of the day as being a potent and sophisticated piece of writing, although it was still criticised for its 'coarseness' and for not being suitably 'feminine' in its portrayal of Lucy's desires. Illness and subsequent death In June 1854, Charlotte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate and, in the opinion of many scholars, the model for several of her literary characters such as Jane Eyre's Rochester and St. John. She became pregnant soon after the marriage. Her health declined rapidly during this time, and according to Gaskell, her earliest biographer, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness."Charlotte died, along with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, at the young age of 38. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as phthisis (tuberculosis), but many biographers[who?] suggest she may have died from dehydration and malnourishment, caused by excessive vomiting from severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum.

There is also evidence to suggest that Charlotte died from typhus she may have caught from Tabitha Ackroyd, the Bronte household's oldest servant, who died shortly before her. Charlotte was interred in the family vault in The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Haworth, West Yorkshire, England.

Posthumously, her first-written novel was published in 1857, the fragment she worked on in her last years in 1860 (twice completed by recent authors, the more famous version being Emma Brown: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë by Clare Boylan, 2003), and much Angria material over the ensuing decades Charlotte Brontë's Works: The Young Men's Magazine, Number 1 - 3 (August 1830) The Spell The Brontë Pseudonyms: A Woman's Image — The Writer and Her Public The Brontë Pseudonyms: A Woman's Image — The Writer and Her Public Marianne Thormahlen, University of Lund, Sweden This essay, which was originally published in English Studies (1994) as 'The Bronte Pseudonyms', appears in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author and the English Studies publishers Swets & Zeitlinger, who retain copyright. Notes to this WWW edition Numbers in brackets indicate page breaks in the print edition and thus allow users of VW to cite or locate the original page numbers. Text links take you to material not in the original print version. [GPL].

Adrian Kang, Chew Yong Jack, and GPL created the HTML version, converting footnotes. GPL also linked the text to other portions of the Victorian Web. Clicking on superscript numbers brings you to the top of the left column; hitting the back button on your browser returns you to your place in the body of the main text. Notes 1. Emily Brontë: A Biography (Oxford, 1971), pp. 185-6. On Charlotte and Miss Currer, see also Gérin's Charlotte Bronte: The Evolution of Genius (Oxford, 1967), p. 309, and F.B. Pinion, A Brontë Companion: Literary Assessment, Background, and Reference (London, 1975), p. 278. The first person (as far as I am aware) to suggest that Charlotte may have borrowed her pseudonym from Miss Currer was 'the Hon. Lady Wilson of Eshton Hall' in the 'The Brontës as Governesses', Brontë Society Transactions 9 (1939), 217-18.

See also Clifford Whone's report on The Keighley Mechanics' Institute, 'Where the Brontës Borrowed Books', Brontë Society Transactions 11 (1950), 345. (Whone noted the occurrence of Miss Currer's name among Institute members but did not outline any other relevant points in support of the connexion.) 2. Adopting a surname as a first name was of course a convenient way of concealing a person's sex; after all, the choice of 'proper' Christian names that could have been used by men and women alike was severely limited. Charlotte's Shirley was given this 'masculine cognomen' in default of heirs male, pioneering it as a first name for women; see E.G. Withycombe, The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names (Oxford, 1945), p. 118. 3. On phrenology in Charlotte's novels, see Wilfred M.

Senseman's 'Charlotte Brontë's Use of Physiognomy and Phrenology', Brontë Society Transactions 12 (1967), 286-89, a recapitulation and part-reproduction of an article in Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, 38 (1953), and Ian Jack, 'Physiognomy, Phrenology and Characterisation in the Novels of Charlotte Brontë', Brontë Society Transactions 15 (1970), 377-91. For Anne's use of phrenology, see my 'The Villain of Wildfell Hall: Aspects and Prospects of Arthur Huntingdon' The Modern Language Review 88.4 (October 1993), 834-6. 4. Subtitled A Study of the Bronte Sisters as Early-Victorian Female Novelists, it appeared in 1966 (Gothenburg and London).

Another well-researched and informative dissertation, on an adjacent subject, by a Swedish Brontë scholar appeared eight years later, Harriet Björk's The Language of Truth: Charlotte Bronte, the Woman Question, and the Novel, No. 47 in Lund Studies in English (Lund, 1974). 5. See Frank, A Chainless Soul, p. 216, and Chitham, Emily Brontë, p. 198. (Clifford Whone did suggest that the name of another Keighley Mechanics' Institute member, one William Ellis, Esq., might have supplied Emily's pseudonym, but the absence of any further links detracts from the likelihood of this idea; see 'Where the Brontës Borrowed Books', 345.) 6. Cf. Margot Peters's account of Arthur Bell Nicholls's (successful) attempt at vindicating Ireland, and his own Irish family, in the prejudiced Charlotte's eyes; Unquiet Soul: A Biography of Charlotte Bronte (London, 1975), p. 396.

— This is not to say that that ancestry was unimportant to the Brontës' personalities and their artistry; see, for instance, Edward Chitham, The Brontës' Irish Background (London, 1986). (There are also many references to the Celtic origins of the Rev. Patrick Bronte in Chitham's biographies of Emily and Anne [the latter of which, A Life of Anne Brontë, was published by Blackwells in 1991].) 7. The Women of England, Their Social Duties, and Domestic Habits, 3rd ed. (1839), p. 343 (from the chapter on 'Modern Education'). According to Rebecca Fraser, Mrs Ellis evinced something of a change of heart in respect of female education under the pressures of the 1840s (see Fraser's Charlotte Brontë, London, 1988, p. 147); 1 have failed to detect such a modification in her views. 8. A Quaker and a supporter of women's rights, she was a friend of Mrs Gaskell 's.

Her husband William reviewed Shirley in favourable terms; see Miriam Allott (ed.), The Brontës: The Critical Heritage (London, 1974), pp. 133-5. Shortly afterwards, Mrs Gaskell wrote her initial letter to Charlotte. Incidentally, Mrs Howitt translated the works of the Swedish domestic novelist Fredrika Bremer, whose work was known to the Brontës; for instance, Charlotte refers to Anne's reading one of her tales in the last few months of her life (see, for example, Chitham's biography of Anne, p. 181; on Bremer and Charlotte Brontë, see Björk's dissertation, especially pp. 83-5). The reason why such details seem noteworthy to me is that they suggest that 'networks' among women operated in the nineteenth century no less than in our time, a point that might prove relevant to Brontë studies. 9.

He had discouraged Charlotte from making literature her sole career on the basis of poems she had sent to him, but this did not prevent her from taking a pathetic pride in the fact that he had seen some merit in them (cf, Torn Winnifrith, A New Life of Charlotte Brontë, London, 1988, pp. 62-3). Viewed against the background of contemporary circumstances, Southey's letter to her 'klingt ... sogar vernünftig', as Elsemarie Maletzke has observed; see her Das Leben der Brontës: Eine Biographie (Frankfurt, 1988; I have used the Fischer pocket edition of 1992, where the relevant passage occurs on p. 148). 10. It is hard to apply the term 'great' to Bell after having read the grim verdict on his personal qualities in Meiklejohn's book (especially p. 120); but he was by any reckoning phenomenally successful in a worldly sense, and he had a number of faithful friends and correspondents, members of the Gaskell family among them (see New Letters of Robert Southey, ed.

Kenneth Curry, New York and London, 1965, Vol. II, p. 403, It might, incidentally, soothe the indignation of those who find Southey's patronising attitude to women as displayed in his letters to Charlotte too unbearable to allow for any charity in his direction to contemplate his shock and disgust at the brutal manifestations of sexual double standards [p. 48 in Vol. I]. They led to the comparatively forward-looking statement, 'Nothing is more astonishing to me than that a virtue so rigidly demanded from woman should be so despised among men'.) Bibliographical materials on Bell See the entry on Bell in Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. IV, pp. 149-152. Further information on Bell was provided by J.M.D. Meiklejohn's An Old Educational Reformer: Dr. Andrew Bell (Edinburgh and London, 1881). Another circumstance favouring the idea of a Bell-Brontë connexion is Bell's preparing the way for the Mechanics' Institutes; see J.W. Hudson, The History of Adult Education (London, 1851), pp. 1-25. References Bentley, Phyllis.

The Brontës. London: 1947. Chadwick, Mrs Ellis [sic] H. In the Footsteps of the Brontës London, 1914. Chitham, Edward. A Life of Emily Brontë. Oxford: 1987. Dibdin, Thomas Frognall. Reminiscences of a Literary Life; with Anecdotes of Books, and of Book Collectors. London, 1836. Dictionary of National Biography Edgeworth, Maria. Tales and Novels. London: 1857. Ellis, Sarah. Family Secrets, or Hints to Those Who Would Make Home Happy. London, 1841. _____. The Home Life and Letters of Mrs. Ellis, Compiled by Her Nieces. London: 1893. _____. Pictures of Private Life, 2nd ed. London, 1833. _____. The Daughters of England. London, 1842. _____. The Mothers of England: Their Influence & Responsibility London, 1843. Frank, Katherine. A Chainless Soul: A Life of Emily Brontë.

Boston: 1990. Gates, Barbara Timm (ed.). Critical Essays on Charlotte Brontë. Boston: 1990. Hopkins, Annette B. The Father of the Brontës. Baltimore: 1958. Levine, Richard A. (ed.). Backgrounds to Victorian Literature. San Francisco: 1967. Peters, Margot. "Unquiet Soul." Brontë Society Transactions 72 (1962), 20-22. Pykett, Lyn. Emily Brontë. "Macmillan Women Writers series." London: Macmillan, 1989. Ray, Elizabeth. The Best of Eliza Acton. London: 1968. Sale, William M. Jr (ed.). Wuthering Heights. New York: Norton, 1972. Stickney, Sarah. See Ellis above. Thormahlen, Marianne. 'The Villain of Wildfell Hall: Aspects and Prospects of Arthur Huntingdon.' The Modern Language Review 88.4 (October 1993), 834-36.

Winnifrith, Tom. The Brontës and Their Background: Romance and Reality. London: 1973. Withycombe, E.G. The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford, 1945. Young, G.M. (ed.). Early Victorian Britain 1830-1865. London: 1934. In 1850, Charlotte Brontë's 'Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell' put a stop to all speculation on the sex of the 'Bells'. The wording of the passage where she outlined the adoption of their noms de guerre is remarkable for reasons which still have not been fully appreciated: Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because — without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called 'feminine' — we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice . . .

[quoted from the Norton edition of Wuthering Heights, p. 4] Scores of Brontë critics have paraphrased the quoted lines in terms such as 'The sisters chose the neutral pen-names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, not wishing to expose themselves to the prejudice or the condescension then often displayed by critics towards women writers, but scrupling to take names positively masculine' (Bentley, p. 37). A recent biographer of Emily Brontë maintains that 'cloaked' would have been a more accurate word than 'veiled', 'for the names, though not blatantly masculine, certainly wouldn't be taken as women's' (Frank, p. 15). Charlotte's expressions 'veiled', 'ambiguous choice', and 'conscientious scruple' might have invited more curiosity about the 'Christian names' than they have done. With the exception of Winifred Gérin, Brontë scholars have not displayed much interest in the actual fabric of the 'veil'. Why 'Currer', 'Ellis', and 'Acton'? And what considerations could have prompted the choice of 'Bell'?

The following passage from Gérin's book on Emily Brontë summarises the substance of previous enquiry concerning the origins of the Brontë pseudonyms: How they came by their names they never revealed, but there are some strong indications. The name Bell may have been chosen by the arrival that summer of their father's new curate, Arthur Bell Nichols. While a governess at the Sidgwicks, Charlotte had certainly heard much of their neighbour, Miss Frances Mary Richardson Currer, of Eshton Hall, Skipton, whose property touched Stonegappe, and whose library was famous throughout the north. She was one of the founder patrons of the Clergy Daughters' School, so that her name must have been doubly familiar to Charlotte. The poetess Eliza Acton (1777-1859) [the Dictionary of National Biography gives Acton's birth year as 1799], who had considerable success in her day and was patronized [246/247] by royalty, may have suggested Anne's pseudonym to her. There appears to be no clue to the origin of Emily's choice of name, Ellis.

1 Guérin disposes of any doubt in respect of Charlotte: she must have derived her unusual 'first' name from Frances Mary Richardson Currer, the illustrious scholar of Eshton Hall. For reasons stated below (and not addressed by Gérin), I find the connexion between Anne and Eliza Acton plausible, too. But if Charlotte and Anne acquired their 'Christian names' from the surnames 2 of two contemporary women who had made their mark in the realm of books and writing, Emily is likely to have done the same. After some additional observations respecting 'Currer' and 'Acton', the greater part of the following discussion deals with a putative source for 'Ellis', ending with a consideration of the 'Bell' issue. (The 'Bell' explanation offered by Gérin has been stated as a certainty by several other Brontë scholars.) The argumentation is based on a conviction that the Brontës, never given to haphazardness and speedily maturing as artists, will have invested a good deal of thought in the selection of their pen-names. Typically, Charlotte speaks of a 'choice . . . dictated by . . . scruple'.

* * * * * It is not impossible that Charlotte herself had access to Miss Currer's books at some point. An avid reader from childhood, the latter had inherited a fine library, kept adding to it, and ensured that her books were expertly catalogued. (See Dictionary of National Biography, XIII, 340). The second catalogue, compiled by C.J. Stewart, was privately printed (100 copies) in 1833 and is a treasure-trove for anyone interested in the reading habits of the educated pre- and early-Victorian upper class. While Miss Currer's collection featured many respectable works of natural science, she was sufficiently interested in the pseudo-scientific fashions of her day to acquire a copy of the Physiognomical System of Drs Gall and Spurzheim. The doctors were pioneers of phrenology , a school of thought whose influence on Charlotte [247/248] and Anne is patent in their novels. 3 Another of the interests that Miss Currer shared with the Brontës was mental improvement, and she owned educational works by like-minded women such as Mrs Hester Chapone and Maria Edgeworth.

The fact that F.M.R. Currer supported the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge suggests that she was one of those 'wealthy and benevolent individuals in the county' (Jane Eyre's description of the subscribers to a new and improved Lowood Institute (opening of Chapter 10). Charlotte is not likely to have blamed a founder patron for subsequent misfortunes at the institution.) whose munificence ensured the survival of charitable institutions. Her character (she was 'extremely accomplished and amiable', according to the DNB biographer) seems to have been as irreproachable as her scholarship; in 1836, the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin placed her 'at THE HEAD of all female Collectors in Europe', calling her 'a sort of modern CHRISTINA of the North' (p. 949). Despite these exalted attainments, Miss Currer favoured practical usefulness in her selection of books, and a similar streak can be observed in the personality of the woman whose surname is likely to have provided Anne with her first nom de plume.

The links between the youngest Brontë and Miss Eliza Acton are much more tenuous than the Charlotte-Currer ones, but there are indications that support the idea of a connexion. The poems contained in Eliza Acton's one volume of verse often resemble Anne's both with regard to metre and subject matter. Acton obviously suffered a disappointment in love (according to the DNB entry, she was at one time engaged to an officer in the French army), and several poems hint darkly at a loved one who proved unworthy, even criminal. Many of the lyrics express a hope for peace in the grave. Some poems imply a certain amount of romantic idealism in the young poetess (still in her twenties), among them 'A Sketch' where she accuses the English of pettiness to the vanquished Napoleon. Eliza Acton was certainly well known in her time; but her greatest claim to lasting fame did not reside in this twice-printed collection of poems which she published (by subscription, 1,000 copies in all) in 1826 and 1827. (See Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 1, 66-67).

Nor were her fugitive verses on Queens Adelaide and Victoria destined to make her remembered a good hundred years after her death. Her greatest success in the realm of writing came in 1845, towards the end of which the three Brontë sisters conceived the plan of publishing a selection of their poems. Before that year was [248/249] out, Miss Eliza Acton's Modern Cookery for Private Families had already gone into three editions. Another two were called for in 1846, and new editions kept appearing in subsequent years. Tradition has it that this immensely and immediately successful work was the result of the no longer youthful poetess's asking her publisher, Mr Longman, to name the subject of a book 'for which the world has a need' (as it was clear that there was no demand for poetry, at least not for hers). Longman allegedly replied that he wanted 'a really good cookery book', and Miss Acton fell to work with characteristic conscientiousness. (The anecdote has been retold several times; see, for instance, Mrs C. S.

Peel's essay on 'Homes and Habits' in Young, I, 125-6.) She devoted several years to the completion of a magnificent and beautifully written book, to which no less an authority than Elizabeth David paid the ultimate accolade in calling it 'the greatest cookery book in our language'. (Page xxvii in her Introduction to The Best of Eliza Acton, Recipes from her classic Modern Cookery for Private Families, selected and edited by Elizabeth Ray) One notable feature in Acton's Modern Cookery is its emphasis on bread-making, an art which Emily Brontë apparently commanded to perfection (see, for instance, Chitham, pp. 159 and 170). The combination of poetry and domesticity in the person and work of Eliza Acton increases the probability of her surname having been chosen as a 'veil' by one of the Brontë sisters. Household chores made up a very considerable portion of their daily lives, especially Emily's — one chapter in Chitham's biography is aptly entitled 'Domestic Chores Lightened by Fancy' — and they took pride in performing them impeccably.

The roles of the Brontës as women novelists, viewed against the background of the situation of women in their time, is the subject of one of the finest Brontë monographs, Inga-Stina Ewbank's Their Proper Sphere. 4 Ewbank proceeded from the demonstrable fact that women were held to occupy a 'sphere "distinct and separate" from man's' (p. vii in her Preface), the words 'distinct and separate' being a direct quotation from Mrs Sarah Ellis's The Daughters of England (1842). Later in the book, Ewbank shows that the Brontës — unlike Mrs Ellis and other women writers of domestic novels — broke the confinement of the woman novelist to 'woman's proper sphere', arguing that they were particularly 'a-typical' in this respect, as Jane Austen had been before them (Their Proper Sphere, p. 41).

It takes some nerve to suggest that Sarah Ellis, author of 'manuals on womanhood' and didactic fiction, might have supplied the first name of the 'Bell' whose 'sphere' was farther removed from the question of the moral worth of women than that of any of her sisters (or, for that matter, of any other English woman novelist). On the face of it, the idea seems not only absurd but downright [249/250] insulting to the lone-Titan, law-unto-herself Emily Brontë. Even the recent critics and biographers, such as Lyn Pykett, who have modified that traditional conception of Emily, considering her work in relation to contemporary domestic fiction by women and generally 'humanising' her for us, would probably find it at least incongruous. Insofar as Brontë scholars have mentioned Mrs Sarah Ellis, née Stickney, at all, they have referred to her in terms such as 'that indefatigable writer of conduct books for Victorian girls' without pausing to consider the implications of her surname; see Sandra M. Gilbert in Gates, p. 161.

The only rationale of 'Ellis' that I have seen relates Emily's scruple-dictated choice to her Irish grandmother's first name. 5 However, most sources give the latter's Christian name as 'Alice' or 'Elinor' (the latter with variant spellings); see, for instance, Hopkins, p. 134n10, and also Withycombe, p. 45. Although the suggestion remains a possibility, it does not seem very likely to me — certainly not if one accepts the idea that Charlotte and Anne chose the surnames of remarkable contemporary women intellectuals. The Brontë children never knew their father's mother, Mrs Brunty/O'Prunty, née McClory, and none of the sisters is on record as having shown much interest, let alone pride, in their Irish ancestry. 6 None of this, however, can strengthen the case for Mrs Ellis in the eyes of those to whom she was an apostle of 'namby-pambyism' (Knickerbocker is one of them; see his essay on Victorian education in Levine, pp. 146-47).

But is this conception a fair one, and — more to the point — is that the way she would have appeared to the Brontë sisters? Most of those writers on the Brontës who refer to Mrs Ellis's works do so in 'quoted-in' references, which suggests that they have not in fact studied her writings. A couple of days in a well-assorted research library yield rather a different picture of them, and her, from the now-conventional one. The Daughters of England, for instance, extols ingenuity and regrets that imitation rather than invention is predominant in the teaching of needlework etc. (p. 80); it also urges women as well as men to acquire 'a general knowledge of the political and social state of the country in which we live, and indeed of all countries' (p. 110). Not to possess any knowledge of, and sentiments regarding, [250/251] various social issues such as slavery, temperance, and cruelty to animals is 'disgraceful' in a woman, however 'accomplished and amiable' (those standard nineteenth-century virtues) she might be (p. 112).

A love of truth is urged on young women as being the capacity that will enable them 'to see every object as it really is, and to see it clearly' (p. 115). The study of music and drawing is highly recommended, and 'a woman without poetry, is like a landscape without sunshine' (p. 162). Mrs Ellis freely alludes to Byron and Scott in this work of instruction for young Victorian womanhood; these references to Brontë favourites — especially to the former — will have raised quite a few eyebrows among the more strait-laced mammas. It is certainly true that Mrs Ellis speaks of women's inferiority to men in several respects, and that her acceptance of women's lot 'to suffer, and be still' will grate on a modern reader (The Daughters of England, p. 161). For great literary attainments she believed women disqualified: 'It is only in her proper and natural sphere that a woman is poetical' (The Poetry of Life, published while she was still Sarah Stickney (1835), II, 79, 83).

She is known to have found Currer Bell's work improper for a woman; but she made no secret of finding it fascinating, telling a friend in a letter, 'It is strange the hold this writer has upon me' (Home Life, p. 147; her review in The Morning Call is, as Margot Peters points out in Unquiet Soul, pp. 205 and 428, reprinted in the Bronte Society Transactions 72 [1962], 20-22; cf. Winnifrith, pp. 125-26). To her contemporaries, her advice on the education of girls could seem shockingly 'advanced', as when she recommended mothers to let their young daughters roam freely outdoors: 'they should climb with [their brothers] the craggy rock, penetrate the forest, and ramble over hill and dale' (Mothers of England, p. 329). Advice of this sort was natural from a woman who, like Emily Brontë, loved the outdoors from childhood; again like Emily, she was devoted to animals, dogs and horses especially — see Home Life, pp.

5-6; her nieces tell us that she was a fearless rider — a devotion often reflected in her tremendously influential writings. As Eliza Acton's emphasis on bread-baking will have appealed more directly to Emily than to Anne, so Emily's 'twin spirit' will have taken a greater interest in Sarah Ellis's moral fiction than her sister. Mrs Ellis devoted three volumes of stories (of approx. 100 pages each) to the theme of intemperance, approached in a variety of ways. Under the cover of fiction, she warned readers against the dangers of taking brandy as a remedy for ill-health, of convivial drinking for those who have inherited a predisposition for alcoholism, and of attempting to drink 'moderately' rather than abstaining completely if one is a sufferer — all highly controversial notions in her day (and accepted wisdom in ours). Her Family Secrets, or Hints to Those Who Would Make Home Happy were published in 1841, seven years before The Tenant of Wildfell Hall which has been called 'the first temperance novel' (by Chadwick, p. 355; on drink in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, see my article 'The Villain of Wildfell Hall).

When still Sarah Stickney, Mrs Ellis had [251/252] published an account of 'Marriage As It May Be' whose protagonists resemble the Huntingdon ménage; the husband has 'a mere animal propensity — over which a variable and volatile spirit has little power. It was not to drown the anguish of a tortured mind that he swallowed the fatal draught, but solely for the sake of the excitement and the love of what he called "good company"' (Pictures, pp. 342-43). Mrs Sarah Ellis advocated giving space to imagination and poetry in education, qualities often crowded out of 'our busy modern lives'; 'what we most want in education . . . is to invest material things with the attributes of mind'. 7 Opinions like these align her with other women scholars and writers, such as Mary Howitt, and they knew each other well. 8 Another sentiment which would endear her to the Brontë sisters is expressed in The Mothers of England (p. 353): And here I must beg to call the attention of the mothers of England to one particular class of women, whose rights and whose sufferings ought to occupy, more than they do, the attention of benevolent Christians.

I allude to governesses, and I believe that in this class, taken as a whole, is to be found more refinement of mind, and consequently more susceptibility of feeling, than in any other. Like Agnes Grey, Mrs Ellis maintained that it is admirable for young women to be 'industrious rather than dependent' and spoke warmly of the distress of governesses who must leave home for 'the cold reception of strangers, the doubtful position when placed in an unknown household . . .' (Mothers of England, pp. 353, 358). Many of Mrs Ellis's qualities as manifested in her writings suggest that Anne would regard her with particular favour, and in view of the special closeness of the sisters' bond, the idea of calling Emily 'Ellis' might have originated with her. Be that as it may, the preceding pages should have done something to reduce the seeming improbability of the original proposal as regards Emily's pseudonym.

If it is accepted, the three Brontës can be seen to have 'veiled' their identities and their sex in an intriguing manner: their 'conscientious scruples' should have been peculiarly mitigated by their 'ambiguous choice' of first names that were [252/253] not only surnames, but the surnames of three women — all belonging to their mother's generation — who had distinguished themselves in that world of letters into which they were about to venture. * * * * * * * If the 'Christian names' were chosen according to a certain common principle, what about 'Bell'? The contention that the sisters simply plumped for the recently-arrived assistant clergyman's middle name, as 'a sort of private joke' (Frank, p. 15) does not fit in with the idea that they chose their pseudonyms after careful deliberation. Still, the surname was not of course required to serve such a delicate purpose (that of 'veiling' the authors' sex) as the first names. Hence the Arthur Bell Nicholls explanation is at least a possibility — but so are other options.

Two conditions had to be fulfilled by the surname jointly adopted by the Brontës: it had to begin with a B; and it must be common enough not to afford any clue to their true identities. It is worth observing that if any frequent surname beginning with a B would have done, the sisters could have chosen the alias that Charlotte and Anne were to adopt during their visit to London and called themselves 'Brown'. The second consideration, on which Emily may be assumed to have been especially insistent, made the obvious choice impossible. Unlike Helen Graham/Huntingdon and hosts of other personages, real and imaginary and past and present, the sisters could not use their mother's maiden name. Not only was it far too distinctive in itself; it was also the first name of the excluded brother who had cherished such high-flying literary ambitions of his own and who must at all costs be kept in ignorance of their project. Nevertheless, the name 'Branwell' could have been made to serve by lending its first and last letters to the enterprise. There is a third 'Bell' possibility, though.

If the explanations of the 'Christian names' can be found in the Brontës' intellectual milieu, there is a chance that that milieu could have furnished the surname, too. The entire Brontë family, the men included, had earned their living in the field of education. All the girls taught professionally at one time or another, and their scheme for starting their own school is universally known. The Rev. Patrick had been a pupil-teacher at sixteen before going on to tutoring, a career also pursued by his son. The father of the Brontës took a life-long, and sometimes highly practical, interest in schooling, especially as a means to improve the minds, morals, and living conditions of his more impecunious parishioners. His daughters and son taught the scions of wealthy families; but the account of the Morton village school in Jane Eyre testifies to Charlotte's commitment to education for the children of the poor. Throughout the first decades of the nineteenth century, one name dominated the debate on education, particularly that of the lower classes: Dr. Andrew Bell, [253/254] founder of the so-called Madras system of mutual instruction.

10 Reduced to its barest outlines, the system amounted to advanced pupils teaching younger ones. It was cheap, and it promised a rapid extension of literacy, reading and writing being the main skills that the older pupils could impart. Bell wrote a number of works on such topics as national education and the elements of tuition, and thousands of schools operated according to his system. His controversy with the Quaker Joseph Lancaster as to which of them was the true pioneer of the monitorial system was a widely-publicised quarrel. Bell's emphasis on the organisational connexion between national-education schemes and the Anglican Church made him unpopular among Dissenters but appealed to zealous supporters of the Established Church. The Rev. Patrick Brontë was such a supporter, and it is inconceivable that the name Andrew Bell should not have been a familiar one to the Brontë family. There were a number of Madras-system schools in Yorkshire (for instance in Leeds, York, and Sheffield), and Bell was idolised by several leading English intellectuals, among them Robert Southey, who had a special standing in Haworth Parsonage.

10 In 1844, one year after Southey's death and little more than a year before the Brontës chose their pseudonyms, his biography of Bell was published. Only the first volume is actually by Southey; his son finished the work. Southey had backed Bell in print against Lancaster as early as 1812, so his almost hysterical admiration for the famous educationist may well have been known to the Brontës long before that. Another educational reformer and theorist (and woman novelist) with whose works the Brontës must have been acquainted was Maria Edgeworth, whose fictional tale 'Lame Jervas' praised Bell and his school in India as early as 1799. The eponymous hero goes out as an assistant to Bell in India; see pp. 29 ff. in the second volume of Edgeworth's Tales and Novels in Ten Volumes.[254/255] Biographical speculation is virtually inescapable in Brontë studies, and these suggestions are as speculative as numerous other proposals that have been put forward in this field (though rather less so than others).

Even so, they tend in a direction which seems to me to hold out the possibility of an as-yet-largely-untapped reservoir of evidential material: the study of the Brontës as early-Victorian intellectuals. The pathos and glory of the unique Brontë story always tended to 'veil' the three heroines in mists of myth and legend. Recent work on the Brontës has done much to lift those mists, at least in places; but this area of their life and work is still insufficiently explored. Charlotte Bronte | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster By Charlotte Bronte ArtFolds: Read Readers and art lovers alike are about to fall in love again with Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, the gripping story of Jane’s growth from young orphan to a woman in love. The entire book is included inside this ArtFolds edition, which folds into a memorable sculpture displaying the word READ.An ArtFolds book is a hardcover book that is transformed into a unique paper sculpture merely by folding pages, based on our exclusive, patent-pending instructions. The process is fun and easy and takes...

Jane Eyre Add to Cart About the author: Charlotte Brontë (21 April 1816 - 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell. Jane Eyre Illustrated by Monro S. Orr Cover design or artwork by Emily Lam Jane Eyre (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on 16 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Primarily of the bildungsroman genre, Jane Eyre follows the emotions and experiences of its eponymous character, including her growth to adulthood, and her love for Mr. Rochester, the byronic master of fictitious Thornfield Hall.

In its internalisation of the action — the focus is on the gradual unfolding of Jane's moral and spiritual sensibility and all the events are coloured by a heightened intensity that was previously the domain of poetry — the novel revolutionised the art of fiction. Charlotte Brontë has been called the 'first historian of the private consciousness' and the literary ancestor of writers like Joyce and Proust. The novel contains elements of social criticism, with a strong sense of morality at its core, but is nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of its time given the individualistic character of Jane and the novel's exploration of classism, sexuality, religion, and proto-feminism. [Reception] According to a review of Jane Eyre in The Quarterly Review, it was found to be "pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition". Although Brontë clearly intended for the book to be a protest against Victorian lifestyle, which caused a great unrest with the Quarterly Review, they found Jane Eyre to be more radical than its original intent: "We do not hesitate to say that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine abroad, and fostered Chartism and rebellion at home, is the same which has also written Jane Eyre".

Although Jane Eyre is now commonly accepted into the canon of high-school English literature, its immediate reception was in stark contrast to its modern-day reception. Publication Date: stumbleupon Email Comment Throughout history, many female writers have felt the need to write under a male pseudonym. In fact, this is not a practice that’s confined to the past: even today, female authors have still experience pressure by publishers, editors and the public to mask their identity in order to be taken more seriously in the literary world thanks to age-old stereotypes about what women are capable of writing. The practice of adopting a male nom de plume continues to be especially prevalent nowadays in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and crime, which have been traditionally considered “masculine” topics to write about. As Virginia Woolf once suggested in “A Room of One’s Own,” these female authors who cloaked their identity with a male name were victims of “inner strife” and sought to “veil themselves by using the name of a man.” From historical authors such as Louisa May Alcott and the Brontë sisters, to present-day writers including JK Rowling and Nora Roberts, the practice of a woman taking up a masculine name has certainly lasted.

In fact, some of these authors are even more famous by their male names than their real ones, testament to how effective a pen name can be. Currer Bell, Ellis Bell and Acton Bell Via: wikipedia.org Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë (mid-19th century) These three sisters were accomplished 19th century authors who are still celebrated for their contributions to English literature. Although today the sisters are well known by their real names, early in their careers their work was published under male pseudonyms because they didn’t think they could get their work published as women. The sisters’ first book, a collaborative work called “Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell” did not actually do well, selling only three copies. The girls were not discouraged by this lack of success. Next, Charlotte penned “Jane Eyre,” which was also published under her pen name Currer Bell. The book was a success. However, when the publisher grew suspicious that the work was a joint effort with “Ellis Bell” the sisters travelled to London where they surprised the publisher with the knowledge that they were young women.

Emily’s Wurthering Heights was also published under pseudonym, Ellis Bell, and was designed as a companion novel to “Acton’s” (Anne’s) book “Agnes Grey,” both earning commercial success. Under the name Acton, Anne also published the successful “The Tenant of Windfell Hall.” The works of these three women were considered controversial for the time (even for a male author) and had mixed reception from critics but generally enjoyed great commercial success, even once it became known that they were women. J.D. Robb Via; Nora Roberts (b. 1950) Nora Roberts (which is also a pseudonym, her actual name is Eleanor Robertson), was a successful romance author when she decided she wanted to start writing suspense novels. Her first romantic suspense novel, published in 1995, was under the gender-neutral pseudonym J.D. Robb (J and D are the initials of her two sons’ first names). Using a pseudonym was recommended by her publisher. She has ended up publishing dozens of books in the “In Death” series, which are futuristic science fiction police detective novels, using this pseudonym.

George Eliot Via; fleursdumal.nl Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880) Victorian novelist “George Eliot” was actually Mary Ann Evans. She used the male pen name to ensure that she would be taken seriously as a writer. Although by this time many women authors had been published, there was a stereotype that women could only write romances and so she wanted to escape that stigma. Many of her books have strong political themes and are heavy on exploring the psychological aspects of the characters. She is best known for her book “Middlemarch,” which received critical acclaim and was praised by other authors such as Virginia Woolf. Andy Stack Via: bostonherald.com Ann Rule (b. 1935) An American crime novel author, Ann Rule or “Andy Stack” as she is better known has written many books exploring stories related to serial killers and murderers. Early in her career, she worked for the Seattle Police Department and wrote for several publications during that time, eventually writing in a magazine under the pseudonym “Andy Stack.” She went on to write several books, some published under her real name and others under her nom de plume, which was created presumably to boost her credibility in the male-dominated genre.

A.M. Barnard Via: en.wikipedia.org Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) In the mid-19th century, Louisa began writing for literary magazines and other publications, often writing about subjects relating to the American Civil War. By the 1860s, she began writing novels and stories under the pseudonym A.M. Barnard. These stories were sensational and dramatic about heroes who sought revenge on their enemies. Then, she began writing more wholesome stories geared for children and she gradually began to write the kinds of stories she is known for today, including “Little Women,” which was published under her real name. James Tiptree Via: Alice Bradley Sheldon (1915-1987) When Alice began writing science fiction, she adopted the male pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. to camouflage her identity in the male-dominated field of science fiction. Her identity was well-concealed for some time by the pen name, because although it became common knowledge that this name was a pseudonym, it was assumed that it was used because the author was an intelligence official whose identity needed to be protected.

It therefore came as a shock when her actual name was revealed (upon the death of her mother when her real name was published in the obituary). Before it was known that she was a woman, some prominent authors had actually written essays about how she could not have been a woman, leading to great embarrassment on their part. Isak Dinesen Via: biografieonline.it Karen von Blixen-Finecke (1885-1962) Danish author Karen von Blixen-Finecke wrote under the male pseudonym “Isak” (along with several other pen names including Tania, Osceola and Pierre). The author is best known for her book “Out of Africa,” which was based on her own life experiences in Africa, as well as the book “Babette’s Feast.” Both were turned into movies. It’s been suggested that she wrote under a pseudonym because she was from a prominent Danish family and wanted to more freely express herself. Her sister also wrote some stories and essays using an ambiguous pseudonym.

George Sand Via wikipedia.org Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (1804-1876) This early 19th century author is still best known by her pseudonym George Sand. Her first literary work was published under the name Jules Sand and subsequently wrote under the name George Sand for the rest of her career. In addition to her novels, she wrote pieces of literary criticism and political texts and was a well-known socialist. Although she was referred to by her pen name, it was relatively common knowledge that she was actually a woman. She was also famous for wearing men’s clothing and smoking in public, which were both scandalous habits for the time. Harper Lee Via: abcnews.go.com Nelle Harper Lee (b. 1926) Although this pen name isn’t necessarily masculine or feminine, the author Harper Lee dropped her real first name, Nelle, effectively making her name more ambiguous and androgynous. She is famous for “To Kill a Mockingbird” which won a Pulitzer Prize. Harper Lee only wrote this one novel in her career as an author. JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith Via: wikipedia.org Joanne Rowling (b.

1965) The British novelist Joanne Rowling , best known for the “Harry Potter” series, was originally told by her publisher that Harry Potter wouldn’t be as popular among boys if they knew it was written by a woman. So, the pen name “JK Rowling” was created to mask her identity. While “J” can stand for her first name, Joanne, “K” does not represent anything about her name, since she does not have a middle name. Of course, all seven Harry Potter books went on to become some of the bestselling books of all time, even after it became common knowledge that “JK” was a woman. After the Harry Potter series concluded, Joanne once again opted for a male pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, when she wrote a series of detective novels. It’s not known why she again chose a male pseudonym, although the decision this time around was likely for slightly different reasons; she probably wanted to enjoy the extra freedom that going incognito would afford her after the massive success with Harry Potter. Bonus: William Shakespeare? (1564-1616) Via: Less is known about the professional practices of perhaps the most famous English writer of all time than some historians would like.

The authorship of his works has been doubted for hundreds of years. It’s possible he acquired the works that have been attributed to him from other authors (or groups of authors) and some historians have even speculated that he acquired them from a female writer. Among the potential female authors put forth by scholars is Mary Sidney, a well-educated Countess, as described in the book “Sweet Swan of Avon” by Robin P. Williams. ShareOn Facebook Charlotte Brontë - Charlotte Brontë Poems - Poem Hunter Charlotte Brontë - Charlotte Brontë Poems - Poem Hunter Do you like this poet? Charlotte Brontë Poems On The Death Of Anne Brontë THERE 's little joy in life for ... Parting THERE'S no use in weeping, Though we are condemned ... Regret Long ago I wished to leave " The house where I was ... Evening Solace THE human heart has hidden treasures, In ... Pleasure A Short Poem or Else Not Say I True pleasure ... Passion SOME have won a wild delight, By daring wilder ...

All poems of Charlotte Brontë » Search in the poems of Charlotte Brontë: Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards. She wrote Jane Eyre under the pen name Currer Bell. Early life and education Charlotte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, the third of six children, to Maria (née Branwell) and her husband Patrick Brontë (formerly surnamed Brunty or Prunty), an Irish Anglican clergyman. In 1820, the family moved a few miles to the village of Haworth, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate of St Michael and All Angels Church. Charlotte's mother died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and... more » Click here to add this poet to your My Favorite Poets. Quotations You had no right to be born; for you make no use of life. Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person's stre...

Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), British novelist. Eliza Reed to her sister Georgiana, in Jane Eyre, ch. 21 (1847). Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after- flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poiso... Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), British novelist. Jane Eyre, ch. 4 (1847). ''Feeling without judgement is a washy draught indeed; but judgement untempered by feeling is too bitter and husky a morsel for human deglutition.'' Charlotte Brontë (1816-55), British novelist. Jane Eyre, ch. 21 (1847). "Deglutition" means the action of swallowing [OED]...

''Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.'' Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), British novelist. Jane Eyre, ch. 29 (1847). ''It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.'' Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), British novelist. Jane Eyre, ch. 12 (1847).

Question: Who wrote under the pen name Currer Bell?
Answer: CHARLOTTE BRONTE