Villette

Charlotte Bronte was born in 1816 in Haworth, Yorkshire. Her father, Patrick, a minister, enforced strict, often cruel discipline. But when Charlotte's mother died in 1821, the Bronte children were left mostly to themselves: they roamed the moors, wrote fantastic legends that they recorded in tiny handmade books, and read omnivorously. Charlotte particularly admired Wordsworth and Southey. In 1835 she became a teacher (later a private governess)-the only suitable occupation for "a lady," but one she detested. She studied under M. Hegier in Brussels, returning briefly as an English teacher at his school. In 1846 Charlotte Bronte put together a joint volume of verse by herself and her sisters Emily and Anne. Published in 1846, under the pseudonym of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, it sold only two copies. Undaunted, Charlotte completed The Professor which remained unpublished until after her death. But a kind note from one publisher encouraged her to finish Jane Eyre, her most famous work (1847). In 1848 tragedy struck-her brother Branwell died in September, Emily in December, and Anne the following May, leaving a miserable Charlotte with her aging, sick father. Despite bouts of depression, she persevered, and wrote Shirley (1849) and Villette (1852). By now famous, Charlotte was courted by many friends. She took several trips to London, and on one visit met Thackeray, the contemporary whom she most admired. Charlotte Bronte married Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate, in 1854-a man she had once derided heartily. Lonely, still grief-stricken over the loss of her sisters, and beset by ill health, she died in March 1855, at the age of thirty-nine.Brontë, Charlotte is the author of 'Villette', published 1986 under ISBN 9780553212433 and ISBN 0553212435.