Even people who are not particularly fond of reading have probably heard about the Jane Air book, or maybe they have seen films made based on its motives. The author of this and many other books is Charlotte Bronte.
Childhood
The clergyman Patrick Bronte and his wife Maria had six children - five daughters and one son. Charlotte Bronte is the third in a row. She was born in the east of England, in the small village of Thornton, and this event occurred on April 21, 1816.
According to many surviving evidence, Charlotte Bronte was not a special beauty, but she possessed great intelligence, liveliness, sharpness. Following her, her brother and two younger sisters were born, and shortly after the birth of their last daughter, Anne, their mother passed away - she was diagnosed with uterine cancer too late. Charlotte was then five years old. A year earlier, the family moved to Hoert, in which they offered their father a new place of service and which became a real small homeland for Charlotte.
After Maria’s death, her own sister came to Hoert to help Patrick in raising young children. In fact, she replaced them with her mother. Patrick Bronte, meanwhile, decided to take care of their education and sent two older daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, to a specialized boarding school for girls from the families of clergymen. A month later, eight-year-old Charlotte arrived there, and after a while, her fourth sister, Emily. The fifth, Ann, was still too young and remained with her father and brother. The boarders said about Charlotte that the girl is smart enough for her age, but noted her lack of knowledge of grammar, history, geography and etiquette, as well as illegible handwriting and spaces in mathematics. Everything that young Charlotte Bronte owned at that moment was fragmentary, unsystematic.
Tuberculosis was rampant in the nineteenth century. Many people were dying because of this disease in terrible agony, and children were no exception. Due to the terrible conditions of the boarding school (raw, unheated rooms, rotten food, the eternal threat of flogging), the older sisters of Charlotte, Mary and Elizabeth, also picked up this terrible ailment. Patrick immediately took all four daughters home, but Mary and Elizabeth could not be saved.
Initial experiments
The remaining four children of Bronte all from a young age one way or another showed a penchant for creativity. It was after returning home from the hostel Charlotte that Emily and their younger brother and sister first took up the paper and pen. Brenwell, the brother of the girls, had soldiers who played with his sisters. They transferred their imaginary games to paper, recording the adventures of soldiers on their behalf. Researchers of the work of Charlotte Bronte note that in those children's works (the first of which was written in ten years), the future writer is noticeably influenced by Lord Byron and Walter Scott.
Work
In the early 1830s, Charlotte studied in the town of Row Head, where she later remained - working as a teacher. Charlotte Bronte also arranged for Emily’s sister’s visit to receive her education. When, unable to bear life in a strange house, Emily returned to her father, Anne came instead.
However, Charlotte herself did not last long there. In 1838 she left there - the reason was eternal employment and the inability to devote herself to literary work (by that time the girl was already actively engaged in it). Returning to Hoert, Charlotte Bronte got a job as a governess - her mother had dreamed about this at one time. Having changed several families, she quickly realized that this was not hers. And then luck arrived.
The aunt of the Bronte children, raising them together with her father, gave the sisters a certain amount of money to create her boarding house. So the girls intended to do, but unexpectedly changed plans: in 1842, Charlotte and Emily left to study in Belgium. They stayed there a little more than one semester - until the death of aunt in the autumn of that year.
In 1844, Charlotte and the sisters decided to return to the idea of school. But if earlier they could leave Hoarth for this, now there was no such chance: Auntie was gone, father was weakening, there was no one to look after him. I had to create a school right in the family house, in the pastoral, near the cemetery. Such a place, of course, did not like the parents of possible pupils, and the whole undertaking failed.
The beginning of literary activity
As mentioned above, at this time, the girl was writing with might and main. At first she turned her attention to poetry and back in 1836 sent a letter with her poetic experiences to the famous poet Robert Southey (he is the author of the original version of the tale of "Masha and the Bears"). This is not to say that the eminent master was delighted, he informed the beginning talent about this, advising him to write not so enthusiastically and exaltedly.
His letter had a huge impact on Charlotte Bronte. Under the influence of his words, she decided to engage in prose, and also replace romanticism with realism. In addition, it was now that Charlotte began to write her texts under a male pseudonym - so that they would be evaluated objectively.
In 1840, she conceived the novel Ashworth about an obstinate young man. The girl sent the first drafts to Hartley Coleridge, another English poet. He criticized the plan, explaining that this would not be successful. Charlotte listened to Coleridge and quit working on this book.
Three sisters
It was already mentioned above that all four of Bronte’s surviving children from childhood had a craving for creativity. As he grew older, Branwell chose painting over literature, often painted portraits of his sisters. The younger ones followed in the footsteps of Charlotte: Emily is known to the reading public as the author of Wuthering Heights, while Anne Gray and The Stranger from Wildfell Hall have been published by Anne. The younger is much less known than the older sisters.
However, fame came to them later, and in 1846 they released a general poetic book under the name of the Bell brothers. With the same pseudonyms, the novels of Charlotte's younger sisters, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Gray, were published. Charlotte herself wanted to print her debut work, “The Teacher,” but nothing came of it (it was released only after the death of the writer) - the publishers returned the manuscript to her, speaking about the lack of “fascination”.
The creative activity of the three Bronte sisters did not last long. In the fall of 1848, their brother Branwell died from a disease aggravated by alcohol and drugs. Emily left behind him because of tuberculosis in December, and Ann in May of the following year. Charlotte was the only daughter of the aging Patrick.
Jane Eyre
The novel "Jane Eyre", which brought Charlotte world fame, she created in 1846-1847. After a failure with Teacher, Charlotte Bronte sent Jane Eyre to a British publishing house and hit the bull's-eye. It was printed in an incredibly short time, and then it caused a stormy reaction from the public. Not only readers, but also critics oozed praise for Carrera Bell - it was not until 1848 that Charlotte Bronte revealed her real name.
The novel "Jane Air" has been reprinted several times. It also shot many adaptations, one of which is with the now famous actress Mia Vasikovskaya in the title role.
Charlotte Bronte's Personal Information
The biography of the writer gives much more information about her work than about potential candidates for her hand and heart. It is known, however, that despite Charlotte’s lack of a “model” appearance, she always had enough cavaliers, but she was in no hurry to marry - although there were proposals. The last of them, however, she accepted - the one that came from her old friend Arthur Nicholas. He was an assistant to Charlotte's father and had known the young woman since 1844. It is interesting that Charlotte Bronte’s first impression of him was rather negative, she was often skeptical about the narrowness of the man’s thinking. Subsequently, however, her attitude towards him changed.
This is not to say that Patrick Bronte was delighted with the choice of his daughter. For a long time he persuaded her to think, not to make hasty conclusions and not to rush, but nevertheless they got married in the summer of 1854. Their marriage was successful, although, unfortunately, it was very short-lived.
Death
Just six months after the wedding, Charlotte Bronte felt bad. The doctor who examined her diagnosed her with signs of pregnancy and suggested that she was feeling unwell due to this very thing, which began with severe toxicosis. Charlotte was nauseous all the time, she didn’t feel hungry, she felt weak. Nevertheless, until recently, no one could have imagined that everything would end so sadly. Charlotte died on March 31st.
The exact cause of her death has not yet been established; her biographers still cannot come to a common point of view. Some believe that she contracted typhus from her maid - she was just sick then. Others believe that the cause of the death of a still young woman (Charlotte Bronte was not even thirty-nine) was due to exhaustion due to toxicosis (she could hardly eat), and others - that tuberculosis did not stop blaming everything.
Charlotte Bronte: interesting facts
- The biography of the woman is set forth in the work of E. Gaskell, "The Life of Charlotte Bronte."
- Her name is the region on Mercury.
- The image of the novelist is present on one of the British brands.
- The unfinished novel "Emma" was completed for her by K. Severy. There is, however, a second version of this work by C. Boylan called Emma Brown.
- In Hoert, the Bronte Museum is located, and also a lot of places there are named after this family - a waterfall, a bridge, a chapel and others.
- Charlotte Bronte’s list of works includes many children's and teenage manuscripts, as well as three novels written in adulthood.
The creative path of Bronte is a good example of how to achieve what you want. It is important to believe in oneself and not give up - and then everything will certainly succeed sooner or later!