Charlotte Bronte

1821 -- Mother dies of cancer

1824 -- Charlotte goes to Clergy Daughter's School in Lancashire. Elizabeth and Maria, Charlotte's older sister's fall ill and return home, where they die of consumption. Conditions at the school are the documented in Jane Eyre.

1825 -- Charlotte returns home, along with Emily, her younger sister and join their brother Branwell and sister Anne at Haworth, where Patrick Branwell had been rector since 1820. The group is close.  They invent the imaginary kingdom of Angria and write a detailed chronicles  about the place.

1831 -- Charlotte goes away to school the second time. This time she is away from her siblings for two years, but she returns to be their teacher.

1835 -- Works as a teacher at Roe Head, the same school at which she had been a teacher.

1839 -- Rejects two marriage proposals, one from a friend's brother, another from a clergyman.

1844 -- Tries and fails to start a school at Haworth.

1845 -- Brother Branwell is dismissed from his position as a tutor after having an affair with his employer's wife.  Over the next three years he became dependent on alcohol and drugs, dying three years later of his addictions.

1846 -- Poems by Charlotte, Emily and Anne are published under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.

1847 -- Publishes Jane Eyre

1848 -- Branwell and Emily die, the latter of consumption. Anne is infected and Charlotte is her nurse.

1849 -- Anne Dies

1851 -- Rejects a marriage proposal from an employee of her publisher.

1853 -- Villette published

1854 -- Maries Arthur Bell Nichols.

1855 -- Dies during pregnancy

1857 Elizabeth Gaskell publishes Life of Charlotte Bronte.

Reading Questions

Jane Eyre Notes

Charlotte Bronte 1816-1855

Haworth Parsonage