Charlotte Brontë (picture 2.1) was born in 1816. She was the third
daughter of the Reverend Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria. Her
younger brother Patrick Branwell was born in 1817, and her sisters
Emily and Anne in 1818 and 1820.

2.1.Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte worked as a teacher and a governess before she collaborated on a poetry

book with Emily and Anne, who were writers as well. In 1846,Charlotte completed

The

Pofessor

although it was rejected for publication. In 1847 she published the semi-

autobiographical novel,

Jane Eyre

, in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell. The same year,

her sisters have also published their novels, Emily’s

Wuthering Heights

and Anne’s

Agnes

Grey

under the pseudonyms of Ellis and Action Bell.

In 1848 Charlotte and Anne visited their publishers in London, and revealed their true

identities. In the same year, their brother Branwell Brontë, who was by now an alcoholic and
a drug addict, died, and Emily died shortly after. The following year Anne died.

Reverend A. B. Nicholls, curate of Haworth since 1845, proposed marriage to

Charlotte in 1852. Reverend Mr. Brontë objected, and Charlotte, who, though she may have
pitied him, was not in any case in love with him, refused him. Nicholls left Haworth in the
following year, the same in which Charlotte's

Villette

was published. By 1854, however, Mr.

Brontë's opposition to the proposed marriage had weakened, and Charlotte and Nicholls
became engaged. Nicholls returned as curate at Haworth, and they got married, despite
Charlotte still not loving him.

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The following year, Charlotte caught pneumonia and died of dehydration during her

pregnancy. Her first novel she ever wrote,

The Professor

, was published posthumously in

1857.

3. An Introduction to English Literature in 19

Century:

Victorian literature

The   literature   of   the   Victorian   age  (1837-1901)   entered   a   new   period   after   the  romantic
revival.   The   literature   of   this   era   was   preceded   by   romanticism   and   was   followed   by
modernism or realism. Hence, it can also be called a fusion of romantic and realistic style of
writing. Though the Victorian Age produced two great poets Alfred Lord Tennyson and
Robert Browning, it is also remarkable for the excellence of its prose.

Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work,

perseverance; love and luck win in the end. They were usually inclined towards being of
improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. While this formula was the basis for
much of the earlier Victorian fiction, the situation became more complex as the century
progressed.

Poetry was also indifferent from the already stated style. Much of the work of the time

is seen as a bridge between the romantic era and the modernist poetry of the next century.
Alfred Lord Tennyson held the poet laureateship for over forty years. The husband and wife
poetry team of Elizabeth Browning and Robert Browning conducted their love affair through
verse and produced many tender and passionate poems.

The discoveries of science seem to reflect considerable and particular effects upon the

literature of the age. The Victorians had a mission to describe and classify the entire natural
world. Much of this writing was not regarded as literature but one book, in particular, Charles
Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, remains famous. The theory of evolution contained within
the work shook many of the ideas the Victorians had about themselves. Although it took a
long time to be widely accepted, it completely changed school of thoughts and literature that
ensued.

The old Gothic tales that came out of the late 19th century are the first examples of the

genre of fantastic fiction. These tales often centered on larger-than-life characters such as

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