Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) was an English novelist and poet, and the eldest of the three Brontë sisters. Her experiences in boarding schools, as a governess and a teacher eventually became the basis of her novels. Under pseudonyms the sisters published their first novels; Charlotte's first published novel, Jane Eyre(1847), written under a non de plume, was an immediate literary success. During the writing of her second novel all of her siblings died. With the publication of Shirley (1849) her true identity as an author was revealed. She completed three novels in her lifetime and over 200 poems.

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), is among the great classics of English letters, and features one of the most remarkable heroines in all of literature. This romantic gothic novel is both an exquisite love story and an extraordinary portrait of a woman overcoming misfortune through her astounding strength and kindness.