Do you really know Charlotte Brontë? She was born on this day in 1816, and in order to celebrate her birthday we’d like to share with you some short but interesting facts about her. What do we know about the most famous Brontë sister? Who was she? Are there any anecdotes that can help us to understand her personality?  Here you can find seven facts about her in order to get to know her better. 

Brontë scholars and fans know the most popular of the three sisters very well, but today we’d like to share some piece of information and some anecdotes in order to find out more about her life as a woman and as a writer.

7 facts about Charlotte Brontë

  1. Charlotte Brontë was very short sighted, and she could see basically nothing without her glasses. Apparently, though, she could see very well in the dark and she was even able to read in very dark palces.
  2.  Especially when se was youg, Charlotte Brontë spoke with a very strong Irish accent. As a matter of fact her father, Patrick Brontë, was from Ireland. This is the reason why she hadn’t a proper Yorkshire accent and spoke with an Irish one instead.
  3. In her masterpiece Jane Eyre there is a scene with a fire. That really happened in Charlotte’s life- she actually found herself at night with a fire in the house. Her brother Branwell, drunk and desperate, apparently accidentally set fire to the Parsonage…
  4. When she went to Belgium in order to study French, she fell in love with Monsieur Constantin Heger, her married teacher, who apparently never returned her love.
  5. Jane Eyre was first published in 1847 signed by Currer Bell- she used an  androgynous name to protect her identity.
  6. Charlotte Brontë wrote a novel called Shirley. This was also the name of its main character, who was a woman. At the time “Shirley” was a name for men, though.
  7. Charlotte Brontë was proposed to by four different men and she rejected them all. Soon after having married the one she chose as an husband, she fell ill and died.

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Did you already know these facts about Charlotte Brontë? Let us know in the comments below.  If you want to learn more about her read Stone Gappe: in Charlotte Brontë’s footsteps.