Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë [ tʃɑ ː lət brɒnti ] (* April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire, † March 31, 1855 in Haworth, Yorkshire ) was a British writer. She published her novels under the pen name Currer Bell.

Life

Charlotte Brontë was born the third child of Irish priest Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria, née Branwell. Her two older sisters died in childhood tuberculosis. Together with her ​​three younger siblings, Patrick Branwell, Emily and Anne Jane she began to write as a child. As part of the fantasy realm of Glass Town / Angria she wrote with her brother, for example, handwritten 15 editions of the Young Men's Magazine ( as an example, they used Blackwood 's Magazine ) and numerous tiny booklet with stories. Even then, they used various male pseudonyms. The children were taught at home. Only short school stays in Cowan Bridge ( Lancashire ), a boarding school for pastors daughters, and Roe Head ( in Mirfield ), where she served as best in class achieved a degree in 18 months, they separated from their siblings. During her school years she met Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor, with whom they should all their lives have close friendships. Some biographies suspect beyond a friendship lesbian relationship between Ellen and Charlotte, the first E. F. Benson in 1932. Lucasta Miller points out in The Brontë Myth suggests that these speculations are based solely on the interpretation of some passages from Charlotte's letters.

In Roe Head Charlotte Brontë came in 1835 for teaching positions. 1839 and 1841 she worked as a governess. With the intention to open a school in Haworth, 1842, she traveled with her sister Emily to Brussels to improve there in Pensionnat Demoiselles de Madame Heger their knowledge of French. Your unrequited love for Monsieur Heger became the subject of her novel The Professor, but was published only posthumously.

1844 she returned to Haworth. The school project had to be abandoned for lack of students. Along with her sisters, she was among the ( male ) pseudonyms Ellis (Emily ), Acton ( Anne) and Currer ( Charlotte) Bell a book of poetry out, which proved to be slow-moving. Also, Charlotte's first novel, The Professor took during her lifetime no publisher. The literary breakthrough came with the novel Jane Eyre (1847 ), also under the pseudonym Currer Bell published. Contemporaries first suspected a male author. When she surrendered her identity, she was introduced to the London literary circles, and enjoyed a brief period of fame. Her books still continued to appear under her pseudonym.

1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls, the assistant pastor of her father. On Holy Saturday 1855 she died - the death certificate of phthisis (tuberculosis ) - but probably to hyperemesis gravidarum ( pregnancy-related metabolic disorder ).

Charlotte Brontë's last novel, Emma remained unfinished and was published posthumously in 1860 in an issue together with her first book, The Professor.

Only two years after Charlotte Brontë's death in 1857 appeared her first biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë, written by her friend Elizabeth Gaskell. Charlotte Brontë was one of the first women who received a posthumous honor from a monograph on their lives.

Works

• Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Aylott & Jones, London, 1846. ( Joint volume of poetry, the Brontë sisters)
• Jane Eyre [ eə ʳ ]. An Autobiography, Smith & Elder, London, 1847 First German translation. Johanna Eyre, Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1848 ( translation: Ernst Susemihl ).
• Shirley, Smith & Elder, London, 1849 First German translation. Shirley, Berlin, 1850 ( Anonymous translation ).
• Villette, Smith & Elder, London, 1853 First German translation. Villette, Berlin, 1853 ( translation: Diezmann ).
• The Professor, Smith & Elder, London, 1857 ( posthumously ). First German translation: The professor, Stuttgart, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, 1858 ( Anonymous translation ).
• The Professor & Emma. A fragment, Smith & Elder, London, 1860

Adaptations

• Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre. Radio play. Adapted and directed by: Christiane Ohaus, Translator: Gottfried Röckelein, Contributors: Sascha Icks, Christian Redl, Sylvester Groth, Witta Pohl, Dietrich Mattausch, Dorothea Gädeke, Angelika Thomas, Lea Soft, Catherine Burowa, Uta Hallant, including 235 minutes, SR / DLR / NDR / RB 2005.