Charlotte Brontë:
(Thornton, 21 April 1816 – Haworth, 31 March 1855).
British writer and the eldest of the three Brontë sisters, whose novels became classics of English literature.
Her sisters also became famous as novelists: Anne, the youngest and Emily the middle. There was also a brother, Branwell, who painted. Their father, Patrick Brontë (1777-1861), was an Irish preacher.
Charlotte wrote under the pseudonym Currer Bell. In 1831, she attended classes at Roe Head, where she met Mary Taylor and Ellen Nussey. With them she built a friendship that lasted a lifetime. She was also a governess there twice for a short time. In 1842, she and her younger sister Emily, with whom she wanted to set up a public school, went to the Heger boarding school in Brussels, where she fell in love with the headmaster. This period in Brussels provided the inspiration for some of the events she described in The Professor and Villette.
The first day of January always presents to my mind a train of very solemn and important reflections, and a question more easily asked than answered frequently occurs viz: how have I improved the past year and with what good intentions do I view the dawn of its successor?
Though the only road to freedom lie through the gates of death, those gates must be passed; for freedom is indispensable.
