Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816 at Thornton, a small township close to the centre of Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Four years later her father, Patrick Brontë, a scholarly clergyman with Evangelical views, took up the curacy of nearby Haworth and the Brontë family were to live in Haworth parsonage for the rest of their lives. Haworth benefited from the social and economic changes of the early nineteenth century and in 1820 was not the isolated, rural village beloved of Brontë myth but a bustling centre with a vibrant cultural and political life. Nevertheless, Haworth village was set in some of the most dramatic and bleak scenery in England: Mrs Gaskell, Brontë’s first biographer, wrote

This article in full comprises 2509 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

First published 17 July 2001

Citation: Giles, Judy. "Charlotte Brontë". The Literary Encyclopedia. 17 July 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=582, accessed 9 February 2010.]