Charlotte Brontë's Real Name: Charlotte Brontë

Quick answer: The novelist is known as Charlotte Brontë. Britannica also records the married name Mrs. Arthur Bell Nicholls and the pseudonym Currer Bell. Encyclopedia.com independently records the Currer Bell pseudonym and dates her birth to April 21, 1816, at Thornton in Yorkshire, and her death to March 31, 1855, at Haworth in Yorkshire, matching Britannica.

Real name and early life

Independent publishers identify her under the name Charlotte Brontë and the pseudonym Currer Bell. Britannica dates the birth to April 21, 1816, in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, and says her father, Patrick Brontë, was an Irish-born Anglican clergyman who had changed his name from Brunty. The same account says the family moved to Haworth in 1820, after which her mother, Maria Branwell Brontë, and the two eldest children died, leaving Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and their brother, Branwell, in their father's care, later aided by an aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. Encyclopedia.com independently dates the birth to April 21, 1816, at Thornton in Yorkshire, names Maria Branwell Brontë and the Reverend Patrick Brontë as her parents, and dates a move to Haworth to 1821. Britannica says Charlotte and Emily attended the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, returning home in June 1825, and that Charlotte later condemned the school, in thinly disguised form, as Lowood Institution in Jane Eyre. Encyclopedia.com independently says she briefly attended Cowan Bridge School, which formed the basis for Lowood.

Career highlights

Britannica says she later wrote Jane Eyre (1847), Shirley (1849), and Villette (1853). Encyclopedia.com independently lists Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846), Jane Eyre (1847), Shirley, A Tale (1849), Villette (1853), and the posthumous The Professor, A Tale (1857). Britannica describes Jane Eyre as a narrative of a woman in conflict with her natural desires and social condition, and says the novel gave new truthfulness to Victorian fiction. Encyclopedia.com independently notes that, after Jane Eyre appeared, her identity remained for a time ambiguous even as the book drew wide attention. Encyclopedia.com independently records a marriage to a curate on June 29, 1854. Britannica gives the married name Mrs. Arthur Bell Nicholls.

Death

Britannica dates her death to March 31, 1855, in Haworth, Yorkshire. Encyclopedia.com independently dates the death to March 31, 1855, at Haworth in Yorkshire, and says she died within nine months of her marriage.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Charlotte Brontë or Currer Bell are looking for the same novelist. Britannica and Encyclopedia.com support the name and the Currer Bell pseudonym used here.