National Charlotte Day – January 17, 2025

History of National Charlotte Day

Many named Charlotte have major historical significance worldwide, including the English novelist and poet Charlotte Bronte. Their novels are included among the classics of English literature. Born on 21 April 1816, Charlotte Bronte was the third of the six children of Maria and Patrick Bronte, an Irish Anglican clergyman.

In 1831, Charlotte Bronte was 14 and enlisted in Roe Head school. However, she left it after just a year to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home. In 1839, she became the governess for the Sidgwick family but left it after a few months and returned to Haworth, where the sisters opened a school. But it failed as they were not able to attract pupils. Soon after, they turned to writing, and each sister published novels under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell in 1846.

Charlotte Bronte’s first novel, The Professor, was not accepted by the publishers, but her second novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847 and received well by the people. She and her sisters admitted their pseudonyms in 1848, and their works were soon celebrated in London literary circles. She was the last of all her siblings to die. She got married in June 1854, and after her pregnancy, she died on 31 March 1855, probably from hyperemesis gravidarum, a pregnancy complication that causes excessive nausea and vomiting.