Charlotte left her employers and made plans with her sisters to start their own school. For this purpose， she and Emily went to Belgium to acquire proficiency21 in French. However， shyness and homesickness drove them both home again.
Charlotte also taught with her friend Miss Wooler at a school near her home for a while. But she was still not happy with the work. In her book The Life of Charlotte Bronte， Charlotte’s friend Elizabeth Gaskell pointed out reasons why being either a governess or a teacher was unsuitable for her. One was Charlotte’s shyness， which would even cause her raging22 headaches if she spent too much time in the company of strangers. Charlotte also did not understand children. Although she was always kind to everyone， she didn’t know how to relate to23 them.
Most of the Brontes’ young adult years were spent trying to make money. When plans for a school fell through， the girls began to seriously consider writing， and began working on novels. They would do household chores24 during the day， write when they could， and meet in the evening after everyone else was in bed. They would compare and critique each other’s work.
All three met with more or less success， but Jane Eyre won instant popularity. It also earned enough money that Charlotte could now expect to make a living as a writer.
But bad fortune came along in the next two years. Emily and Anne died from tuberculosis25 and Branwell， who had developed an opium26addiction27， also passed away.
The children’s aunt had passed away a few years earlier， and this left Charlotte alone with her father. With only each other to rely on28， they grew close， and looked out for each other.
Charlotte continued to have writing success with Shirley （1849）， Villette （1853） and The Professor （1857）. Her father was very proud.
Charlotte finally had a short respite29 from her lonely life. At the age of 37， she married her father’s assistant， Arthur Nicholls. They lived happily after Charlotte’s difficult earlier life， much like Jane Eyre and Rochester. But unlike Jane and Rochester， their happiness was cut short. Nine months after their wedding， Charlotte died from a lingering30 fever and was buried in the family vault31 in Haworth church.
Charlotte Bronte’s writing brought her into contact with a wider world， and she became friends with great authors of her day， such as Robert Southey（注1） and William Makepeace Thackeray（注2）. But she always remained a trueinhabitant32 of her rural home， retiring， sober33， andcircumspect34. Like her sisters， the bleak and lonely beauty of the moors was a part of her.
對於1847年的倫敦文學界來說，夏洛蒂·勃朗特代表著一個引人入勝的謎團。
一位名叫柯勒·貝爾的不知名作家寫出了《簡·愛》這部廣受歡迎但又備受爭議的小說。同年，另外兩部小說相繼出版，它們是阿克頓·貝爾的《阿格尼絲·格雷》以及埃利斯·貝爾的《呼嘯山莊》。這些小說是出自三位不同作家之手，還是同一個人寫的呢？它們的作者到底是男性還是女性？