The Life of Charlotte Bronte 2 Volume Set

Published two years after the novelist's death, this two-volume work is the first and perhaps the best-known of the many biographies of the Bronte family.

Written by the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) the book was instrumental in the creation of the Brontes' public image as a family set apart by literary genius and personal tragedy.

Gaskell's source for the biography was some 350 letters between Charlotte and her friend Ellen Nussey, letters which Charlotte's husband had asked Nussey to destroy after his wife's death fearing they would damage her reputation.

Volume 1 covers Charlotte's life up until the publication of her poems under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1846.

Volume 2 covers the publication of Jane Eyre, the death of Charlotte's siblings and her marriage to Arthur Bell Nicholls.