Their father was Patrick Brontë, a Church of England priest. Irish-born, he had changed his name from the more commonplace Brunty. After serving in several parishes he moved with his wife, Maria Branwell Brontë, and their six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Brontë and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care for the remaining three girls and a boy.

Charlotte, the eldest, was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the desolate moors. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed some talent for drawing. The girls determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers and governesses, but they were unhappy at being separated and away from Haworth.

To keep the family together, Charlotte planned to keep a school for girls at Haworth. She and Emily went to Brussels to learn foreign languages and school management. In 1844, using a small inheritance from an aunt, they prepared to open classes. Although they advertised, they received no pupils.

The failure of their venture left all the children at home. Branwell was unemployed. Temperamental and erratic, he turned to alcohol and opium. Charlotte again sought a way to help the family. She had found some of Emily's poems, written secretly, and realized their merit. She convinced her sisters they should publish a joint book of poems.

In 1846 the girls brought out at their own expense Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. They chose masculine pen names but retained their own initials. Although critics liked the poems, only two volumes were sold.

As children they had all written many stories. Charlotte, as a young girl, alone filled 22 volumes, each with 60 to 100 pages of minute handwriting. Again they turned to writing as a source of income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty Anne and Emily found a publisher, but Charlotte's book was not wanted. (It was not published until 1859.) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her work. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.

Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two did not fare so well. Critics were hostile to Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animallike. But silent, reserved Emily had put all her deep feelings into the book, and gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of her book, and Anne died in 1849.

Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. She was acclaimed by London literary society, especially by William Makepeace Thackeray. In 1854 she married her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis as her sisters had.