Charlotte Bronte was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Bronte sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels have become classics of English literature. Jane Eyre, is a novel by Charlotte Bronte, first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead and subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. As much a story about defying convention as it is about coming-of-age, Jane Eyre remains one of the most beloved novels in the English language. Both Gothic and Victorian in its influence and scope, it captures one woman's determination to live life on her own terms — choosing courage over fear, while finding power in love and compassion.