The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. This is a story of a defiant, fiercely intelligent woman who refuses to accept her appointed place in society and instead finds love on her own terms has become famous as one of the greatest romances ever written.

Charlotte Bront¿1816-55) was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, one of an extraordinary group of siblings who spent their time immersed in reading and writing and between them went on to change the nature of English fiction. Publishing under the pseudonym Currer Bell, Charlotte was a great friend of Elizabeth Gaskell, who wrote her biography, as well as William Makepeace Thackeray and George Henry Lewes.

Bront¿ novels Shirley and Villette are also published in the Penguin English Library.