Charlotte Brontë Statistics

Charlotte Brontë sales statistics

Jane Eyre has sold an estimated 2 million+ copies.
Bestseller Jane Eyre was a great success when it was published in 1847, launching Charlotte into literary fame. It also earned her 500 pounds (the equivalent to over £61,000 in today’s money), which was twenty-five times her salary as a governess.
Sales of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre were so excellent that it even sparked interest in the writings of her sisters, allowing Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey to be published the following year.
Penguin, just one of the publishers who sell a version of Jane Eyre, has sold more than 500,000 copies over the last 50 years.
The movie adaptation of Jane Eyre (2011), has grossed almost $35,000,000 worldwide as of 2022.
A Book of Rhymes (juvenilia) sold at the 2022 New York International Antiquarian Book Fair for $1.25 million.

Charlotte Brontë’s fame and influence are mainly due to a very small number of published works, including four completed novels and contributions alongside her sisters to a volume of poetry.
She also published a range of juvenilia pieces.

#	Title	Number of pages	Year published
1	Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell	178	1846
2	Selected Poems of the Brontës	64	1997

Charlotte’s first attempt at a novel, The Professor, was rejected by publishers.
However, the publisher offered her friendly criticism and encouraged her to try again.
The book based upon her Brussels experience was eventually published, posthumously, in 1857, with the approval of Charlotte Brontë’s widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls.
Bell Nicholls took on the task of reviewing and editing the text.
The British publishers Smith, Elder, and Company agreed to publish Jane Eyre on October 16, 1847, and in doing so achieved their first major success.
Charlotte Brontë originally published works under the name Currer Bell to represent the male identity needed to succeed during the time and increase her chances of being published.
Her sisters also used pseudonyms and together they admitted to it in 1848, in a decision that became celebrated in London literary groups.
Charlotte Brontë looked to contradict society through her work. She spoke for the oppressed woman and established herself as a modern woman of her time.
During her lifetime she was not awarded any literary prizes. However, she was awarded posthumously. In both 2004 and 2007, Brontë was awarded the All About Romance Reader Award in the historical category.
Film adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s books have been produced consistently for over a century, dating back to 1910. This includes silent films, feature films, and also television movies.

Brontë was born on April 21, 1816, in the village of Thornton, West Riding, Yorkshire.
She had two sisters, Emily and Anne, who were also novelists and a brother named Patrick Branwell. The three sisters published under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.
In 1854 she married Arthur Nicholls, who once worked as an assistant to her father.
Charlotte Brontë died within a year of their marriage on March 31, 1855.
She was the longest living of the three writing Brontë sisters, living to 38 years of age. Her publications were by far the most reputable at the time.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum is the former Brontë family home in Haworth, West Yorkshire, England, where the sisters spent most of their lives.
St Michaels is known as ‘The Brontë Church’ for its association with the Brontë family, who lived nearby.
All of the family except Anne Brontë are buried at St Michael and All Angels’ Church, Haworth, in a crypt below the east of the church. The church showcases the Brontë Window, dedicated to Charlotte Brontë.