Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë might be linked by their early 19th-century British backgrounds and legions of devotees. They had some similarities in their backgrounds and paths to publication, yet many differences. This isn’t a Jane Austen vs Charlotte Brontë competition; they were both brilliant writers!

Perhaps they’re often compared because they were among the group of British women writers who made an immense contribution to literature in the first part of the 1800s.

Yet, we don’t feel the need to compare Thackeray with Dickens, do we? Still, Jane and Charlotte did have some significant things in common, which we’ll explore here. Surprisingly, Charlotte would have balked at that, being no Austen fan herself. According to James Edward Austen-Leigh, nephew of Jane Austen:

“No two writers could be more unlike each other than Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë; so much so that the latter was unable to understand why the former was admired, and confessed that she herself ‘should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses.’”

Jane Austen: a distinctive talent

Born in 1775 in Hampshire, England, Jane Austen was part of a convivial middle-class family consisting of five brothers and an elder sister, Cassandra, with whom she was very close. The Austens valued education; the two girls briefly attended boarding school and continued to receive further education at home.

Jane’s talent was recognized early on, and male members of her family, particularly her father (George Austen, a country rector), played key roles in getting her works published.

Six exquisite novels (not including a small number of unfinished novels and juvenalia), Read More→