Free Republic

The classic status of ‘Jane Eyre’ can obscure just how shocking its radical ideas were at the time. No one would be celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth on April 21 were it not for her first and most famous novel, Jane Eyre, which has never been out of print since it was published in 1847 and is now a cornerstone of our literary culture. It’s easy to see how it got there. Brontë’s skilful telling of a Cinderella love story between a poor plain governess and her surly master has an irresistible power and many elements of...

It is hardly the most flattering of likenesses, but a pencil sketch of a woman's head has been identified as a rare self-portrait by Charlotte Brontë. It dates from 1843, four years before she was to publish Jane Eyre, one of English literature's great masterpieces, and when she was suffering the acute agony of unrequited love. The discovery has been made by the acclaimed literary biographer, Claire Harman, who describes it as 'massively significant' as there are only two other known lifetime portraits.

A long-lost story written by Charlotte Bronte for a married man with whom she fell in love is about to be published for the first time. The manuscript, composed in French and entitled L'Ingratitude, was found in a Belgian museum a century after it was last heard about.

Gordon Brown last night likened himself to literature's most tortured antihero as he insisted he has no intention of resigning as Prime Minister. In an extraordinary interview, he said it was 'absolutely correct' to compare him to Heathcliff, the brooding and intense character in Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights. He added: 'Well, maybe an older Heathcliff, a wiser Heathcliff.' His remarks are likely to be seized upon by his political opponents. The Prime Minister has been likened to Heathcliff before by commentators, but has never agreed with the comparison himself.