Charlotte Bronte's fame and influence rest on a very slender canon of published works: only four novels and some contributions to a volume of poetry. Her reputation may be explained in part by the astounding success of her first novel, Jane Eyre (1847); it owes much also to the romantic appeal of her personal history, given prominence soon after her death by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell's excellent biography, a work preeminent in its genre. Of greater importance, perhaps, is the recognition by historians of fiction that Charlotte Bronte's work made a significant contribution to the development of the novel; her explorations of emotional repression and the feminine psyche introduced a new depth and intensity to the study of character and mo- tive in fiction, anticipating in some respects the work of such writers as George Eliot and D. H. Lawrence. Her strength as a novelist lies in her ability to portray in moving detail the inner struggles of women who are endowed with a powerful capacity for feeling, yet whose social circumstances deny them the opportunity for intellectual or emotional fulfillment.
