Jane Eyre (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by English writer Charlotte Bront . It was published on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Charlotte Bront (21 April 1816 - 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Bront sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels have become classics of English literature. She first published her works (including her best known novel, Jane Eyre) under the pen name Currer Bell.