Charlotte Bronte letter up for auction

A letter written and signed by Charlotte Bronte to a fan of her classic novel Jane Eyre will be sold at auction today.

A thank you note from Charlotte Bronte to a Linlithgow Medic. Picture: Lyon and Turnbull

It is expected to fetch up to £12,000 in the sale in Edinburgh.

In the note dated January 19 1853, two years before her death, the author thanks pharmacist David Waldie for his praise.

Waldie, from Linlithgow, West Lothian, wrote to Bronte after being impressed by Jane Eyre, published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell.

Bronte replied in her letter: ‘’The sincere affection of a reader’s gratification is - I scarcely need to say - one of the much acceptable favours in which an author can be repaid for his labours.

‘’I shall be glad if any future work of mine gives you equal pleasure to that you speak of having found in ‘Jane Eyre’.’’

Jane Eyre was published the same year as Wuthering Heights by Bronte’s sister Emily. It too was written under a pseudonym and it was only later that they and their sister Anne, also a writer, revealed their true identities to publishers.

Elder sister Charlotte died aged 38 in 1855 while pregnant with her first child.

The letter addressed from ‘’Gloucester Terrace, London’’ will be sold as lot 141 in the sale, Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts, scheduled to begin at 11am at Lyon and Turnbull.