A rare first-edition copy of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre has sold for £39,650.
The work, the first published novel penned by Haworth's legendary literary sister, went under the hammer at Bonhams this afternoon.
It had a pre-sale estimate of between £30,000 and £50,000.
The buyer is an overseas collector, who wishes to remain anonymous. The Bronte Society, which runs the Parsonage Museum at Haworth, said it was not among the bidders.
The three-volume book – published in 1847 using Charlotte's pseudonym, Currer Bell – is marked in pencil with its original price, 31 shillings and sixpence.
In July last year another first-edition copy of Jane Eyre sold at Sotheby's in London for £67,250.
And earlier this year a 16-line poem by Charlotte fetched a staggering £92,450 – more than twice the estimate – when it went under the hammer at Bonhams.
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