Charlotte Brontë offered to rewrite parts of "Jane Eyre" after a legal threat from the headmaster of the school on which she based the infamous Lowood, where pupils were half-starved, according to newly discovered letters. The letters, written by the headmaster's grandson in 1912, were found a month ago and will be put up for sale in June by the auction house Mullock Madeley in Shropshire, England, Reuters reported.

The letters recount how the description of the school in "Jane Eyre" upset the Rev. William Carus-Wilson, who wrote to Brontë — his former student — and threatened her with legal action. But Brontë dissuaded him by sending a 1,400-word sketch, expurgated of the offending passages. Even so, she never changed the original book and the headmaster never pursued a legal case. The letters, discovered in a pile of documents sent by a book dealer to the auctioneer, are expected to fetch up to 100 pounds, or $185.