Product Description

Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt and later attends a charity school with a harsh regime, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds a position as governess at Thornfield Hall. However, when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre (1847) dazzled and shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #438 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Micael M. Clarke, Loyola University Chicago
"Joining fiction to history, this edition of Jane Eyre illustrates the way literature addresses important moral and political issues."

Mary Ellis Gibson, University of North Carolina - Greensboro
"An excellent introduction to Jane Eyre in its time."

About the Author
Charlotte Brontë (1816-55), along with her sisters Emily and Anne, is one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century. She is also the author of Shirley, The Professor and Villette.

Customer Reviews

A literary triumph
I was slightly reluctant to read Jane Eyre. In the past I have had bad expieriences with what people would deem 'intellectual' books and wrongly dub as 'contemporary classics', but I can honestly say that Jane Eyre deserves to be referred to as a classic.
It is written in an autobiographical style and tells the story of Jane Eyre (obviously), who was orphaned at an early age and taken in by her uncle, Mr. Reed, who shortly also died, leaving her in the care of her cruel Aunt, Mrs. Reed, and at the mercy of her malicious cousin, John Reed. However, at the age of ten Jane Eyre leaves the Reed household to attent a charity boarding school known as Lowood where she befriends the mild mannered Helen Burns and gains the education that allows her, at the age of eighteen, to take a position as a Governess at Thornfield Hall. Here she meets the 'dark and sardonic' Mr. Rochester and falls in love with him. But alas, their union is not to be when Jane discovers a dark secret of Mr. Rochester's that forces her to leave Thornfield Hall and her chance of happiness as a married woman.
I will not go into the plot any longer, in case of spoiling the ending, but there are many aspects of the book that I was shocked to see in a novel written back in the 1800's. One that was not so surprising however, was the religious and moral references that frequently crop up, but don't be deceived into thinking that Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester and all other lead chracters are pious and preachy with the shared desire to 'do the right thing'. Jane does try to do what's right, but Mr. Rochester is often sly and occasionally seems cruel. He is far from a typical 'hero'.
And Jane is far from the typical heroine. This is what I believe makes the book so refreshing despite the fact it was written such a long time ago. Bronte takes pains to impress upon the reader that Jane is no beauty (and nor is Mr. Rochester) and while Jane eventually forgives Mrs. Reed and those who did her wrong, she is often wilful and passionate in her search for independence. While reading the book you really get to know Jane and start to care about her. The whole way through this book all I wanted was for Jane and Mr. Rochester to finally get together. You can fully understand Jane's dismay when she comes up against obstacles that hinder this.
The book is divided into three volumes. The first two volumes are absoultely exquisite, and so it the end of the third volume, however the beginning of volume three does drag on a bit.
I would recommend this book to anybody who loves classics, and to the rest who are scared (such as I was) to start reading them. Jane Eyre was my gateway into the world of old English literature.

Jane Eyre
Definitely one of my 'Desert Island' book choices. I have read this novel dozens of times and the beauty of it never grows dim.

Jane is not your typical heroine; other characters view her plain and small and insignificant but not Mr Rochester. Then again, he is hardly the dashing hero either! This book is as relevant today as it has always been. People are people. That will never change.

There are some cracking lines in it too which show Bronte's humour:

Rochester[after the fire]: "Am I hideous, Jane?"

Jane:"Very, sir: you always were, you know."

A true classic!

Plainly the Best
The title character of this novel is unusual, indeed, extremely rare - Marian Halcombe in The Woman in White is the only other such romantic literary heroine I can think of - in that she is not physically attractive. She has neither looks nor fortune. Most romantic heroines have the former but not the latter. It is Jane's character alone that the hero falls in love with. It is clear from the writing that Charlotte herself was unattractive and painfully aware of it. Strangely, the reading public have been unable to accept this, the very element of the book that makes it a perfect romance. The portrait of Charlotte that is most often reproduced is an idealized effort that makes her look beautiful. And whenever a screen adaptation is made of the book, the actress playing Jane is always beautiful. This reduces the theme to that of a rich man falling for a pretty servant girl. As always with classic literature, if you have only seen the movie, you emphatically do not know the book.

My first Bronte novel was Emily's Wuthering Heights, which I found very disappointing, with its heavy-breathing masochistic melodrama. But sister Charlotte is a writer of a very different calibre. From the first few pages, the reader knows they are in the hands of a great artist. The heartrending portrait of childhood with which the story opens is based on the author's own experiences, and it shows.

The book is not without flaws. The latter stages of the plot are carried along by a series of totally incredible coincidences and there is rather more Victorian melodrama than most modern readers would care for. But it remains, with its Plain-Jane heroine and its unlikely hero (in the end, he satisfies none of the conventional requirements of a romantic hero) the perfect romance. Never was the power of love more satisfyingly expressed.