Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë

'Surprisingly radical.' - The Atlantic

'A miniaturist of the soul, Brontë captured shades of emotion with a psychological subtlety that still feels exquisitely modern.' - The New York Times

Passionate, poetic and revolutionary, Jane Eyre is a novel of naked emotional power. Its story of a defiant, fiercely intelligent woman who refuses to accept her appointed place in society - and instead finds love on her own terms - has become famous as one of the greatest romances ever written, but it is also a brooding Gothic mystery, a profound depiction of character and a transformative work of the imagination.

Charlotte Brontë's most beloved novel describes the passionate love between the courageous orphan Jane Eyre and the brilliant, brooding, and domineering Rochester. The loneliness and cruelty of Jane's childhood strengthens her natural independence and spirit, which prove invaluable when she takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. But after she falls in love with her sardonic employer, her discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a heart-wrenching choice.

Ever since its publication in 1847, Jane Eyre has enthralled every kind of reader, from the most critical and cultivated to the youngest and most unabashedly romantic. It lives as one of the great triumphs of storytelling and as a moving and unforgettable portrayal of a woman's quest for self-respect.

'Unless I have the courage to use the language of Truth in preference to the jargon of Conventionality, I ought to be silent ...' - Charlotte Brontë

About the author

Charlotte Brontë lived from 1816 to 1855. Jane Eyre appeared in 1847 and was followed by Shirley (1848) and Vilette (1853). In 1854, Charlotte Brontë married her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls. She died during her pregnancy on March 31, 1855, in Haworth, Yorkshire. The Professor was posthumously published in 1857.

'At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Brontë.' - Virginia Woolf

'One of the reasons Jane Eyre continues to provoke so much discussion and theorising is that, like Jane herself, it eludes definition. It does one thing with its right hand while doing quite another with its left. - The Guardian

'Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel helped introduce the idea of the "modern individual"-a surprisingly radical concept for readers at the time.' - The Atlantic

'A miniaturist of the soul, Brontë captured shades of emotion with a psychological subtlety that still feels exquisitely modern." - The New York Times