Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre…is a book after our own hearts.” So wrote the influential literary critic of Charlotte Brontë’s day. George Henry Lewes.

Immediately recognized as a masterpiece when it was first published in 1847, Jane Eyre is an extraordinary coming-of-age story featuring one of the most independent and strong-willed female protagonists in all of literature.

Poor and plain, Jane Eyre begins life as a lonely orphan in the household of her hateful aunt. Despite the oppression she endures at home, and the later at a harsh boarding school, Jane manages to emerge with her spirit and integrity unbroken. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she finds herself falling in love with her employer, the dark, impassioned Mr. Rochester. But an explosive secret tears apart their relationship, forcing Jane to face poverty and isolation once again before finally finding happiness.

Jane Eyre – one of the great early master-works penned by a woman – is not simply for women, but appeals to the humanity in all of us. As Charolette herself wrote to William Smith Williams, “I am neither a man nor a woman but an author.”

One of the world’s most beloved novels, Jane Eyre is a startlingly modern blend of passion, mystery, romance, and suspense.