Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Brontë

An Autobiography

Jane Eyre is the life story of an orphan, told in her own voice. Mistreated by the aunt who raises her and half-starved at Lowood, a charity school, Jane grows up plain, poor and unwilling to be humbled. As governess at Thornfield Hall she falls in love with her employer, Edward Rochester, a brusque man with a secret in the attic, and the novel's central crisis is her refusal to compromise her conscience for the sake of that love. Published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell, the book startled its first readers with the directness of its heroine, who addresses them as an equal. It combines Gothic suspense with a serious argument about women's independence, religion and class. Read it online in your browser on Vinteuil; the first chapter is free.