Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Bronte

Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead and subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield Hall, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a richer life than that traditionally allowed women in Victorian society.
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Mason

• ISBN10: 0142437204
• ISBN13: 9780142437209
• Publish Date: 24 April 2003 (first published 16 October 1847)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 2 July 2012
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 624
• Language: English

Reviews

[pamela]

Rochester abuses mentally ill wife. Jane complains a lot.

[wyvernfriend]

This was an interesting read. As a teenager I read this several times but what I didn't know at the time, I was reading a condensed version of the story. I also had some trepidation about re-reading the story as I have re-read some other teenage favourites and wondered why I liked them in the first place.

But this was interesting, the love story of a young governess is well known, the problems she has in finding love are involved an interesting. I really did enjoy the insight it gave me into the life of the period and the role of a governess of the time. Of course it's helped by the fact that I read a few books about the background in the last few years.

Jane does grow through the story, and develops as an interesting character through her trials and tribulations. As do several of the other characters in the story.

I enjoyed the experience of re-visiting my teenage years but with the longer and more involved story, I enjoyed reading some of the undercurrents that were excised in the earlier edition that I possibly wouldn't have really "got".