Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë (1847)
“The most radical Victorian novel — a penniless orphan who insists she has a self, a soul, and the right to refuse.”
At a Glance
Jane Eyre is an orphan raised by a cruel aunt, educated at a brutal charity school, and hired as governess at Thornfield Hall — where she falls in love with the brooding, brilliant Mr. Rochester. On their wedding day, she discovers he already has a wife: Bertha Mason, locked in the attic. Jane flees rather than compromise her principles, nearly starves, is rescued by the Rivers family, and inherits a fortune. St. John Rivers proposes a cold, duty-driven marriage. Jane refuses and returns to Rochester — now blinded and maimed in a fire set by Bertha. She proposes to him. They marry as equals.
Read full summary →Why This Book Matters
Published under the pseudonym Currer Bell in October 1847, Jane Eyre was an immediate commercial and critical sensation — it outsold its competitors and ran through three editions within months. It was controversial from the first: Elizabeth Rigby's famous 1848 Quarterly Review notice called it 'pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition' because Jane dares to place self-respect above submission to Providence. Queen Victoria read it and found it 'intensely interesting.' It has never been out of print in 177 years. It is routinely named among the top ten novels in the English language and has generated more literary criticism than almost any other Victorian text.
Diction Profile
Jane's voice is formal but never ornate — precise vocabulary deployed with plainness of syntax, unusual for Victorian women's fiction. Rochester's speech is baroque and self-interrupting. St. John's is homiletic and organized. Each voice is immediately distinguishable.
High, but grounded