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By Charlotte Brontë

‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Brontë is a pure masterwork of an English classic that still lives its relevance in today’s society despite having been around for more than a century and a half.

Article written by Victor Onuorah

Degree in Journalism from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

‘ Jane Eyre ’ proved a blockbuster following its 1847 publication as it became a book that gave voice to the voiceless, resilience to the weak, and spirit of honest activism to the seemingly lesser gender. Through Charlotte Brontë’s bestseller , there was an awakening in the urgency to tackle gender-related issues by society.

A Descriptive Tale on a Search for True Purpose

‘ Jane Eyre ’ by Charlotte Brontë is one of the most remarkably written classics I’ve read. The book is enriched with a touching story of a plain English country girl who is forced to endure a harsh childhood being an orphan and taken in under the guidance of her maltreating aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her bullish children.

From the get-go, Jane seems to be the only character in Charlotte Brontë’s ‘ Jane Eyre ’ who seeks something much more than the mere routines of life, and she shows such desire from the first pages of the book – around when she’s young and about ten years old. Given Jane starts out being headstrong and a little sassy, I wouldn’t blame her too much because she’s just a smart and active little girl trying to protect herself over at Gateshead, a place where she’s surrounded by people who are supposed to be her family but are not.

Jane’s childhood rebellion, however, is never out of place. By rough estimation, those youthful angsts indicate her disagreement with her current life treated with biases and lies, and later, we see the extent of this mentality to society and the state of affairs therein. Jane is, by description, a self-reformer interested in finding that one true purpose in life.

She learns tremendously through life – and in all necessary disciplines enough to refine herself into the person she wants to be. Morals and values through religion. People relations and handling skills through experiences with terrible and as well good and kind people she’s met. In the end, Jane will pick bits and pieces of the core things that form her true purpose and piece them together. She’s happy at last because, against society’s pretentious family, she discovers her voice and finds her personality.

Providence Always Remembers the Upright

It’s nearly a miracle how Jane survives throughout every stage of the book. Frankly, ‘ Jane Eyre ’ is a chancy book that creates such a scary reality for a fairly helpless little girl. Still, the daring and fearless narrative is also a reason author Charlotte Brontë scores points on ‘ Jane Eyre ’ because there are at least a few million young girls and boys who go through this same struggle, or worse, in their respective reality.

However, thank gracious how providence always seems to turn up for Jane in dangerous and difficult situations (and I hope, for God’s sake, it turns up for the million youthful others worldwide who can relate to this story). First off, the readers will notice how, in aunt Reed’s home at Gateshead, providence uses a servant, Bessie, to feed, care for, and serve as a mother figure to maltreatment, starving Jane. She probably wouldn’t have survived long enough to experience Lowood School, not to mention Thornfield, Moor House, or Ferndean.

Another worthy mention of a good meddling of the saving hands of providence is the part right after Jane disappointedly leaves Thornfield and Mr. Rochester after finding out that he (Mr. Rochester) had been lying to her about not having a wife. Sad and depressed and without a home or a destination, Jane wanders the dangerous streets, sleeps in them, begs, and collects scraps for food. No bad thing happens to her, from the poor food, street hooligans, etc. This is sheer providence.

A Rollercoaster Ride of Love and Heartbreaks

There are at least two heartbreaks, Jane, the protagonist, faces in the book, and I would think one of the two hurt her the most. Let’s start with the one that didn’t hurt so much, Jane’s experience with her cousin St. John Rivers. A homeless Jane is taken in by St. John Rivers and his sisters, cleaned, fed, and cared for. She bounces back to her gracious self, and it doesn’t take long for St. John to fall for her.

When this happens, the next thing that follows is heartbreak. For even though Jane cares so much about John, she doesn’t love him enough to want to spend the rest of her life with him. However, after the saga, she is buried in thought, despondent over it, and decides to leave Moor House and the presence of St. John.

The other instance, and the one that hurts so much for Jane, is the event over at Thornfield involving Mr. Rochester. Jane is particularly broken by this because she genuinely loves him and is going to walk down the aisle with him until she finds out he has a crazy legal wife locked up in the attic.

How does Jane survive three days straight in the streets without money, shelter, or food?

Jane is lucky enough to go unscathed, having spent days out in the streets after a fallout with Mr. Rochester, although she now has to survive the hard way by begging for food and sleeping anywhere a proper shelter.

What are the pros of Charlotte Brontë’s ‘ Jane Eyre ’?

The story of ‘ Jane Eyre ’ is loved for its ability to tackle difficult topics in female gender rights, social decadence, and poverty, among other things.

Are there any cons in ‘ Jane Eyre ’ by Charlotte Brontë?

There are a few cons in Charlotte Brontë’s ‘ Jane Eyre ,’ and mentioning some would include the book’s display of immorality and anti-social tendencies.

Jane Eyre Review

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë book cover illustration

Book Title: Jane Eyre

Book Description: 'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë is a powerful narrative of resilience and integrity, where young Jane confronts a male-dominated society, challenging norms and advocating for gender equality and dignity.

Book Author: Charlotte Brontë

Book Edition: First Edition

Book Format: Hardcover

Publisher - Organization: Smith, Elder & Co.

Date published: October 16, 1847

ISBN: 978-0140437286

Number Of Pages: 479

Jane Eyre Review: You Can Impact Society and Make a Change Irrespective of Your Background, Gender or Age

Charlotte Brontë’s eponymous book, ‘Jane Eyre,’ shows us how integrity and good ideas can help bring a meaningful change in society – regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or skin color. 10-year-old Jane overcomes maltreatment in a foster home to face a ruthless and brutal society controlled by men. With women like her already bowing to the pressures, Jane finds herself up against an uphill battle to reclaim the relevance of her gender and the pride of the humble and oppressed.

Rich storyline
Well-defined characters
Gender equality activization
Gender stereotype
Immorality issues
Overly French for an English read

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Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre: The Most Captivating Love Story of All Time?

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About the Author: Charlotte Bronte

Book: jane eyre by charlotte bronte .

Author: Charlotte Brontë
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Publication year: 1983-10-1
Pages: 492
Finishing: Paperback

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Excerpts from the original text

Life is too short for me to hold grudges. In this world, everyone must be at fault. But I believe that one day soon, we will get rid of our corrupt bodies and we will get rid of these faults. Fall and sin will leave us with cumbersome flesh and blood, leaving only the spark of spirit. This is the source of life and thought, just as pure as when it left the Creator and gave life to it. Where it came from and where it went, perhaps it sneaked into creatures higher than human beings; perhaps it passed through various levels of glory, first illuminating the pale soul of human beings, and then illuminating the seraphim. —— Quoted from page 56

Book Summary

Book Review and Analysis

Reason for selling well: Sympathy

Background, class emphasis, nobility, and the poor

Racial Superiority

Religious background, Jane’s religious views

Characters in literary rhetoric, mirrored roles, dual-corresponding characters, contrasts between bright and dark figures

End, st. john, he or be, spiritual phenomenon of gothic novel style.

Quotes from Jane Eyre with page numbers

"Do you think that because I am poor, humble, not beautiful, and short, I have no soul and no heart? You are wrong! My soul is the same as yours, and my heart is exactly the same as yours. If God grants My wealth and beauty, I will make it difficult for you to leave me, just as it is difficult for me to leave you now! If God grants me a little beauty and a little wealth, I will make you feel hard to leave me, just like I am hard to leave you now. I am talking to you now, not through customs, conventions, or even through mortal bodies—but my spirit is talking to your spirit; it’s like two of them have passed through the grave, and we are standing in front of God’s feet. Equal-because we are equal!" ——Jane Eyre

Then you are wrong, you don't understand me at all, don't understand the kind of love I can have at all. Every atom in your flesh is as close to me as my own; it is in pain, but it is still close. Your heart is my treasure house, even if it is broken, it is still my treasure house; if you go crazy, it will be my arm instead of the tight-fitting vest that restrains you—let you hold on tightly, even in your When I am angry, I always feel a charm... ——Jane Eyre said to Rochester

When we are beaten for no reason, we should fight back fiercely; I'm sure we should fight back fiercely, to teach the person who beat us, so that he will never dare to beat people like this again. ——Jane Eyre who dares to love and hate

Some people, no matter how I please them or hate me, then I can't help but hate them; some people, give me unfair punishment, then I can't help but resist. This is natural. Just as some people love me, I love them, or when I feel that I deserve to be punished, I will be punished willingly. ——Jane Eyre with clear love and hate.

Human nature is such that it cannot be perfect! Even on the brightest planet, there will be such black spots; and Miss Sketchel's eyes can only see the small flaws, but can't see the star's radiant light. ——Jane Eyre

In my opinion, life is too short to remember hatred. In the human world, all of us have sinned, and it is impossible not to be so; but I believe that one day, we will be freed from our rotten bodies, and we will be free from these sins, and depravity and sins will follow us. The cumbersome body of flesh and blood leaves us, leaving only the spark of the spirit—the intangible principles of life and thought, as pure as when it left the Creator to give life to all things; where did it come from and where did it go back? ; Maybe it has entered into a higher creature than humans—maybe ascend according to the taste of glory, from the pale human soul to the bright archangel! ——Helen said

Your enemies must love them; those who curse you must bless them; those who hate you and insult you must treat them well. ——Helen quoted from "Bible · New Testament · Luke."

Even if people all over the world hate you and believe you are bad, as long as you have a clear conscience, you will not be without friends. ——Helen to Jane Eyre.

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Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Goodreads | Waterstones

Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage. She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. All of which circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr Rochester. However, there is great kindness and warmth in this epic love story, which is set against the magnificent backdrop of the Yorkshire moors. Ultimately the grand passion of Jane and Rochester is called upon to survive cruel revelation, loss and reunion, only to be confronted with tragedy.

Jane Eyre was the first classic I read, at around the age of 11. I’ve read it 4 or 5 times since, and enjoyed it every single time. Even though my thoughts changed a lot in this reading, I still regard it as one of my favourite books of all time. As I’ve grown up in the past 10 years, my viewpoints on parts of this book have certainly changed, but my love for the story hasn’t decreased.

I’ve always loved the romance in this book, but for the first time I looked at Rochester and noticed so many problems. This is something that has also come from reading Wide Sargasso Sea and having more of an (imagined) background to his character. There is absolutely no shying away from the fact Mr Rochester does not treat Jane well and repeatedly addresses her in ways that appear problematic today. However what I truly love about this story is that Jane doesn’t stand for anything. When she truly believes that she is not being treated with the respect she deserves, she stands up for herself.

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me:

There is no doubt there are many feminist elements to this story, and Jane is one of the most independent women I have come across in Victorian fiction. I spent so much of this story being in utter admiration of her character and how she stands up for herself. I would even argue this book stands away from (or even above) Jane Austen novels, especially in the way this book could have very easily not ended in marriage. Jane creates her own pathways through life and her own prospects, and everything she does is of her own accord.

I also love the setting of Thornfield Hall and the Victorian Gothic aspects of it. There is so much atmosphere crammed in between these pages and the writing portrayed the wild nature of the the British countryside so well – I could picture every scene. I listened to the audiobook this time and I’m glad I did – it gave me a different view of the story and made it feel more accessible too. I’ve always felt this is quite an accessible story, but it is quite long at over 500 pages and I can see why it would feel dense to some. I think because of the length of this book, movie adaptations do not manage to do the writing justice. Even though I love watching adaptations, the book stands above them all easily. You simply can’t portray all of Jane’s flawed character and relationship with Rochester in a condensed format.

I am a free human being with an independent will.

Overall, I did consider lowering my rating because of how problematic Rochester is and comes across as. But the takeaway from this book is Jane, Jane, Jane . She deserves all of the stars in the world.

★★★★★ 5 out of 5 stars

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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3 thoughts on “ Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte ”

On Jane Eyre reviews, I get that modern critics are now looking at this book through the prism of feminism. Older generations of women called Jane’s essential spirit; that rises like a phoenix against terrible odds at all times, outstanding character, strength and courage. Or in American terms, ‘real guts.’ It is to me Jane’s courage that shines through the book all the time but make no mistake… this is also a story of physical passion between a man and a woman, barely supressed by the rigid mechanism of the society they are in. There is also no doubt that this novel is autobiographical and could only have come from the pen of a Bronte sister. For the times, Bertha the mad woman in the attic looked after by Mrs Poole, an employee of Rochester, is well kept compared to the alternative, a lunatic asylum where in those days the mad were unmedicated, kept in cages and often tormented by their keepers for sport. Mr Rochester saved Bertha that fate and paid a big price for it… blindness and his home destroyed. I defend any modern critics that paint him as a monster.

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I completely agree with you! I think it is difficult now not to look at Mr Rochester and see some issues, but it is definitely a story of the time and I can’t help but love their passionate relationship.

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07 Oct Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: In-depth Book Review and Analysis

Introduction:.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë is a seminal piece that burgeons with profound themes and rich character development, making it a must-read for those intrigued by 19th-century literature . This review delves into the essence of Brontë’s narrative, examining its literary anatomy and socio-cultural underpinnings. Recommended reading age is 14 and above due to mature themes.

The narrative follows Jane Eyre , an orphaned girl, who navigates a world often hostile towards her. Through her experiences at Lowood School , and later, at Thornfield Hall as a governess, the book explores themes of love, independence, and the struggle against societal expectations.

Jane Eyre stands robust in its storytelling and characterization, yet, its pacing can be tedious for modern readers. The book, through its meticulous narrative and a strong, independent protagonist, encourages dialogue on gender roles and social status, making it a significant read. Literary devices such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony are intricately woven into the fabric of the narrative. The storyline mirrors Brontë’s own life, echoing her reflections on women’s independence and social criticism.

Evaluation:

Readers who appreciate a blend of romance, social critique, and a journey of self-discovery would find Jane Eyre engaging. Compared to other works like Wuthering Heights by her sister Emily, Jane Eyre is less dark yet equally poignant. The book is highly recommended for its enduring relevance and insightful exploration of human emotions and societal norms.

Possible questions for a high school test:

Answer: By seeking independence, education, and challenging gender roles.
Answer: The ‘Red Room’ symbolizes Jane’s imprisonment and her fear of oppression.
Answer: Examples include Mr. Rochester’s disguises, hinting at his deceptive nature or the eerie laughter foreshadowing the revelation of Bertha Mason.

Awards and accolades:

While awards as we know them weren’t prevalent when published, the books critical acclaim has secured its place as a classic in English literature .

Functional details about the book:

ISBN: Varies by edition
Pages: ~500
Publisher: Various publishers due to its public domain status
First Published: 1847
Adaptations: Numerous, including films, TV shows, and stage plays
Genre: Novel, Bildungsroman
BISAC Categories: Fiction / Classics
Suggested Reading Age: 14 and up

Opening Excerpt of the book:

Excerpt from Jane Eyre | Penguin Random House Canada

Other Reviews:

Numerous reviews are available online, reflecting a high appreciation for its narrative and the protagonist’s strong character.

Where to buy the book:

Jane Eyre on Bookshop.org

Is this book part of a series?

No, it’s a standalone novel.

About the author:

Charlotte Brontë, born in 1816, was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters, all of whom were literary figures. Besides Jane Eyre , she authored Shirley and Villette . Although not awarded in her time, her work has left an indelible mark on literature.

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Book Review | Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

08 may 2020.

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."-- Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

My favorite genre for novels would definitely be the classics. I've read Jane Eyre years ago.. so I don't recall much in detail about the story, but I do remember loving it so much! :) I remember enjoying Wuthering Heights too. Thanks for sharing with us your thoughts on this classic! Anna Jo | http://helloannajo.blogspot.com

Wuthering Heights is one of my favorite classics too, which is why I've been trying to read more Brontë novels. The classics are amazing!

I haven't read this yet but it's also on my list of books to eventually pick up! Great review!

Thanks Caroline!

Beautiful review!

Thank you, Lila!

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Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë is an empowering, erotic Victorian novel, brimming with Gothic tropes and explosive energy. Its eponymous heroine, an orphan, is brought up, alongside her antagonistic cousins, under the hostile care of her aunt, Sarah Reed. When Jane is sent away to Lowood School it seems that she has escaped a terrible situation only to be thrown into one more dire. Though she finds friendship at Lowood, the conditions are harsh, and when things come apart, Jane forges for herself another escape, this time to be governess at Thornfield Hall. Her master there is Mr. Edward Rochester: a dark, brooding man. Though Mr. Rochester pursues another – Blanche Ingram: a beauty, with whom Jane’s plain features cannot compete – a bond develops between master and governess. Eventually, Mr. Rochester’s affections turn to Jane and he proposes marriage. But all is not well at Thornfield, a fact that Jane will soon discover. As secrets are revealed, Jane is forced from the house and it seems that there can be no union between her and the man she loves.

Throughout the novel, Jane has her voice quieted and her agency restricted yet she refuses to accept her own lack of independence, and insists on her strict sense of self as an individual. She develops this strength of character through a series of experiences, reminiscent, structurally, of John Bunyan ’s A Pilgrim’s Progess . It is Rochester’s eventual acknowledgement of Jane as an intelligent, genuinely caring person that allows her to fall for him. This too goes some way to navigating the difficult dynamic of their early relationship: that of master and servant. Increasingly, Jane Eyre has been read as a feminist tract, but this central dynamic – somehow reminiscent of the one between Pamela Andrews and Mr. B in Samuel Richardson ’s less progressive novel Pamela – creates a potential problem for a feminist reading. That Jane and Rochester’s relationship evolves from a typically patriarchal affair to something approaching a palatable equality allows room for the relationship to be read as a transformative one, rather than an oppressive one. With her sharpness of mind and stubborn individuality, Jane is set apart from her literary predecessors like Pamela Andrews and Fanny Price by her strong sense of self. Equally, unlike heroines of manorial fiction past, she does not seek to assimilate into the culture of estate but remains apart from it, and it is this sense of Otherness that allows a more sympathetic reading of the conformist aspects of Jane’s personality.

Jane’s passion is not just for Mr. Rochester: contained in her small, unremarkable body is a fire that quietly blazes against those that seek to oppress her and constrict her agency. For Brontë as for Jane, life can only be satisfying when lived fully and on one’s own terms. This causes conflicts, both between Jane and other characters, and within herself. Similar to Austen ’s Sense and Sensibility , there is a clash between natural passion and reason, here blazing within Jane. As the novel progresses, Jane acknowledges that one must be tempered by the other: Rochester may be where Jane’s passion lies, but she must navigate the difficult path between a prudent match, and a fulfilling one, just as Rochester himself must have his Byronic excesses quelled. Certainly, in contrast to the other (potential) matches in the book, it is, eventually, a meeting of two independent people who value one another not for what they can offer but simply for themselves. Nevertheless, Rochester remains problematic. As a hero, even a Byronic hero, Rochester appears without merit for most of the novel: he is controlling towards Jane, hideous towards Bertha (his first wife), a serial bigamist/adulterer, and with a very short list of pleasant characteristics to balance these less desirable ones. Even as a character that appeals to the emotional, he lacks the unbearable passion that Heathcliff represents, and has no true redemption/revelation like Darcy. Instead, he maintains an odd patriarchal appeal; on a visceral level this works, but beyond it is problematic.

Jane Eyre met with a difficult critical reception on its publication. It was not, as might be supposed, the brooding and overt sexuality of Rochester that offended Victorian society but the refusal of Jane to submit to her expected role and perceived ‘anti-Christian’ sentiment within the book. As has been noted elsewhere, a (fictional) woman who desires a Byronic partner can easily be accommodated, but a woman who desires escape from much of what society holds to be ‘proper’ cannot. By representing a woman who combines these unrepressed passions, Jane becomes a dangerous heroine and one who was identified as such by many reviewers.

Brontë defended Jane Eyre against claims of irreligiosity in an introductory note to the second edition, despite her own dim view of many facets of religion. In the novel, Jane encounters three religious characters – Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen Burns, and St. John Rivers – each of whom have their evident (religious) failings, which Jane rightly comprehends. Consequently, none are able convince her to share their views. She is aware, however, of the need to balance transient pleasure with moral duty. Her rejection of the religious characters is less a sign of her disavowal of religion and more a sign of her own autonomous morality. For Jane is in touch a personal form of spirituality – a state common to many Brontë characters.

Throughout the text, Jane is silenced and has her own position identified, and history told, by others. Whether Jane is constrained by man or society, she feels a constant need to escape the sense of powerlessness and commodification of her own body and she achieves this by retaining control of her imagination, which carries her far from the hold of society. Jane fears that marriage will cause her to lose her identity and it’s not until this fear is assuaged that she can countenance the idea. However, her submission to marriage by the novel’s close, even seen through the active role she plays in the decision as typified by the novel’s famous assertion “Reader, I married him,” leaves Jane as typical domestic triumph – wed and removed from the independent life she has forged for herself. It is a carefully negotiated union, which re-positions Jane as a collaborator in the conceit, rather than an inactive object in it, but still presents a problem that feminist readings of the text must overcome.

Jane’s sense of self – perhaps of particular import to her as an orphan – is embodied by her strong narrative. She asserts the ‘I’ of her story and addresses the reader with a commentary on her own life, affirming the value of her own inner monologue. This strong sense of individual importance chimes not only with nineteenth century feminism, but economic individualism and political liberalism too. It was a period when the idea of the autonomous individual being as relevant as the state/society was becoming entrenched in Anglo-American society, and Jane Eyre ’s narrative forces the female voice to intersect with this growing sense of the individual. It was a change that was reflected in literature, with the development of stream of consciousness narratives, which positioned the inner life of characters as more important than the outer life of the world. In this sense, Jane Eyre is a progressive character both in terms of her personality and her literary worth.

It’s odd to think that a novel of such potent feeling was first published under the pseudonym Currer Bell – Brontë was, after all, well aware that male authors were afforded a greater gravitas than their female counterparts. Almost two centuries later and Jane Eyre is rightly considered one of the most thrillingly powerful novels of the Victorian period; a novel with feminist, individualist, and gothic charm in abundance. In a Room of One’s Own , Virginia Woolf would later write that Brontë was an author, who "had more genius in her than Jane Austen", but whose anger made her books “deformed and twisted”, but it is this wild, untameable passion that runs through Jane Eyre , which makes it so readable today. Certainly the emotions are both overwrought and overwritten, but Brontë’s writing sweeps the reader up in the tornado of dark emotions that run through the text, and gives them no choice but to continue on until the storm has abated and the last page has been turned.

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Strength of character triumphs in Bronte's masterpiece.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

As a young child, Jane is pushed and struck by her young cousins, and locked in

Since the novel is set in Victorian England, there are no product names to drop,

Wine, beer, and gin are sometimes consumed -- mostly for medicinal purposes. Roc

The characters kiss and describe romantic feelings. Rochester speaks of previous

Any Positive Content?

Jane Eyre is a 19th-century gothic romance of the highest order, but it's an

Jane Eyre possesses such impressive strength of character -- a powerful sense o

Young Jane is sad, hungry, and misunderstood during the first half of her career

Violence & Scariness

As a young child, Jane is pushed and struck by her young cousins, and locked in a dark room as punishment. As an adult at Thornfield Hall, she is asked to nurse Rochester's brother-in-law, Richard Mason, when he is savagely stabbed and bitten by a madwoman -- this is a bloody scene. Fire breaks out at Thornfield Hall twice. The second time, Rochester is wounded and a woman jumps from the roof to her death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Since the novel is set in Victorian England, there are no product names to drop, but the quality or type of the characters' dress is often viewed as indicative of their wealth and station.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Wine, beer, and gin are sometimes consumed -- mostly for medicinal purposes. Rochester also smokes the occasional cigar. After Jane leaves Rochester, she worries about what "opiate" state he may have entered.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

The characters kiss and describe romantic feelings. Rochester speaks of previous adulterous affairs.

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Positive Messages

Jane Eyre is a 19th-century gothic romance of the highest order, but it's an unconventional one. The message here is that Jane is better off single than with the wrong partner, or a partner who asks her to betray her own conscience. In a cruel world full of chaos and madness, Jane Eyre listens to her mind at least as much as her heart. She always does what she knows is right, and she knows her own worth.

Positive Role Models

Jane Eyre possesses such impressive strength of character -- a powerful sense of her own self-worth and moral fiber, despite the abuse and neglect she suffers in her Aunt Reed's house and at Lowood School. Her opportunities are limited by her finances and by Victorian gender roles, but she is always guided by her own conscience and intelligence, and is one of the strongest female characters in English literature. During her formative years, Jane herself learns from the example set by two friends at Lowood, her classmate Helen Burns, a sickly child but the soul of Christian patience and goodness, and School Superintendent Maria Temple, a firm but kind teacher whom Jane eventually emulates.

Educational Value

Young Jane is sad, hungry, and misunderstood during the first half of her career at Lowood School, but conditions improve and she dedicates herself to her studies. Her education becomes one of her greatest assets; it is her way out of Lowood, and twice enables her to support herself: first as Adele's governess in Thornfield Hall, and then as a school teacher in Morton.

Parents need to know that Charlotte Bronte's classic romantic novel does not contain "mature themes" in the modern sense, but it does require a mature reader to comprehend the characters' complex relationships and inner turmoil, and to take in the troubling events that occur: Children are abused and neglected; half of the students of Lowood School die of typhus, while the other half are malnourished and cold. Mental illness and adulterous affairs figure in the story, as well.

Where to Read

Parent and kid reviews.

Parents say (5)
Kids say (33)

Based on 5 parent reviews

It was boring

What's the story.

When the novel begins, Jane Eyre is a 9-year-old orphan who is dependent on a heartless, widowed aunt, Mrs. Reed. Resentful of her late husband's affection for Jane, Mrs. Reed neglects her niece, then sends her to a \"charity school,\" Lowood, where students are raised on strict rules and a poor diet, ostensibly in preparation for a harsh life. In spite of these obstacles, Jane succeeds as a student and then as a teacher, and after nine years, leaves Lowood to serve as governess to Adele, the young ward of Edward Rochester, master of mysterious Thornfield Hall. At 18, Jane gets engaged to the stern and aloof Rochester, and on their wedding day, Jane learns his secret, which leads to her becoming an independent woman.

Is It Any Good?

Charlotte Bronte's classic romantic novel is simply one of the greatest works of English fiction. Jane's independence, fortitude, and intelligence render her one of literature's strongest female characters, and the passionate love between Jane and Rochester is a romance for the ages. Bronte's development of that relationship, set against the mysteries within Thornfield Hall, is peerless.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the moral struggle that Jane faces when she learns Rochester's secret. Why does Jane feel she must leave Thornfield Hall?

Jane Eyre is as an unconventional heroine, a young woman ahead of her time. What makes Jane different from other female main characters in novels of Bronte's era -- from Jane Austen's women, for example? What makes Jane seem old-fashioned, and what makes her timeless?

Book Details

Author : Charlotte Bronte
Genre : Romance
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Harper Press
Publication date : October 16, 1900
Number of pages : 490
Last updated : April 23, 2020

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Pride & Prejudice

Wuthering Heights (1939)

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Introduction

Publication and analysis

What was Charlotte Brontë’s childhood like?
Where did Charlotte Brontë go to school?

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Academia - An Overview: Jane Eyre as a Feminist Novel
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Table Of Contents

Jane Eyre , novel by Charlotte Brontë , first published in 1847 as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography , with Currer Bell (Brontë’s pseudonym) listed as the editor. Widely considered a classic, it gave new truthfulness to the Victorian novel with its realistic portrayal of the inner life of a woman, noting her struggles with her natural desires and social condition.

When the novel begins, the title character is a 10-year-old orphan who lives with her uncle’s family; her parents had died of typhus . Other than the nursemaid, the family ostracizes Jane. She is later sent to the austere Lowood Institution, a charity school , where she and the other girls are mistreated; “Lowood,” as the name suggests, is the “low” point in Jane’s young life. In the face of such adversity, however, she gathers strength and confidence.

Young woman with glasses reading a book, student

In early adulthood, after several years as a student and then teacher at Lowood, Jane musters the courage to leave. She finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets her dashing and Byronic employer, the wealthy and impetuous Edward Rochester . At Thornfield Jane looks after young Adèle, the daughter of a French dancer who was one of Rochester’s mistresses, and is befriended by the kindly housekeeper Mrs. Alice Fairfax . Jane falls in love with Rochester, though he is expected to marry the snobbish and socially prominent Blanche Ingram. Rochester eventually reciprocates Jane’s feelings and proposes marriage. However, on their wedding day, Jane discovers that Rochester cannot legally marry her, because he already has a wife, Bertha Mason , who has gone mad and is locked away on the third floor because of her violent behaviour; her presence explains the strange noises Jane has heard in the mansion. Believing that he was tricked into that marriage, Rochester feels justified in pursuing his relationship with Jane. He pleads with her to join him in France, where they can live as husband and wife despite the legal prohibitions, but Jane refuses on principle and flees Thornfield.

Jane is taken in by people she later discovers are her cousins. One of them is St. John , a principled clergyman. He gives her a job and soon proposes marriage, suggesting that she join him as a missionary in India. Jane initially agrees to leave with him but not as his wife. However, St. John pressures her to reconsider his proposal, and a wavering Jane finally appeals to Heaven to show her what to do. Just then, she hears a mesmeric call from Rochester. Jane returns to Thornfield to find the estate burned, set on fire by Rochester’s wife, who then jumped to her death. Rochester, in an attempt to save her, was blinded. Reunited, Jane and Rochester marry. Rochester later regains some of his sight, and the couple have a son.

The book was originally published in three volumes as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography , with Currer Bell listed as the editor. (The Lowood section of the novel was widely believed to be inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s own life.) Though some complained that it was anti- Catholic , the work was an immediate success. Jane Eyre ’s appeal was partly due to the fact that it was written in the first person and often addressed the reader, creating great immediacy. In addition, Jane is an unconventional heroine, an independent and self-reliant woman who overcomes both adversity and societal norms. The novel also notably blended diverse genres . Jane’s choice between sexual need and ethical duty belongs very firmly to the mode of moral realism. However, her close escape from a bigamous marriage and the fiery death of Bertha are part of the Gothic tradition.

Jane Eyre inspired various film, TV, and stage adaptations , including a 1943 movie that starred Orson Welles as Rochester and Joan Fontaine as Jane. Jean Rhys ’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) offers an account of Rochester’s first marriage.

Book Series Recaps

So what happened in book one, review of jane eyre.

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No spoilers in this review of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront ë .

Special thanks to Sarina Byron, a BSR contributor who wrote this great review! Sarina is a British Author and Contributing Writer living in California. Sarina enjoys bringing forth a different perspective and encouraging a different way of thinking through her writing. Visit her blog to read her reviews, and check the end of the review for a link to her Instagram.

*****WARNING: This review contains a spoiler!!!*****

G.H.Lewes described Jane Eyre as “ suspiria de profundis ,” meaning sighs from the depths, concealing even more pain than it reveals.

Charlotte Brontë borrowed heavily from her own life to create Jane Eyre in that there was a boarding school, a career in teaching, a clandestine affair, and a short stint as a governess. Her passions clearly fueled the dullness of her existence because she created a fantastically romantic story using these mundane events, save the affair. Brontë’s depiction of affection and bullying in a boarding school is eerily accurate as she also started her life as an orphan packed off to a boarding school. Being a boarding school product myself, albeit with a family, I can relate to the rigour and discipline often employed to raise capable young ladies. The times of our experiences differed. And mercifully, the experience of losing friends to avoidable diseases is now practically non-existent.

Brontë created meaning where she may have struggled to see any, success in a spot inhabited by failure, and romance where it wasn’t requited. She seemed to inhabit and survive in a world which rarely gave her what she wanted. Yet she crafted a world of her liking and channelled it into her books. One has to wonder if that is what helped her survive her 38 years.

Jane Eyre’s time at Thornfield Hall was a romanticised version of Charlotte Brontë’s own time in Brussels, where she developed a strong affection for her employer. The popular story is the affection was unrequited. But one has to wonder why a woman would continue corresponding with a man who refused to reciprocate her affections. Whatever her equation with her employer in Brussels may have been, Jane’s time at Thornfield Hall most probably heavily borrowed from Charlotte’s feelings and emotions. Those cosy evenings when Jane and Mr. Rochester exchanged views by the fire and those times he exalted her position in his society by including her in parties with his friends may have all been reproductions of real interactions.

Jane Eyre is oftentimes spoken of as a romantic tale, but romance is a small part of this story. It is primarily the life story of a woman who goes from belonging nowhere to finding a family. At all times in history, the worst circumstance is that which belongs to an orphaned child. When the story begins on that note, it is natural that one expects a saviour to show up and end all her troubles. The white knight who would restore her missing confidence and self-esteem, two virtues she never had a chance to build as a child. Mercifully, the book progresses as real life does. Jane does not benefit from any white knight and is forced to employ the only saviour available to her: the one within herself.

Jane suffers several blows until at last she makes a life for herself as a teacher. She suffers as long as she expects someone else to fix her problems. Considering the times, it was quite bold for the author to write of a woman who chose a solitary life and a career as a teacher rather than marry, the sensible option. By stark contrast Diana and Mary, her friends-cum-cousins, lament the loss of an inheritance they assume a right over in hopes it would help them secure good husbands.

I am inclined to praise the masterful manner in which Charlotte Brontë has shown the contrast between different women, their choices, and how those choices made them feel. For a brief moment in time, it seemed like that would be how Jane’s story ends. That she would revel in her independence and new-found freedom and live her days forgetting Thornfield Hall and its ghastly residents. However, closure is the entire point of books. At times, the closure is for the author. At other times, the closure is for the people they have used as inspiration for their books. Maybe authors only write to find closure.

It is my belief that symbolism in books is more a function of the reader than the author. I do not know of many authors who profess to include as much allegory as books are claimed to hold. Those that do often speak of it when promoting their books. It’s a new hobby in today’s world to dig into possible and hidden meanings. When an author writes an honest story, we want to read what is trying to find voice within us. Hence we may make assumptions about what the author was trying to imply or the buried story behind the printed version.

A fantastic example of this is when Charlotte Brontë dedicated the book to William Makepeace Thackeray, whom she admired immensely. This shocked those who knew Thackeray as much as it shocked him. You see, Thackeray kept an ailing wife hidden in his attic, just like Mr. Rochester in the story. Mental illness carried few cures and much shame in those times. Brontë was unaware as to this aspect of Thackeray’s life as she was not acquainted with him. But I suppose there’s something to be said about human instinct.

Speaking of instinct, Jane returns to Thornfield upon hearing Mr. Rochester’s voice calling out to her in a dream. Today’s world is increasingly divided about the existence of human instinct and a sixth sense. We want to hear about “proof” and “evidence” more than a strong gut feeling. In that regard, I find the books of yesteryears rather more “complete” than those of today. They contained the human experience in its entirety and bore no apologies about what may be considered unacceptable.

Perhaps it was the comforting cover of Brontë’s nom de plume, Currer Bell, which allowed her to write this embellished autobiography where she reinvented what needed reinventing and adopted what she wished was hers. The assumed name and gender crumbled swiftly under the weight of her popularity and celebrity, however. The façade also came crashing down as her desire to defend her books and characters grew stronger. After much confusion over which of the books belonged to which author—the other Brontë sisters also published under masculine pseudonyms—the truth of the matter was revealed. For that one moment, Charlotte showed just as much strength as her protagonist, Jane.

One sometimes has to wonder whether Charlotte Brontë took inspiration from Jane Eyre or whether Jane was inspired by Charlotte. It appears that Charlotte was determined to prove a plain looking small girl could achieve as much or even more than imposing women. In all walks of Jane’s life, she wrote an antagonist much stronger and imposing than the protagonist. One can only assume it gave Charlotte much pleasure to lead her heroine on this arduous journey, patiently claiming victory over each person.

If you read nothing in the review above and skip to the bottom, here are the few key takeaways. This is an autobiographical novel, albeit not the only one covering Charlotte Brontë’s life. This is not a love story, at least not in the conventional sense. Instead, it is the journey of Jane Eyre, learning to love herself and discovering how everything falls into place when she finds herself.

Let us know what you think about this review of Jane Eyre and Sarina’s great review in the comments! No spoilers on this page, please!

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Don’t forget to check out Sarina’s blog , and you can follow her on Instagram ! Follow Book Series Recaps on Instagram , Pinterest , and Twitter . Friend us on Goodreads: Sara and Stacy .

Oh and share this review of Jane Eyre with your friends who might like this book!

Book Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

The young, titular orphan lives with her Aunt Reed and cousins, where she is treated poorly and rejected as an outcast. This leads to Jane Eyre being sent away to attend Lowood School. After spending many years there as a student and also a teacher, she leaves to become a governess at Thornfield. As events unfold, Jane discovers her love for Mr Rochester, who owns Thornfield, but faces many challenges.

This has been a book that has probably been on my TBR for the longest. Although, I find I say that quite often, but it is true. I have such a long list of books that I want to read and as I go to read them another distracts me. As an avid classics reader, I am surprised that I have left this one for so long. I am pleased, to finally say that I have read this seminal classic by Charlotte Brontë and can agree that, that is what this book it: a classic.

The story is very different to what I predicted. Maybe because the main character is called Jane, my subconscious assumed it would be like Jane Austen’s work but I was soon proved wrong and reminded that this is the work of a Brontë. Jane Eyre is a relatable character. I would dare say that she still is today. A plain, outspoken girl, who is strong willed and passionate. Albeit, the character may be contemporarily relatable due to her characteristics being empowering and didactic to women now. However, from a contextual standpoint, this was atypical. Brontë boldly writes her female character with truth and doesn’t conform to preconceived notions and beliefs. The story is not idealised or romanticised to an extent where it is no longer believable. Jane Eyre is a realistic classic story. She is described to not be the epitome of beauty like many other classic female characters and faces her own challenges in life, all by herself and her character remains authentic throughout. The most striking part to note is the fact that after learning Mr Rochester has a wife, Jane leaves him. This is a very independent and courageous decision from Jane. If this was written by another classic author, I am certain that the love Jane had for Mr Rochester would be enough to stay and carry on her life with him despite the impediment, but Brontë doesn’t do this. Instead, she makes her female lead value her principles and integrity. Clearly, Jane Eyre was written ahead of its time and thus explains the continued admiration and popularity of the story.

As I started reading the book I couldn’t seem the put it down. The description was written well and didn’t seem too much. The pace of the story flowed well and everything I read felt necessary. I could imagine everything clearly in my head. However, this soon changed. I would pinpoint the change around the time when Jane leaves Thornfield or slightly before. The length of description became unnecessary. I felt that the story started to lack substance and my interest waned. I felt that I was no longer as gripped as I was at the beginning. I felt like I was reading for the sake of finishing it, but it improved towards the end. Maybe I didn’t enjoy the lack of Mr Rochester! Despite this, the gothic elements in the story deserve special commendation. Brontë vividly writes perfect accompanying atmospheres to the intense moments within the story.

Mr Rochester is such a fantastic character in my opinion. The Byronic Hero has strong moments where the reader doesn’t particularly enjoy his character but juxtaposing moments of unavoidable love. This is what makes Byronic Hero’s my favourite literary characters. They’re not supposed to be liked but you can’t help it! Mr Rochester’s moments of affection towards Jane are enough to excuse all the bad things he might have done. It is true that Mr Rochester is fascinated and enamoured by Jane, his love for her is genuine. However, he should have revealed his secret before their wedding day and also, perhaps, considered their age difference more. This was something that I couldn’t seem to get my head around, and after reading some other reviews of the novel, not many seem to mention this point. True, it isn’t explored too much and wouldn’t be as shocking to a Victorian audience. Undoubtedly, Mr Rochester is a very intriguing character. He is also described as not very attractive, solidifying the special attraction between Jane and himself. He values her intellect and mindfulness while appreciating the fact that she may be “plain”, compared to Miss Ingram and allows Jane’s natural beauty to shine. The main factor supporting love for Mr Rochester is that he sees and treats Jane as an equal. Equally, Jane loves Mr Rochester.

My future husband was becoming to me my whole world; and more than the world: almost my hope of heaven. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

At the end of the story, you can’t help but pity Mr Rochester. These final chapters are very emotional. The ending, however, could seem to contradict all I have commended. Especially Jane’s independence from leaving Mr Rochester but later returns to him and they eventually happily marry. This might appear to contradict Jane’s character, but it mainly reasserts the strong love the couple had for each other. Even though Jane returns to Mr Rochester, her qualities remain the same and she isn’t changed by marriage, merely happier.

Overall, I give Jane Eyre 5/5 stars. Even though I found the parts with strong description problematic, there are other phenomenal, redeeming qualities, i.e. Mr Rochester.

Thank you for reading my book review!

Published by Meg

Aiming to elevate the beauty of literature and advocate the enforcement of reading, to provide that escape and tranquility many desire in a difficult time. Promoting vicarious experiences and feelings in some of the best written characters of our time (and worst). Favouring the classics and exploring contemporary changes to show the development of the wonderful world of literature. View all posts by Meg

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Book Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.” so speaks Jane Eyre, a free soul, filled with wild passion and fierce emotion.

The novel Jane Eyre was published in 1847, written by Charlotte Brontë, an English novelist and poet who was known under the pseudonym Currer Bell. Once published, its spirited voice immediately flung itself and its writer into fame, receiving both positive and negative reviews from literary critics.

Jane Eyre is a spectacular novel possessive of many powerful colors—a dark “brooding Gothic mystery”, a shimmering complex romance, a work of remarkable character development, a careful intertwining of reality with fantasies and fairytales, and finally a strong feminism novel, passionately demanding equality, rights, and respect for women. In our modern society, it can be said that gender equality has been achieved in many areas, with many women still striving for more. In Jane Eyre ’s time, women were scarcely permitted to express strong emotions or to freely display their talents. Jane is a refreshing, pure, and sprightly heroine in this Victorian era.

The novel follows Jane’s life for approximately a decade. The reader is first introduced to Jane, a plain and quick-tempered child of ten years, a “dependent” orphan, helpless where money and family are concerned. Living with the cruel and selfish Reed family at Gateshead with no friends, the beginning years of young Jane’s life are harsh, oppressive, unjust and abusive. Despite her cruel circumstances, however, Jane is not crushed, nor is her spirit broken. In fact, her sense of justice and striving for equality is ignited by an incident that occurs at the beginning of the novel, when John Reed, a “schoolboy of fourteen years old”, attacks her in a way that sweeps past the limit of Jane’s endurance. She fights back, for the first time, and from then on is a rebel and a fighter against injustice and inequality for the rest of her life.

Even at the age of ten, Jane is a complex child. While full of the aforesaid sense of rebellion, she is sensitive and imaginative, frightening herself into unconsciousness when locked up in an attic. She already possesses the power to stand up for herself. She has her own principles, including a sense of justice. She is a self-proclaimed bibliophile—the first book she is seen reading is “Bewick’s ‘History of British Birds’”, in which she pores over the pictures, but does not neglect the words, either—proving Jane’s thirst for learning. She states confidently that “with Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way.” The limited access she has to books considerably brightens up her miserable childhood. Jane is also a girl of very strong emotions that brim over all the more as others endeavor to subdue them. At Gateshead, she only has one friend—Bessie, a young nurse, to whom Jane clings to in her young misery. Jane is starved for love, kindness, and acceptance. Yet she manages to balance her passionate wants with her own principles of righteousness.

When Jane’s new life at Lowood, a charity school for girls, is begun, it can be seen that, though not as violent, it is just as tyrannical as Gateshead. The girls are strictly and severely ruled, and the insufficient, miserable physical care provided is masked by the words, “not to accustom them to habits of luxury and indulgence, but to render them hardy, patient, self-denying.” However, despite the iciness of the first few weeks at Lowood, Jane’s life begins to improve slowly and steadily. She is acquainted with a girl a few years older than herself, Helen Burns. Jane says confidently to Helen, “When we are struck at without a reason, we should strike back very hard; I am sure we should—so hard as to teach the person who struck us never to do it again. … I must dislike those who, whatever I do to please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist those who punish me unjustly.” Jane’s warm spirit extends over to Helen as well, who is unable to rage or “strike back”:

Next morning Miss Scatcherd wrote in conspicuous characters on a piece of pasteboard … and bound it like a phylactery round Helen’s large, mild, intelligent, and benign-looking forehead. She wore it till evening, patient, unresentful, regarding it as a deserved punishment. The moment Miss Scatcherd withdrew … I ran to Helen, tore if off, and thrust it into the fire. The fury of which she was incapable had been burning in my soul all day…

Following the withdrawal of Helen from Jane’s life, the book swiftly skims past the next eight years of Jane’s life, Jane herself dismissing it as “the events of my insignificant existence”. Her story until this point has only been the beginning of what is to come. However, the eight years she spent in Lowood, six as a pupil, and two as a teacher, has taught her self-discipline and self-control. Eighteen-year-old Jane, unlike the determined and quick-tempered child, is a young lady who “to the eyes of others, usually even to my own … appeared a disciplined and subdued character.” Yet under that composed manner she has acquired, she is still Jane Eyre, with her rebelliousness and spirit concealed under her grave modesty. Spurred by the leaving of her inspirational teacher, Miss Temple, Jane sets her teeth and takes action for her future. With her persistence and confidence in her ability to teach, she soon is offered the position of a governess at Thornfield.

Demure and polite, yet intelligent and righteous, the simply-equipped Jane steps out from the small bubble of Lowood into the real world. Thornfield is the first place where Jane is treated with politeness and respect. It introduces a completely new set of characters: her new pupil, the adorable and childish Adela Varens, the kind housekeeper and maids, and Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester—the dark, mysterious, powerful, and irascible hero. The contrast between pure, quiet Jane and the rich, brooding Mr. Rochester is brilliant and amusing. The two argue and have frequent misunderstandings. Soon Jane’s peculiarity and piquancy succeeds in softening Mr. Rochester with his dark past and intense emotions, and the bond between them strengthens, especially through an incident where Jane saves his life. The gradual drawing together of the two is humorous and sparkling, stimulating and loving, witty and romantic; it is utterly grasping and scintillating. Yet there is always the sinister shadow of a woman locked up in the attic; including a fire set at the “dead of night”—“Ever the hour of fatality”—eerie laughs, and an eventual assault. Little is said about this, yet the mysterious and vivid community of Thornfield, and the intense bond between Jane and Rochester, must end one fateful day when the shadow springs to life. Jane, breaking free from the sweet temptations of love that she feels is wrong, runs away.

Jane’s story is complex, twisting, and unpredictable. Written in honest, descriptive, and deeply touching language of high quality, the characters flash into vivid existence. The plot carries on, leading the reader into a gorgeous, climatic ending—unexpected yet heartrendingly loving and satisfying. The character development is spectacular, and the combination of Jane’s fancies and imaginations with reality is flawless. Despite the old-fashioned vocabulary used in Jane’s era, the honest human emotions come strongly through. Jane is a fighter—she has always been one, against the abuse of Gateshead, the oppressing of Lowood, the rich folks of Thornfield. And after all her struggles and “scalding tears”, she has won: she has kept her spirit and personality intact, she has stayed true to herself, Jane Eyre.

“I can live alone, if self-respect and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

(Published in The Sequitur, September 2018, Westdale Secondary School, Hamilton, ON)

50 Remarkable Books for Fans of Jane Eyre to Read

Add these books like Jane Eyre to your TBR pile.

books like jane eyre pinterest image showing a collage of related titles

Jane Eyre is my favorite book of all time (and certainly one of the most romantic), so I thought I would share 50 other novels fans can read instead when they’re looking for something similar. From the Gothic to memorable love stories, here are 50 great books like Jane Eyre to check out.

(For more Jane Eyre , see the 15 of the Best Jane Eyre Movies and Adaptations, Ranked )

BOOKS LIKE JANE EYRE TO READ

#1: Villette by Charlotte Bronte

“Bronte’s finest novel.” — Virginia Woolf

Summary: “Loosely based on her own experiences, Charlotte Bronte’s Villette is the story of a destitute, young Englishwoman who travels abroad to escape a family tragedy and find her way in the world. The novel follows Lucy Snowe as she moves to the city of Villette, in the fictional kingdom of Labassecour, to take up a job as a teacher at a school for girls.

The bright but secretive Lucy soon thrives in her new position and is soon reconnected with an old friend, Dr. John Graham Bretton, whom she finds herself falling in love with, though he has eyes for someone else. Charlotte Bronte’s last novel, a gripping tale of love and disappointment that has been praised for its portrayal of Lucy’s inner struggles, is considered alongside Jane Eyre as her best work.”

Why you should check it out: Villette is almost as romantic, with two separate love stories to enjoy. The writing is masterful, and once you reach Villette, it is pretty captivating to read, with a mystery in the plot as well.

Other books by the author of Jane Eyre include Shirley and The Professor .

#2: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” ― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

Summary : “With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew.

For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house’s current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim’s first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.”

Why you should check it out: Rebecca is a personal favorite because of the wonderfully gothic atmosphere and fabulously crafted mystery.

For those who love Jane Eyre , I don’t see how you could go wrong with this one. Maxim also makes for another fantastic Byronic Hero.

#3: Dragonwyck by Anya Seton

“Her lips were drawn to his like a moth to a flame.” ― Anya Seton, Dragonwyck

Summary: “ In the spring of 1844 the Wells family receives a letter from a distant relative, the wealthy landowner Nicholas Van Ryn. He has invited one of their daughters for an extended visit at his Hudson Valley estate Dragonwyck. Eighteen-year-old Miranda, bored with her local suitors and commonplace life on the farm, leaps at the chance for escape.

She immediately falls under the spell of the master and his mansion, mesmerized by the Gothic towers, flowering gardens, and luxurious lifestyle -unaware of the dark, terrible secrets that await. Anya Seton masterfully tells the heart-stopping story of a remarkable woman, her remarkable passions, and the mystery that resides in the magnificent hallways of Dragonwyck.”

Why you should check it out: Originally published in 1944 (I know there is a Vincent Price film adaptation somewhere, too), Dragonwyck is another gripping Gothic classic worth checking out.

Like Jane Eyre , this is NOT your typical love story and might even go in a direction you would not expect…

#4: The Emily Books ( Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, and Emily’s Quest ) by L.M. Montgomery

“You see,” she concluded miserably, “when I can call like that to him across space–I belong to him. He doesn’t love me–he never will–but I belong to him.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Emily’s Quest

“ EMILY OF NEW MOON: Emily Starr never knew what it was to be lonely until her beloved father died. Now Emily’s an orphan, and her mother’s snobbish relatives are taking her to live with them at New Moon Farm. She’s sure she won’t be happy Emily deals with stiff, stern Aunt Elizabeth and her malicious classmates by holding her head high and using her quick wit. Things begin to change when she makes friends: with Teddy, who does marvelous drawings; with Perry, who’s sailed all over the world with his father yet has never been to school; and above all, with Use, a tomboy with a blazing temper.

EMILY CLIMBS: Emily Starr was born with the desire to write. As an orphan living on New Moon Farm, writing helped her face the difficult, lonely times. But now all her friends are going away to high school in nearby Shrewsbury, and her old-fashioned, tyrannical aunt Elizabeth will only let her go if she promises to stop writing! All the same, this is the first step in Emily’s climb to success.

Once in town, Emily’s activities set the Shrewsbury gossips buzzing. But Emily and her friends are confident — Ilse’s a born actress, Teddy’s set to be a great artist, and roguish Perry has the makings of a brilliant lawyer. When Emily has her poems published and writes for the town newspaper, success seems to be on its way — and with it the first whispers of romance. Then Emily is offered a fabulous opportunity, and she must decide if she wants to change her life forever.

RELATED: ‘Emily’ 2022 Movie Review – A Fascinating Biopic About Emily Brontë

EMILY’S QUEST: Emily knows she’s going to be a great writer. She also knows that she and her childhood sweetheart, Teddy Kent, will conquer the world together. But when Teddy leaves home to pursue his goal to become an artist at the School of Design in Montreal, Emily’s world collapses. With Teddy gone, Emily agrees to marry a man she doesn’t love … as she tries to banish all thoughts of Teddy. In her heart, Emily must search for what being a writer really means….”

Why you should check it out: While immensely different from Jane Eyre , the inspiration still exists. Even in L.M. Montgomery’s journals (which I have read), she talks about her intense love for Bronte’s classic love story, and her influence really shines in this trilogy of books.

For fans of Anne of Green Gables , this is a great read for you too, but it is darker and has just a touch of the supernatural (VERY subtle) akin to Jane Eyre , a wonderful, romantic trilogy of books that gets better each time I return to the world of Emily.

#5: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

“Nelly, I am Heathcliff .” ― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Summary: “ Classic novel of consuming passions, played out against the lonely moors of northern England, recounts the turbulent and tempestuous love story of Cathy and Heathcliff. A masterpiece of imaginative fiction, the story remains as poignant and compelling today as it was when first published in 1847.”

RELATED: 100+ of the Best Paranormal Romance Books and Series to Read

Why you should check it out: If you haven’t read Wuthering Heights yet, it definitely deserves to be read. While not classically romantic (and Heathcliff is TRULY a villain), the soul connection between Cathy and Heathcliff is beautiful to read.

Heathcliff’s vengeance agenda also makes for quite an exciting one as well. This is a work of art. Plus, together, Emily and Charlotte really did redefine what it was to be a Byronic Hero in literature.

#6: Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt

‘“There are two courses open to gentlewoman when she finds herself in penurious circumstances,’ my Aunt Adelaide had said. ‘One is to marry, and the other to find a post in keeping with her gentility.”’ ― Victoria Holt, Mistress of Mellyn

Summary: “ Mount Mellyn stood as proud and magnificent as she had envisioned…But what about its master–Connan TreMellyn? Was Martha Leigh’s new employer as romantic as his name sounded? As she approached the sprawling mansion towering above the cliffs of Cornwall, an odd chill of apprehension overcame her.

TreMellyn’s young daughter, Alvean, proved as spoiled and difficult as the three governesses before Martha had discovered. But it was the girl’s father whose cool, arrogant demeanor unleashed unfamiliar sensations and turmoil–even as whispers of past tragedy and present danger begin to insinuate themselves into Martha’s life.

Powerless against her growing desire for the enigmatic Connan, she is drawn deeper into family secrets–as passion overpowers reason, sending her head and heart spinning. But though evil lurks in the shadows, so does love–and the freedom to find a golden promise forever…”

Why you should check it out: Originally published over 40 years ago and comparable to Jane Eyre and Rebecca , this is an excellent example of an escapist Gothic romance.

#7: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine…” ― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

Summary: “ Young, sheltered, and naive Catherine Morland is whisked away on a luxurious holiday to a country resort where she happens upon the handsome and charming Henry Tilney. But she is not the only one discovering summer love.

Her dear friend Isabelle soon finds herself swept into the arms of a suave young man, leaving Catherine to fend off the advances of Isabelle’s arrogant and dull brother, John. Summer flings turn into more involved romances and it grows more and more difficult and Catherine’s schemes grow ever more difficult. Mistaken affections, fickle hearts, and bitter rivalries all come together in a sweeping romance in Northanger Abbey.”

Why you should check it out: What would this list be without Jane Austen? Perfect for those looking for a more light-hearted fare, you can’t go wrong with Austen’s satirical look at the Gothic romance novel. Northanger Abbey is both romantic and funny.

#8: The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

“Hear me, Emily: I come not to alarm you; no, by Heaven! I love you too well- too well for my own peace.” ― Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho

Summary: `”Her present life appeared like the dream of a distempered imagination, or like one of those frightful fictions, in which the wild genius of the poets sometimes delighted. Reflections brought only regret and anticipation of terror.’

Such is the state of mind in which Emily St. Aubuert – the orphaned heroine of Ann Radcliffe’s 1794 gothic Classic, The Mysteries of Udolpho – finds herself after Count Montoni, her evil guardian, imprisons her in his gloomy medieval fortress in the Apennines. Terror is the order of the day inside the walls of Udolpho, as Emily struggles against Montoni’s rapacious schemes and the threat of her own psychological disintegration.

A best-seller in its day and a potent influence on Walpole, Poe, and other writers of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Gothic horror, The Mysteries of Udolpho remains one of the most important works in the history of European fiction. At the same time, with its dream-like plot and hallucinatory rendering of its characters’ psychological states, it often seems strangely modern: `permanently avant-garde’ in Terry Castle’s words, and a profound and fascinating challenge to contemporary readers.”

Why you should check it out: While the first 100 hundred pages or so are challenging to get through (same problem I had with The Lord of the Rings ), stick with it because it is well worth continuing to read the best book of the QUEEN of Gothic novels. Udolpho is romantic, terrifying, and engrossing.

#9: Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart

“Perhaps loneliness had nothing to do with place or circumstance; perhaps it was in you; yourself…” ― Mary Stewart, Nine Coaches Waiting

Summary: “ A governess in a French château encounters an apparent plot against her young charge’s life in this unforgettably haunting and beautifully written suspense novel. When lovely Linda Martin first arrives at Château Valmy as an English governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy, the opulence and history surrounding her seems like a wondrous, ecstatic dream. But a palpable terror is crouching in the shadows.

Philippe’s uncle, Leon de Valmy, is the epitome of charm, yet dynamic and arrogant—his paralysis little hindrance as he moves noiselessly in his wheelchair from room to room. Only his son Raoul, a handsome, sardonic man who drives himself and his car with equally reckless abandon, seems able to stand up to him. To Linda, Raoul is an enigma—though irresistibly attracted to him, she senses some dark twist in his nature. When an accident deep in the woods nearly kills Linda’s innocent charge, she begins to wonder if someone has deadly plans for the young count.”

Why you should check it out: If you love a good romantic suspense of the Gothic variety, you can’t go wrong with Nine Coaches Waiting ! It’s one of those books that will keep you up late into the night. Mary Stewart was the queen of suspense , after all.

#10: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

“I cannot love a man who cannot protect me.” ― Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Summary: “ The Tenant of Wildfell is the story of Heather Graham, a spirited and independent woman, who seeks to rebuild her life after a disastrous marriage to an abusive alcoholic. Unheard of for the time, Heather flees from her husband and attempts to support herself and her young son while tentatively forging a friendship with a young farmer, Gilbert Markham.

Because it featured a successful, liberated woman and contained stark depictions of alcoholism, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was considered scandalous when first published in 1848, but quickly became a best-seller and has since been recognized as one of the first feminist novels.”

Why you should check it out: Anne took a much more realistic approach to her novels than Charlotte and Emily, but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is almost as mesmerizing as Charlotte and Emily’s books.

This is a fantastic, romantic read (I really like Gilbert) and a great choice for someone not looking for a Gothic romance at this point in time. Plus, I love how this book stands up for women’s rights, unheard of during this time period.

After reading the book, check out the excellent period drama adaptation .

#11-50: EVEN MORE BOOKS SIMILAR TO JANE EYRE TO ENJOY

*This section was updated for 2023.

#11: A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott – The underrated novel from Alcott (more known for Little Women) is reminiscent of Jane Eyre with a few plot similarities. A fun read.

#12: All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness – Read this if you enjoy the amalgamation of Byronic Heroes and romantic fantasy.

#13: Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne – A clever YA/Sci-fi retelling of Jane Eyre.

#14: The Brontë Plot by Katherine Reay – This contemporary Christian Women’s Fiction novel connects to the Bronte sisters in intriguing ways.

#15: Brontë’s Mistress by Finola Austin – A historical fiction read that explores Branwell Bronte’s affair with a lot of depth.

#16: The Brontës (1994) by Juliet Barker – A definitive biography of the famous sisters.

#17: The Brontës at Haworth (2016) by Ann Dinsdale – Another fantastic biography.

#18: Cousin Kate by Georgette Heyer – A classic gothic romance.

#19: Dracula by Bram Stoker – For the gothic feel.

#20: The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry – The Victorian setting, gothic elements, and fascinating heroine will appeal to Jane Eyre fans. Also, see the period drama adaptation from Apple TV+ .

RELATED: 10 Fantastic Reasons to Watch the 1983 Jane Eyre Adaptation

#21: Evelina by Fanny Burney – Funny, romantic, and about a strong-willed heroine.

#22: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde about literary detective Thursday Next – Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester are characters in this adventurous fantasy book!

#23: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton – This historical fiction book reveals hidden secrets and emotional depth.

#24: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – Another gothic classic from a female author.

#25: Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier – More gothic goodness from Du Maurier.

#26: Jane & Edward by Melodie Edwards – A contemporary take on Jane Eyre.

#27: Jane Slayre: The Literary Classic with a Blood-Sucking Twist by Charlotte Brontë and Sherri Browning Erwin – Jane Eyre with a supernatural twist.

#28: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye is a popular Jane Eyre retelling.

#29: John Eyre by Mimi Matthews – A gender-swapped retelling of Jane Eyre with Bertha front and center.

#30: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke – The historical fantasy novel has a memorable Byronic Hero Jane Eyre lovers will appreciate!

RELATED: Jane Eyre Discussion Questions – A Silver Petticoat Book Club Guide

#31: The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) by Elizabeth Gaskell is a must-read biography from Gaskell – who was personal friends with Charlotte.

#32: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens – Like Jane Eyre, this classic Victorian novel explores complex characters and social issues.

#33: The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell – This contemporary romantic mystery puts a modern twist on the Brontë legacy and follows Samantha Whipple (a character connected to the Brontë family) as she uncovers a mystery with the help of a handsome professor. So much fun.

#34: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – A gothic novel influenced by Jane Eyre.

#35: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins – A classic mystery with engaging plot twists.

#36: Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker – A historical fiction novel exploring the enigmatic Mr. Rochester.

#37: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier – The classic gothic novel is full of suspenseful storytelling.

#38: North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell – If you love Jane and Edward’s emotional and passionate romance, you’ll love Margaret and Mr. Thornton in this classic Victorian novel. Also, check out Why the BBC Period Drama ‘North and South’ Matters .

#39: Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux – A gothic classic.

#40: The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer – Historical romance fans will like this one!

RELATED: 200 of the Best Gothic Romance Movies and TV Shows – Period Drama Style

#41: The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë by Syrie James – This historical fiction novel offers a glimpse into the personal thoughts and experiences of Charlotte Brontë.

#42: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – The children’s classic has a lot of similarities to Jane Eyre and a gothic feel.

#43: Shadows of Swanford Abbey by Julie Klassen – This wholesome historical romance mixes Jane Eyre and Jane Austen.

#44: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield – A famous gothic mystery.

#45: Turn of the Screw by Henry James – The classic psychological horror novel includes a similar gothic atmosphere and eerie setting.

#46: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys – A popular choice, although, personally, I strongly dislike the book. Still, it may be interesting – especially if you don’t like Mr. Rochester and don’t mind the disturbing content.

RELATED: 50 Books To Read If You Love Jane Austen

#47: Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood – An Ethiopian-inspired fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre with similar themes. If you’re looking for modern books similar to Jane Eyre , this is a great choice.

#48: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – A classic Victorian mystery with gothic elements and romance.

#49: Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley – A unique historical fiction read exploring the lives of the Brontë siblings and their fictional worlds.

#50: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman – The classic psychological tale is a chilling and thought-provoking story that will resonate with Jane Eyre readers who appreciate a darker, eerie atmosphere.

Did you find any good books to read on this list? Do you have more good suggestions for novels like Jane Eyre ? Sound off in the comments…

RELATED: If you love Byronic Heroes like Mr. Rochester, then check out Amber’s look at the Top 20 Bad Boys – Byronic Heroes in Film , Top 20 Bad Boys Part 2 – Byronic Heroes in Television , and Top 20 Bad Boys Part 3 – Byronic Heroes in Literature .

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In second grade, Autumn wrote her first story, “The Spinach Monster,” and hasn't stopped writing since. Intrigued by the tales her grandmother told of vampires, witches, and ghosts as a girl, she's always been drawn to the fantastic. Later, Autumn studied English and Creative Writing (continuing her love for classic literature and everything old-fashioned) and graduated with an MA in Children’s Literature and an MS in Library & Information Science from Simmons College. Currently, she co-runs this lovely site and works as a YA Librarian.

14 thoughts on “50 Remarkable Books for Fans of Jane Eyre to Read”

You put together such great lists. Thanks for sharing

Thank you. 🙂

Love your site by the way. Always visually appealing and easy to read.

So many to try! I haven’t read Jane Eyre but I do love WH.

Well, I would definitely start with Jane Eyre then. Not that I am biased or anything… I really love WH too.

Oh, YES! Rebecca is fantastic! Have you ever read Frenchman’s Creek by du Maurier? Fair warning, the ending is not quite what you expect, but the story itself is wonderful.

And Anya Seton is one of my all-time favorite authors, period. I go back and revisit her books every year or so. Dragonwyck is fantastic as a Gothic, though I do love Green Darkness and Katherine. Katherine’s the one that got me into historical fiction; my mom was reading it when I was 12, and I swiped it and couldn’t put it down.

You’ve given me some good ideas to try, too. I’m just in the mood for this type of story right now. Thanks!

You’re welcome. And no, I’ve never read Frenchman’s Creek but it is definitely on my list to read! Same with Katherine. Thanks for the suggestions.

Hi there! Oh I want to try do many of these suggestions- I’ve read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and Mistress of Mellyn; I am eager to try the Anne Bronte . I have read some other Mary Stewarts, and wanted to make another author suggestion; Barbara Michaels? If I had to recommend just one of her novels, I would hand over “Sons of the Wolf”. I read it as a teenager , but every now and then I return to it and reread certain passages. Just as a quick overview, the heroine is older, more staid of a pair of orphaned sisters, sent to live with their mysterious relative and his two eccentric sons, surname Wolf; and that name also comes into play with the lupine features of the father and the guard dogs he keeps. I’d say a touch of the supernatural as well!

Really interesting list.. have quite a few up there that from the description I want to try out. And am happy you included Victoria Holt. Though her concept gets a bit repetitive, the first few books by her that I read were immensely enjoyable. One favourite that comes to mind is Menfreya in the Morning.

I’ll have to check out Menfreya in the Morning. Thanks!

Thanks for a great list! I stumbled over this when I googled “books like jane eyre”. It is so hard to find a decent intelligent romance nowadays, they’re almost always pure vapid fluff. Why are all the good books written pre 1950? I’m grateful for a list with some new (for me!) books that seem good!

Also thanks for not mentioning “Wide Sargasso Sea”. I think those of us who have read “Villette” are already aware of Bronte’s somewhat dubious views on people not English. I almost put Villette down after a particular rant about the stupidity of people from Spain. But still, the pure amazingness of “Jane Eyre” conquers to me any wrongs Bronte may have written. We should give her a little leeway considering the time period she wrote in, I think.

You really need to read Syrie James’s “Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte.” Must. Read.

Definitely on my list!

Great list. Some to re-read soon, others to try for the first time.For those passionate souls out there that do believe in true love, you might like this poem: What is eternal?…Before the ocean waves first crashed onshore..Before the first sunrise… Before the first green grew…Before the first swallow sang…Before the first bee made a honey-making trip… Before the wolf’s first cry in the night…Before the first maple leaf reddened and fell…Before the first snow frosted the ground…Before the rainforest’s first morning mist…Before the first thunderstorm shook the heavens…Before fire’s orange flame licked the trees…Before the moon became Earth’s constant companion…I Have Loved You. By Mrs.Colleen Cupido-that’s ME, and I wrote it to my future husband.

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Sorry, but Jane Eyre Isn’t the Romance You Want It to Be

Charlotte Brontë, a woman whose life was steeped in stifled near-romance, refused to write love as ruly, predictable, or safe.

George Smith did not know it, but he was about to meet the world’s most famous author. It was 1848. Currer Bell, author of Jane Eyre , was the most sought-after—and most mysterious—writer in the world. Even Smith, who edited and published the book, had never met the enigmatic author, a first-time novelist who had nonetheless turned down his suggestions for revision, thanking him for the advice, then announcing the intention to ignore it.

Bell had been right, of course, and Smith wrong. The book, and Bell’s identity, was the talk of London. And now, a very small woman stood before Smith, clutching one of Bell’s letters in her hand. She was Currer Bell, she told him. She was the author of Jane Eyre .

If life were like literature, Smith would have fallen in love with her then and there. Passionate, deeply intelligent, outspoken, and charmingly unaffected—Charlotte Brontë was an arresting, complex woman. If he did not love her already, he could learn: They would soon strike up a lively and close correspondence that lasted years. And Charlotte was charmed by his good looks and his bright, open personality. But Jane Eyre ’s diminutive author was no romantic heroine, and real life is not a romance.

Jane Eyre is, though. Right? The answer to that question is up for debate.

It might seem like sacrilege to question the (small r) romanticism of Jane Eyre , a story that centers on the obsessive love of a teenage governess and her decades-older boss. Over the last 172 years, the book has become a touchstone for passionate love, that once-in-a-lifetime spark we are taught to long for. Even today, the book is the subject of swoony listsicles (“11 Romantic Quotes from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre ”) and essays that uphold it as “a romance novel for the modern, intelligent woman.”

But when it was published, the bestselling book incensed readers even as it seduced them. It was condemned as immoral, unfit for women’s eyes, all but fomenting revolution. And for modern scholars, its undercurrents of rage, motherlessness , colonialism , slavery , circus freakery , and even incest (!) are more compelling than its caresses.

“The early reviews of Jane Eyre strike us today as naive and misinformed,” writes Lisa Sternlieb. She lists off common critiques of the book as anti-Christian and deeply hypocritical, including one that said that “never was there a greater hater than Charlotte Brontë.” “Yet I would argue that these reviewers hit on an element of truth in the novel,” Sternlieb muses.

Hatred. Insurrection. Patriarchy. Not exactly romantic themes. Readers have always picked up on the tension between the book’s revolutionary subtexts and its uneasy relationship with love. To twenty-first-century eyes, it shows a woman who fights for, yet abdicates to, love. To nineteenth-century eyes, it showed a woman who should abdicate to, yet fights for, love. In either century, readers demand that Jane Eyre should do cultural labor that it steadfastly resists. Its author resists our attempts at that labor, too. For Charlotte Brontë, a woman whose life was steeped in stifled near-romance, refused to write love as ruly, predictable, or safe.

Charlotte’s life was not that of her heroine, and Jane Eyre is no autobiography. But by the time her most famous book was published, Charlotte was 31 years old, and an expert in the strangling, diminishing kind of romance she bequeathed her heroine.

It wasn’t always that way. As a child, she seemed marked for love. It was part and parcel of the fantasy world that enveloped her everyday life: a fictitious kingdom called Angria, which she wrote into being with her younger brother, Branwell . In what amounted to a competitive literary apprenticeship, they wove their fantasy land into a place of lewd thrills. Angria seethed with war, rape, rebellion, kidnapping, and revenge. It was a hotbed of the kind of love that could build a kingdom, then tear it to shreds.

That vision of love was so intense that it permeated into real life. When she was 23, Charlotte turned down a proposal from her best friend’s brother. “I had not, and never could have that intense attachment which would make me willing to die for him,” she wrote , “and if I ever marry it must be in that light of adoration that I will regard my husband.” Besides, she wrote, her suitor would think her a “wild, romantic enthusiast indeed” if he ever really got to know her.

Jane Eyre may have a wild, romantic streak, but its heroine’s love counters everything readers have been taught to desire. Neglected in childhood and traumatized at a school where she is humiliated and starved, Jane arrives at Thornfield ready to love. At first, it seems she’ll get her chance: There are romantic promises, forbidden glances, anguished prayers. But though her story delivers sexual tension and an agony of will-they-or-won’t-they that lasts into its final pages, nothing about Jane’s love is what you’d expect. Brontë drapes her book in the trappings of romance, then snatches them away, subverting our fantasies at every turn.

“Like so many other (yes) romance writers,” writes the literary critic Sandra M. Gilbert, “Charlotte Brontë created a heroine who wants to learn what love is and how to find it, just as she herself did. Unlike most of her predecessors, though, Brontë was unusually explicit in placing that protagonist amid dysfunctional families, perverse partnerships, and abusive caretakers.”

Chief among Brontë’s baits-and-switches is her hero, a brooding man readers—and Jane—are all too ready to adore. Edward Fairfax Rochester is boorish and brutal. He engages his 18-year-old employee in work talk that is the 19th-century version of #METOO employment investigation fodder. He’d fit right in with the modern “seduction community,” conducting a master class in negging as he reminds Jane of her inferiority, then compliments her wit. In one particularly repulsive episode, he messes with her mind by disguising himself as a Roma fortune teller.

Affection-starved Jane only realizes her “master” loves her after he pushes her toward an appalling apex of emotional cruelty. He intends to marry her rival, he implies. Then he changes his mind. Finally, after all but forcing her to accept his abrupt proposal, he takes her in his arms.

But Rochester’s momentary tenderness is just that—momentary. While he’s been playing dress-up and making out with a teenager beneath a tree in his Gothic garden, he’s been guilty of unforgivable cruelty, holding his first wife captive for her “intemperance” and, Brontë implies, her race. The wedding is called off, so Rochester makes one last bid for Jane’s love, begging her to stay and live with him as his bigamous mistress. It is too much to bear.

The same year she turned down her first marriage proposal, Charlotte turned away from the illicit fantasies of Angria. Both she and Branwell were in their twenties now, and they had lingered together in their imaginary world for too long.

“I have now written a great many books,” she wrote . “I long to quit for a while that burning clime where we have sojourned too long… The mind would cease from excitement & turn now to a cooler region, where the dawn breaks gray and sober & the coming day for a time at least is subdued in clouds.”

Something else threw cold water on her passions: A letter she received from Britain’s poet laureate, Robert Southey, in 1837. Charlotte had sent the poet a poem of her own, asking whether it was worth pursuing her literary ambitions. But Southey didn’t encourage her. Instead, he warned her against what he called “a distempered state of mind” that would render the mundane life of a woman intolerable. “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life,” he wrote, “and it ought not to be.” Charlotte wrote back, assuring him she’d try to write as little as possible.

A few years later, burned out on governessing and with no hopes of marriage, she continued her search for cooler climes. This time, she went to Belgium. As an adult student at a girls’ school in Brussels, Charlotte planned to acquire the “finish,” and the fluency in French, that would qualify her to run her own school in England. What she really wanted, though, was a change of scenery, an antidote to her restlessness.

She learned more than one language there. Constantin Héger, the married headmaster of the school, befriended her. He encouraged her to write, to speak her mind. For a woman who had been told there was no place for women in writing—by Britain’s most respected poet, no less—his argumentative, constructive criticisms in the margins of her essays must have had the effect of a powerful aphrodisiac. Soon she came home again, this time fleeing her obsession with Héger.

In 1913, Héger’s children published four letters from Charlotte to Héger that they had discovered among their mother’s things. Three of the four had been torn into pieces and discarded, then retrieved and carefully stitched together with paper and thread by his wife, Zoë Héger. She likely saved the letters as potential evidence; they might prove useful if Charlotte made trouble for the school. Instead, they are testimony of Charlotte’s agony.

“Day and night, I find neither rest nor peace,” she wrote . “Monsieur, the poor do not need a great deal to live on. They ask only the crumbs of bread which fall from the rich men’s table.” Charlotte was ready to take whatever crumbs he had left to give.

The author may have been hungry for crumbs, but Jane Eyre is not. When she finds out her soon-to-be-husband isn’t free to marry, she faces down his betrayal with shocked strength. When Rochester steamily suggests she move with him to France, where no one knows or cares that he’s already married, she refuses. Not that it’s not tempting. But the offer is a “silken snare,” a luxurious trap.

“While he spoke my very conscience and reason turned traitors against me, and charged me with crime in resisting him,” says Jane:

They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. “Oh, comply!” it said. “Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?” Still indomitable was the reply—“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.

Maybe Charlotte’s refusal to let her heroine sin with Rochester was a rebuke to herself. Or it may have been a reminder to move forward. Jane presses on, running away from sin and toward herself. If she cannot be on equal footing with her partner, she will not have him at all.

In this sense, Jane’s flight is as much from inequality as it is from sin. Even before he copped to his attic-bound madwoman of a wife, Rochester made it clear that he wanted to own Jane. As his wife, she would have been his concubine: a petted plaything, but not an equal. Jane’s furious opposition to that—her insistence on meeting him on equal footing—riled Jane Eyre ’s critics and appalled readers.

For the literary critic Nancy Pell, Jane’s refusal of Rochester is part of a deep-rooted critique of social and economic institutions that echoes throughout the novel. By the time she falls in love, Jane knows she can fend for herself. “Knowing that she can earn thirty pounds a year as a governess,” Pell writes , “Jane rejects being hired as a mistress or bought as a slave. Once again she resolves to keep in good health and not die.”

She does more than refuse to die; she thrives. Jane escapes Thornfield and befriends the Rivers sisters and their intolerable brother, St. John, a Calvinist minister who gives her a job as a teacher in an obscure village. Coincidence then teaches her that not only are the Rivers siblings her cousins, she is an heiress. She shares the wealth, enjoying the money that has raised her out of obscurity.

Jane has one more obstacle to overcome: St. John’s insistence that she marry him and become a missionary in India. St. John is arguably even more sadistic than Rochester. He expects Jane to follow him to the ends of the earth, and to do so with a cold substitute for love.

“God and nature intended you for a missionary’s wife,” he tells her. “It is not personal, but mental endowments they have given you: you are formed for labour, not for love. A missionary’s wife you must—shall be. You shall be mine: I claim you—not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign’s service.”

His words could be construed as a kind of reassurance: Marital rape, he suggests, won’t be part of his bargain. But his words crack like a whip. They are the words of a man who has judged a woman’s body and found it lacking. St. John would never make out with Jane beneath a tree. If she left him, he wouldn’t beg for her to stay. He wouldn’t take her as his mistress or take her to France. The principled minister finds no pleasure in his future wife.

Certainly, Charlotte had stopped thinking of herself as a wife by the time she wrote Jane Eyre . She was too busy watching other people’s children, tending her half-blind father, and sewing shirts for her drug-addicted brother. When they were not governessing or teaching, all of the Brontë women labored alongside their servants, peeling potatoes and baking bread, tending to the endless toil of daughters, sisters. But not wives.

“I’m certainly doomed to be an old maid,” she wrote . “I can’t expect another chance—never mind I made up my mind to that fate ever since I was twelve years old.”

Spinsterdom did have its uses: It allowed Charlotte to write. Without a husband to attend to, Charlotte could spend the hours between her father’s bedtime and her own with her pen. It could be a lonely bargain, but it was one that allowed her to create Jane Eyre .

St. John’s tempting bargain—Jane Eyre’s second proposal of marriage—is the last thing that stands between her and happiness. Equipped with new knowledge and a new dismissal of the skim-milk version of love he offers, she decides that sin on her own terms is preferable to virtue on St. John’s. Turning down her cousin and returning to a man who, for all she knows, is still married, is helped along when she hears Rochester calling her name. “But indeed, Jane doesn’t merely ‘think’ of Mr. Rochester,” notes Gilbert. “Rather, in a moment of mystically orgasmic passion she virtually brings him into being.”

Jane, bolstered by her own financial security and her refusal to be diminished by a man who sees her only as a source of labor, is in a different position than she was when she left Rochester for the first time. She is ready for his call. She is ready to go to him on her own terms.

That return has vexed readers for 172 years. Jane’s seeming surrender—her willingness to re-enter a dysfunctional, if not abusive, relationship—infuriates scholars, too, especially those immersed in feminist theory.

The book is a “patriarchal love fantasy,” writes the literary scholar Jean Wyatt in an essay tellingly named “A Patriarch of One’s Own.” For Wyatt, Jane Eyre is an expression of “defiant autonomy” that nonetheless gives in to a damaging fusion with a damaging man. Jane’s eventual marriage to her “strong oak of a man” dupes readers, Wyatt suggests:

The apparently revolutionary nature of Jane’s egalitarian marriage allows an old fantasy to get by the ideological censors of her readers, so that we all, feminists and Harlequin romance readers alike, can enjoy the unending story of having one’s patriarch all to oneself forever.

It makes for an “excruciating ending,” writes the sociologist Bonnie Zare. The completion of Jane and Rochester’s love trajectory, she writes, is painful:

For after being taken advantage of by Rochester’s abusive tricks, Jane is supposed to attain ultimate fulfillment in a subservient relationship with a husband whose devotion seems to spring mostly from his new state of physical vulnerability.

In his new wife, Zare implies, Rochester has gained an all-too-willing caretaker.

But is Jane really doomed to a life of subservience? Not exactly, says Pell. “‘An independent woman now,’ Jane reappears at Thornfield,” she writes. “She has refused to be Rochester’s mistress or St. John’s mistress of Indian schools; now she is her own mistress and her proposal to Rochester is striking… Even their marriage can hardly be considered typically Victorian. Jane possesses a great deal of money in her own right, and although Rochester is far from the helpless wreck he is sometimes taken to be, he is dependent upon Jane ‘to be helped—to be led’ until he regains his sight.”

Gilbert, too, rejects the premise that Jane Eyre demeans herself by returning to Rochester. “In a proud denial of St. John’s insulting insistence that she is ‘formed for labor, not for love,’ she chooses—and wins—a destiny of love’s labors,” she writes. “There can be no question… that what Jane calls the ‘pleasure in my services’ both she and Rochester experience in their utopian woodland is a pleasure in physical as well as spiritual intimacy, erotic as well as intellectual communion.”

In the 1840s, Jane’s love for herself was so subversive it bordered on revolution. In 2019, her love of Rochester is so shocking it borders on treason. In any era, its relationship to the love it explores is uneasy, volatile. Nearly two centuries after it was published, Jane Eyre confounds every expectation.

After they met in person, Charlotte and her editor began a correspondence that can only be described as stimulating. She already knew that Smith loved her writing—when she sent him the draft of Jane Eyre , it captivated him so much that he read it through in one sitting, neglecting visitors and appointments as he rushed through the story.

It almost seemed possible that their friendship was something deeper. When Charlotte visited London, Smith begged her to stay at his house. He treated her to every amusement the city could afford. They traveled together, through London and even to Scotland, often chaperoned by his mother or sister. They even went to a phrenologist together, delighting in her anonymity and the practitioner’s pronouncement that Charlotte’s head was “very remarkable.” She wrote him into one of her books as a handsome, good-natured love interest. When they were apart, they wrote long, chatty letters, dissecting the literary news of the day.

Though only Charlotte’s half of the correspondence survived, it is honest and remarkably open. At times it is sparkling and witty. It verges on flirty, and then it falls apart.

It’s not clear how Charlotte reacted in private when George Smith told her he was engaged to be married, but her choked response was not flirty or chatty or fun:

My dear Sir In great happiness, as in great grief—words of sympathy should be few. Accept my meed of congratulation—and believe me Sincerely yours C. Brontë

Twenty-eight words, each smarting with disappointment.

A few months earlier, something strange had happened to Charlotte Brontë: She had become an object of unrequited love. The admirer in question was Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father’s curate. It was surreal to be the one pined for, the one whose crumbs were gladly gathered. When he declared himself, she told her father, who exploded. “If I had loved Mr. N—and had heard such epithets applied to him as were used,” she told a friend, “it would have transported me past my patience.”

But she did not love him, yet. It took years of moping and quiet persuasion—and perhaps Smith’s marriage—for her to decide to marry Nicholls, a man she had previously scorned as stupid and unromantic. Finally, she agreed, though she had deep reservations. During a pre-nuptial conversation with two of her friends, the kind of conversation in which virgin women asked more experienced friends about their marital obligations, Charlotte confided that she worried about what marriage might cost her. “I cannot conceal from myself that he is not intellectual,” she said .

Marriage did exact a price. Though Charlotte Nicholls loved her husband, he constricted her. He was horrified by the personal issues she discussed in her longstanding correspondence with Ellen Nussey, a friend since childhood.

“Arthur complains that you do not distinctly promise to burn my letters as you receive them,” she wrote in 1854, four months after her wedding. “He says you must give a plain pledge to that effect—or he will read every line I write and elect himself censor of our correspondence.”

Nussey agreed, grudgingly. Then she disobeyed him. We owe her much of what we know of Charlotte Brontë.

“Faultless he is not,” Charlotte wrote wryly, “but as you well know—I did not expect perfection.” She loved her husband, loved the settled life they led together. But later, she admitted that she had stopped writing: “My own life is more occupied than it used to be: I have not so much time for thinking.”

Did Charlotte kill herself by handing over her intellectual and physical well-being? Perhaps. She died soon after, likely from dehydration following severe morning sickness. But her nine months of marriage to Arthur Bell Nicholls were among the happiest of her life.

“There was but little feminine charm about her, and of this fact she herself was uneasily and perpetually conscious,” George Smith wrote decades later. “I believe that she would have given all her genius and fame to have been beautiful. Perhaps few women ever existed more anxious to be pretty than she, or more angrily conscious of the circumstance that she was not pretty.”

Those lines jump out from an otherwise respectful, even loving, memoir of his time with Charlotte Brontë. Smith certainly wasn’t the first person to notice that Charlotte’s nose and mouth were large, that she was missing teeth and so nearsighted she crouched over books and papers. But his assessment—his assumption that Brontë’s unease in public was due to discomfort with her physical appearance instead of, say, being unused to city life or worried about being recognized by readers or fearful of meeting her critics in person—is disappointing.

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In the end, even George Smith, who had had direct access to so many of Charlotte’s thoughts and feelings, and whom she admired so much, felt the need to snipe about her appearance instead of assessing her legacy or engaging with her body of work. Even those who cared most about Charlotte Brontë underestimated her, even after they knew she had made a deliberate choice to write a disquieting story about a plain woman in love.

“I will prove to you that you are wrong,” she reportedly told her sisters during a debate on how to write heroines. “I will show you a heroine as plain and as small as myself, who shall be as interesting as any of yours.”

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Book reviews and a little more to season.

Book Review: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This review contains spoilers for the entirety of Jane Eyre . Jane Eyre was read for a book club I’m a part of, and what a read it was. Our meeting lasted for over an hour as we talked through our impressions of the book, our understanding of the themes, and our fascination with Jane as a character. Jane’s narration holds such a strong, distinct voice, that after I finished the novel I found it quite difficult to get her reasoned, romantic, and exacting voice out of my head. Jane Eyre is a quiet, dignified rumination on the agency of women, and what it means to be equal with one’s partner. It is about choices, and parallels, and about intuition. The story floats over moors and dark forests, containing within it all the colours and shapes of what we today would call the Gothic romance. The gloomy aesthetic, dark corridors within stately manors, heavy storms and secrets – they are all important, yes, but more so are the narrative and characters. Edward Rochester is in all aspects not beautiful. His countenance and appearance are rough and ragged; he does not attract Jane through the allure of his features, or a flattering tongue. Even more interesting is how he differs from the typical romantic lead interest. There is perhaps no better word for Rochester than ‘strange’. His speech breaks into tangents, he name-calls, and his conversations are as irregular and raging as the British weather. Of course, this parallels the fact that Jane herself is a very strange woman. She is a survivor of a difficult childhood that often lacked affection and has an unsympathetic but honest understanding of herself and her qualities. She is plain but determined, and in possession of an exacting eye that makes judgements and assertions – but always ones that are fair and based on the truth she sees. This book offers an interesting glimpse into the lives of women in the 1800s. It is not necessarily a conscious proto-feminist work (particularly when considering the one-note portrayal of female ‘hysteria’ or madness), but is a novel about a woman finding her place in a society that she does not always agree with or fit into. Jane longs more than anything else to be free, and to have whatever measure of independence she can afford. Jane says of Mr Rochester: ‘Though rank and wealth sever us widely, I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally with him.’ (p.244). Jane feels that beyond the physical body and possessions, she is mentally and spiritually equal to him. Perhaps this is why she feels compelled to leave Rochester mid-way through the novel, resisting the temptation to accept a life with him that she knows would be comfortable and easy. Jane sees them as equal, but that does not mean their marriage would be equal. Jane does not have experience of the world, of what she wants, or of the different ways that a woman can be treated and loved. Rochester’s passionate pursuit of Jane, while not unwanted, does not allow her to experience love on her own terms. She does not want to marry Rochester for security or for fear of not having such an opportunity again, so she leaves him until she is ready to pursue love without barrier, without ego, without power. After she leaves Rochester and Thornfield Hall, despite being exhausted and with no possessions or plans, there is such triumph in Jane’s proclamation that ‘life, however, was yet in my possession, with all its requirements, and pains, and responsibilities. The burden must be carried; the want provided for; the suffering endured; the responsibility fulfilled.’ (p.453.) It feels significant to look back on how women lived through the eyes and pen of Charlotte Brontë. They were given a small allowance for thought and more often than not forced to pack up any dreams into boxes that were rarely ever opened. (It is interesting, as well, to consider whether Jane Eyre would have been received the same way if Charlotte Brontë had not published under a man’s pen-name.) Possessing the freedom to provide for yourself, to search out for fulfilment, to suffer these difficult privileges – is something that many of us take for granted today. Jane seeks out life, and her final trial is a man who is in many ways Rochester’s parallel.

‘I don’t think, sir, you have a right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to moral superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.’ (Jane to Rochester, p.188.)

Whereas Jane many times showcases the emotional and mental equality between her and Rochester, and the fact that she is unafraid to counter, challenge, or even reject him, this is not the case for her relationship with St. John Rivers. After so many pages of watching Jane grow as a woman who fights for her choices and her individuality – to watch her knowingly fall under the manipulations of Rivers felt infuriating and deeply unsettling. As a pastor and soon-to-be missionary, Rivers views Jane in scientific impartiality, dissecting her diligence, plainness, and good moral character into traits that he would wish in a pastor’s wife. When the familial connection between them is revealed, and Jane finally has cousins who can offer her a familial type of love that she has never experienced, Rivers uses Jane’s desire for affection to control and abuse her. Despite in many ways being socially and monetarily equal – particularly after Jane choosing to share her inheritance with them out of generosity and principle – the relationship between the two shows that equality in a partnership is a rose of many thorns, and never quite as simple as meets the eye. Freedom is living; it breathes, it has wings, it must contain the capacity for thought and transformation. Jane sees Rochester as a ‘lion’ (p.441), an ‘eagle’ (p.602) – a wild creature that perhaps holds danger, but claws and fights for life as she does. Rivers is ‘marble’ (p.573), his questions ‘ice’, and his anger an ‘avalanche’ (p.575). He is dangerous but lifeless, never capable of bringing Jane pleasure or comfort – only cold. While not a straightforward villain, St. Rivers embodies the metaphysical villain of a gothic novel: the looming danger of the future that lingers in the air like poison, the illusion of cruelty as beauty, the jagged edge of power. Jane’s journey in this novel is not about ‘choosing a man’. It is about the journey of an orphan girl faced with a life of servitude and labour, choosing to allow herself to live and experience love the way she deems right. It is in all ways about choices. Jane, presented with the opportunity to serve God as a missionary’s wife and give herself entirely to faith, proclaims that ‘God did not give me my life to throw away’ (p.578). To see a female character in a novel published in 1847 choosing to experience love and faith on her own terms and entirely for herself, is incredibly empowering. Brontë writes masterfully, with a wit that never overindulges but often made me laugh out loud, and with an earnest poetry to her descriptions that truly lifts you out of your own world and into one where forests have souls and the wind is full of whispers. Jane as a character is not easy to put down. In many ways, I hope to take her qualities into myself, and feel capable of choosing love, and choosing my life. View all my reviews on Goodreads

Cover image: Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

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Hiya, I’m 24, a little lost in the world, and figuring it all out through writing. View all posts by ohfrankie

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Jane Eyre (Book Review)

“ I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will. “

Book: Jane Eyre , by Charlotte Bronte

Pages: 533

Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars

Thoughts: I gave this book 5/5 stars, needless to say I loved it! I don’t know why it took me so long finally read this. The copy of the book I read was actually my grandmas, she gave it to me years ago and told me to read it. I should have listened to her when she first gave it to me! I loved that we grew with Jane, throughout the novel. She eventually found her voice and a sense of who she is. I really enjoyed that she didn’t waste much time feeling sorry for herself. Jane had great struggles in her life, but thats what they were, they didn’t take over her ability to function. Also, I liked that she strived for herself to be independent. There were many mysterious secrets woven into the story, and it added to the drama.

***SPOILERS***

Helen Burns: I was so grateful to this character, she showed Jane kindness and friendship when she needed it most. It broke my heart when she died, the girls were a comfort to each other even in Helens last breath. When Helen died, it was said that a single word adorned her gravestone, resurgam . I had to look this word up to find out the meaning. Resurgam is latin for “I shall rise again”. I fell in love with this saying, I find myself repeating this word to myself at random times when I need reassurance. Also it hit soft spot in my personal life. This book was given to me by my late grandmother. Helens kind and gentle soul reminded me of my grandma. I spent much of the book thinking of my grandma, wishing she was still here so I can discuss the story with her.
Mr.Rochester the Gypsy: Remember the part where Mr.Rochester is conveniently out away on business for the day, while his company of friends are staying over? And an old gypsy lady comes, wishing to tell the fortunes of the women. When Jane goes into to have her fortune told, this gypsy knows a little too much about her. Then the gypsy throws off the disguise and reveals himself to be Mr.Rochester… WHAT WAS THAT? Haha, I was so shocked by that scene! I wasn’t expecting that to happen at all! I mean how could the other ladies not tell that this old gypsy was really a man, and their friend at that! Are they just idiots? Was Mr. Rochester’s voice really that good at imitating an old lady?! Just had to include this. That part of the book made me laugh.
Mr.Rochester: Okay, not that I got the gypsy part of the story out of my system, let me explain my other feelings for this man. I understand that this character can sometimes be controversial, and I saw those points. He was gruff and brash. He could come off as mean or even creepy. He was kind enough to take care of his maybe illegitimate child, but he wasn’t exactly opening his arms to her as a father figure. Also he locked up his mentally ill wife. That was very interesting. If he had all this money why didn’t he just put her up somewhere in the country in a place of her own? Besides his obvious not so great traits, he saw Jane as someone he could love. And he really loved her, besides the fact of where she came from and who she was. I enjoyed that he wasn’t a cookie cutter character, he was complex.
Jane’s Independence: I liked that Jane wasn’t willing to be reliant on just one person. When she found out that Mr.Rochester loved her and wanted to marry her, she wasn’t about to jump right in. She wasn’t blinded by the lifestyle he was willing to give her, she didn’t an abundance of jewels and dresses. She was content with who she was. Also you could tell she was passionate about teaching and helping others. I especially loved that when she found out of her fortune from her uncle, and her relations, that she didn’t care about the money. All she wanted was a family and she finally got that.
Janes creepy cousin: St. John Eyre Rivers, sorry he was a little creepy. I get that marrying your cousin was a more common practice back then, but even Jane was weary of it. He wanted her not for real love and marriage but for his profession and lifestyle. I am glad Jane wasn’t willing to settle for a lifestyle where she knew she couldn’t really be happy. That is another example of Jane’s independence. Although I am glad at the end, that they found a “brotherly-sisterly” relationship with each other.

***SPOILERS OVER***

I highly recommend this book to anyone who hasn’t read it and loves the classics. Or even to people looking to get into classics. This is definitely a must read, and for a good reason!

Carpe Librum

Until next time…