As an orphan, Jane¿s childhood is not an easy one but her
independence and strength of character keep her going through the
miseries inflicted by cruel relatives and a brutal school. However,
her biggest challenge is yet to come. Taking a job as a governess
in a house full of secrets, for a passionate man she grows more and
more attracted to, ultimately forces Jane to call on all her
resources in order to hold on to her beliefs.
Marred only by the fact that Charlotte clearly liked Mr Rochester too much; but we can forgive her that. Often given to schoolchildren to read, but you have to be a grown-up to really get it. One of the most perfectly structured novels of all time -- Sarah Waters At the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Bronte -- Virginia Woolf Jane Eyre's suspense-laden, melodramatic plot - featuring child cruelty and attempted bigamy, as well as the celebrated madwoman - explains much of its appeal... Jane Eyre is a book into which generations of readers have escaped. And yet it seems to provide something far more sustaining than the escapist fantasy... Her technical skill at writing the self in a first-person narrative is supreme, her words carefully chosen -- Lucasta Miller Guardian Charlotte Bronte was surely a marvellous woman. If it could be right to judge the work of a novelist from one small portion of one novel [JE], and to say of an author that he is to be accounted as strong as he shows himself to be in his strongest morsel of work, I should be inclined to put Miss Bronte very high indeed. I know of no interest more thrilling than that which she has been able to throw into the characters of Rochester and the governess, in the second volume of Jane Eyre -- Anthony Trollope Great genius -- William Makepeace Thackeray
