Featured title on PBS’s The Great American Read in 2018
The orphaned Jane Eyre has emerged a fiercely independent young woman. As governess at Thornfield Hall, she’s found her first real home—though it stands in the shadow of the estate’s master, Mr. Rochester, and its haunted halls ring with maniacal laughter. For even the grandest houses have secrets.
As much a story about defying convention as it is about coming-of-age, Jane Eyre remains one of the most beloved novels in the English language. Both Gothic and Victorian in its influence and scope, it captures one woman’s determination to live life on her own terms—choosing courage over fear, while finding power in love and compassion.
Revised edition: Previously published as Jane Eyre, this edition of Jane Eyre (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
The eldest of the famed Brontė sisters, Charlotte Brontė (18161855) was both a lauded novelist and a poet. Born in Yorkshire, England, Charlotte drew upon much of her own experience, both as a student at a reportedly harsh school and as a governess, to write Jane Eyre, her second novel. Like her sisters, Charlotte wrote under a nom de plume. As Currer Bell, she published numerous pieces of poetry before delving into fiction. In the months after Jane Eyre was published, three of Charlottes remaining siblings died, and she was said to have channeled her grief into writing.
After rejecting three suitors, Charlotte eventually married, but both she and her unborn first child died only weeks before her thirty-ninth birthday. Charlotte left behind a literary legacy, including this classic novel that has influenced generations of readers.
