Jane Eyre

Orphaned and unwanted, ten-year-old Jane Eyre grows up in the cold household of her aunt, Mrs Reed, until she is sent away to Lowood, a charity school where hunger, illness, and cruelty test her spirit. She leaves it a young woman of quiet courage and fierce principle, and takes a post as governess at Thornfield Hall. There she meets its master, the moody, sardonic Edward Rochester, and finds in him a mind to match her own. But Thornfield keeps a secret, and when it comes to light Jane must choose between the man she loves and the self-respect she has fought all her life to keep.

Published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell, Charlotte Brontë’s novel was an immediate sensation. Passionate, gothic, and boldly told in its heroine’s own voice, Jane Eyre remains one of the great love stories in English and a landmark in fiction about a woman’s independence.