Book Title: Jane Eyre
Book Author: Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)
Genre: Psychological Romance
Setting: Northern England in 1800s
Principal Characters:
Jane Eyre ? an orphan girl
Mrs. Reed ? Jane?s aunt and mistress of Gateshead Hall
Edward Rochester ? the owner of Thornfield Manor
St. John Rivers ? a clergyman
The Beginning of Jane Eyre:
?Jane Eyre? was penned by Charlotte Bronte and published in the October of 1847 under Charlotte?s pseudonym Currer Bell. Jane Eyre, the heroine is Charlotte Bronte herself. The heroine was naturally and universally supposed to be Charlotte herself but she always denied it. The author often told her sisters that they were wrong in making their heroines beautiful as a matter of course. They replied that it was impossible to make a heroine interesting on other terms. Charlotte retorted, ?I will prove to you that you are wrong. I will show you a heroine as small and plain as myself who shall be as interesting as any of yours.? ?Hence Jane Eyre? she said in telling the anecdote; ?but she is not myself, any farther that that.?
About Jane Eyre: the book
Jane Eyre is popular as an epic love story and the triumph of a simple and an ordinary woman. She is simple, yet sensible, has a great spirit, sharp wit and a sense of honour which sees her through hard times. Jane Eyre is the story of an orphan who dealt with many atrocities that began much before her life started. From being tortured ? physically & mentally ? at her aunt?s home, to the Lowood School where she grows as a person and learns a lot. She transforms from being a pupil to a teacher. She moves on to be a governess of a young child where she meets the love of her life in Edward Rochester, the middle-aged master of Thornfield Manor ? a strange, stern yet heroic and princely man. Jane, for the first time in her life, experiences a sense of comfort. But mysterious things start happening in the house. A few unpredictable events take place and Jane discovers something that breaks her heart and makes her leave the master. Only to come back to him?but her heroic master is not the same anymore. Yet, love survives.
Jane Eyre was written in the first-person autobiographical form that allowed Bronte to make her heroine directly touch the reader?s heart.