Book Bearings
Jane Eyre
- 480 pages · about 8 hours
- First published 1847
- 1,170 editions
- Free to read
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1 About this book
Jane Eyre, published in 1847 under the pen name Currer Bell, is told by its heroine in her own voice. Orphaned young, Jane grows up unloved in her aunt's house at Gateshead Hall and is sent away to Lowood, a harsh charity school, where she finds friends and an education. As a young woman she takes a post as governess at Thornfield Hall and is drawn to its master, the abrupt and brooding Edward Rochester, who talks to her as an equal. But Thornfield has a secret, and strange things happen there at night. The novel follows Jane as she holds, at every stage, to her independence and her conscience.
- Romance
- Relationships
- Classics
- Bildungsromans
- Coming of age
- Married people
- Country homes
- Fathers and daughters
2 What to expect
A long Victorian novel told by its heroine, from a harsh childhood and a charity school to her work as a governess and her love for her employer. It is a love story, a Gothic mystery set in a house full of secrets, and above all the portrait of a plain, poor woman who insists on her own worth. The voice is intimate and passionate, and the pace is slower in the early and late sections.
Good for readers who want: a classic love story, a strong-willed heroine, and Gothic atmosphere.
3 Read it free, right here
A free scan from the Internet Archive opens right here on the page, with no sign-up.
Read it on the Internet Archive4 About Charlotte Brontë
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
5 More by Charlotte Brontë
6 Similar books
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- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Emma by Jane Austen
- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen