Jane Eyre: An Autobiography was first published in 1847. It tells the story of the eponymous heroine from the time she was ten years old until her adulthood.
We meet Jane, an orphan, shortly after her uncle and guardian has died. Her aunt feels burdened by her responsibility for Jane and soon finds a pretext for having her placed in an orphanage. Here Jane meets initial hostility from the self-righteous administrator. Very soon she proves her worth as an honest and moral person, and she becomes popular with her fellow orphans.
Shortly before she turns eighteen, Jane gains employment at Thornfield Hall as a governess to a young French girl Adele who is the responsibility of Mr Edward Rochester, the owner of Thornfield. Before long, Mr Rochester proposes marriage to Jane, but fate intervenes and the two are parted. Will Jane find true love again?
Over 160 years after it was first published Jane Eyre still holds an attraction for the modern reader. The language is hardly archaic or obscure, and Charlotte Brontë largely avoids using the long and convoluted sentences that feature in so many novels of the era. Brontë has a talent for drawing sharp and detailed portraits of her characters. Her descriptions of both the human and the natural world are elegant, and she has a talent for finding unusual but convincing metaphors.
Jane Eyre herself is portrayed as a strong, independent and resourceful person. She has a moral depth to her that shines through in every crisis. In the novel, we see the dilemmas that faced such a person in a time when women were considered to be chattels belonging to a patriarchal household.
So, if you want to read a story with psychological and moral depth, and one that has a strong female lead character, then Jane Eyre is the book for you.
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