Jane Eyre is the story of an orphaned girl who, thanks to her strong spirit, manages to escape a life of oppression and become an independent woman. Jane is brought up by heartless relatives and is forced to attend a school for the poor. After a few years she becomes a teacher at the school, but leaves when she is offered a position as governess at Thornfield Hall, a great mansion resembling a medieval castle. The owner, Mr. Edward Rochester, soon becomes Jane's love interest, but it turns out that Rochester is married and keeps his 'mad' wife locked away in a secluded part of the mansion.
One of the great classics of English literature, Jane Eyre is at once a love story, a variation on the Gothic genre, and a harsh depiction of reality from a woman's perspective. It is also the novel that gave rise to the expression 'The Mad Woman in the Attic'.
CHARLOTTE BRONTË [1816-1855] was an English author, born in Thornton, West Yorkshire. She had five siblings, two of whom were authors Emily and Anne. Several of Charlotte Brontë's novels belong to the classics of English literature. Among them, Jane Eyre is undoubtedly the most important. Brontë had the novel published under a pseudonym in 1847, and it has captivated generations of readers ever since.