Description

In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, an independent woman must decide if the heartaches that come with love and trust are too high a price to pay. Eyre, an intelligent but lonely young girl, is all alone in the world. Sent to live with unkind relatives, Jane's fate grows even crueler when she is torn from her family's household and forced to live in an orphanage. Surviving years of deprivation, illness, and despair, Jane becomes a governess, and is hired by a Mr. Rochester to look after his young daughter. Jane's new post brings her into a world of high society, romantic intrigue, and dark family secrets. When Mr. Rochester asks Jane to marry him, it seems that against all odds her fate is finally secure and true love is rightfully hers. However, shocking revelations about Mr. Rochester's mysterious past suddenly surface, and Jane flees the house and the man who have brought her so much pain. Have love and security slipped through Jane's fingers forever, or can Mr. Rochester regain her trust and win her heart again?

About the Author

The eldest and most prolific of the literary Bronte sisters, Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) combined definitive life experience and her strong imaginative powers to create such famous works as Jane Eyre, Villette, and Shirley. At first, Bronte, like her sisters, published her novels under a male pseudonym, her own being "Currer Bell." When her first novel, Jane Eyre, received considerable public attention, many tried to guess the true identity of the author, sure that no man could have so expertly captured Jane's female voice. Despite the adversities of family instability, personal tragedy, and ill-health, Charlotte Bronte is well-established to this day as one of the most brilliant female writers in literature, with her haunting settings, cleverly-woven mysteries, and compelling, multi-faceted characters burning brightly in the minds of generations of readers.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that ...