Jane Eyre /ɛər/ (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by English writer
Charlotte Brontë, published under the pen name "Currer Bell", on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder
& Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of
New York.[1] Jane Eyre is a Bildungsroman which follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine,
including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield
Hall.[2]
The novel revolutionised prose fiction by being the first to focus on its protagonist's moral and
spiritual development through an intimate first-person narrative, where actions and events are
coloured by a psychological intensity. Charlotte Brontë has been called the "first historian of the
private consciousness", and the literary ancestor of writers like Proust and Joyce.[3]
The book contains elements of social criticism with a strong sense of Christian morality at its core,
and it is considered by many to be ahead of its time because of Jane's individualistic character and
how the novel approaches the topics of class, sexuality, religion, and feminism.[4][5] It, along with
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is one of the most famous romance novels of all time.[6]
The novel is a first-person narrative from the perspective of the title character. Its setting is
somewhere in the north of England, late in the reign of George III (1760–1820).[a] It has five distinct
stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her
aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she gains friends and role models but
suffers privations and oppression; her time as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love
with her mysterious employer, Edward Fairfax Rochester; her time in the Moor House, during which
her earnest but cold clergyman cousin, St. John Rivers, proposes to her; and ultimately her reunion
with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. Throughout these sections, it provides perspectives on
a number of important social issues and ideas, many of which are critical of the status quo.
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