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Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

Summary

'Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? - You think wrong!'

This is the story of Jane, an orphan in Victorian England, she is relentlessly bullied and deprived by her aunt and the charity school she is banished to. Yet Jane emerges from a tragic childhood a curious young woman with an indomitable spirit. When she finds work as a governess at Thornfield Hall it seems Jane has finally met her match in the unconventional Mr Rochester.

But as her feelings for Mr Rochester grow, so do her suspicions that something darker lurks within the walls of this vast mansion... Jane Eyre is the unforgettable Gothic tale of a woman's search for happiness.

Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.

About the author

Charlotte Brontë

Charlotte Brontë was born in Yorkshire in 1816. As a child, she was sent to boarding school, where two of her sisters died; she was subsequently educated at home with her younger siblings, Emily, Branwell and Anne. As an adult, Charlotte worked as a governess and taught in a school in Brussels. Jane Eyre was first published in 1847 under the pen-name Currer Bell, and was followed by Shirley (1848), Villette (1853) and The Professor (posthumously published in 1857). In 1854 Charlotte married her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls. She died in March of the following year.
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