Charlotte Brontë's 1847 Gothic romance follows Jane Eyre, an orphaned governess who finds love and independence at the mysterious Thornfield Hall. This pioneering work of English fiction explores themes of social class, gender equality, and moral conscience through Jane's passionate first-person narrative.
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 further outdoor exercise was now out of the question. I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed. The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly hap…Continue reading →
A Victorian novelist who transformed literature with her passionate, psychologically complex heroines, she lived from 1816 to 1855 in isolated Yorkshire, England. Her groundbreaking novel Jane Eyre challenged social conventions by giving voice to an independent, fiery woman who demanded equality in love and life, paving the way for modern feminist literature. All works by Charlotte Brontë →
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