Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre: An Autobiography is a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, written by Victorian writer Charlotte Brontë and originally published in 1847 under the male pseudonym Currer Bell by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. Through Jane’s life and experiences, Brontë examines social issues including religious hypocrisy, class discrimination, and sexism. Many literary theorists and biographers—including Brontë’s friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell—have noted numerous similarities between the novel’s events and Brontë’s personal history.

The novel is considered a classic of English literature and has been widely adapted into plays, operas, films, and television series. Jane Eyre has also been the subject of significant feminist theoretical texts, such as The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and literary reinterpretations, such as Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Though Jane Eyre is by far Brontë's most famous work, she is also known for her novels Shirley (1849) and Villette (1853).

This guide refers to the Project Gutenberg eBook edition of the novel.

Plot Summary