Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre is an orphan with little to look forward to. Her aunt and cousins mistreat her in the house where she is raised, and she is then sent off to a harsh boarding school. It is only when she takes a post as governess at Thornfield that her life begins to feel like her own.

Quiet, measured and quietly determined, Jane gradually falls for the house's brooding, moody master, Mr Rochester. But Thornfield has its share of strange and unsettling happenings, and before long Jane is forced to leave and decide for herself what comes next.

Charlotte Brontë first published the novel in 1847 under the name Currer Bell. It blends Gothic atmosphere with a love story, and its heroine insists on her independence and her right to be treated as an equal.