Jane Eyre

This is one classic that everyone should read because it’s a pleasure to do so. I read this as a 13-year-old, and it quickly became the yardstick against which I measured every other love story. Yes, it’s a love story, and that is the heart of this book, but it’s not a sappy romantic tale. 

This book explores class structures, mental disorders, and a glimpse into another time. Intense yet leashed emotions form the backbone of the story. As a teen and even now, the brooding, dark quality of this tale really appeals to me.

Jane Eyre inspired me to write.

I first read it at school. It did not make an impact on me then (probably because it was compulsory reading); but my English teacher was curious to know my thoughts on it. Looking back, I think she saw something in me that I had not yet seen in myself, and that there was a similarity between me and Charlotte Brontë.

Fifteen years later, I undertook a PhD in English Literature, and Brontë was my focus. When, at that point, I reread Jane Eyre, I was struck by its narrative and descriptive power, so… show more.

For me, this book is the beginning of my becoming a writer and coming into my own. I vividly remember reading the novel for the first time when I had chicken pox in ninth grade in the winter, and it was snowing and cold. It was a revelation.

In this case, Jane is an orphan, but her solitary status spoke profoundly to me and my own loneliness and outsider status in my family. If there’s a character other than Jane Eyre who has meant more to me, I don’t know who she is. If there is a writer who has… show more.

I love this book because it’s about two people who society would never have expected to fall in love.

Jane and Mr Rochester are so far away from each other on the social scale that at the time it was written it was almost impossible to imagine they could ever get married. I also love that Jane is no beauty and is described as plain, but that doesn’t matter when it comes to love.

I also find it moving that both she and Mr Rochester have to overcome huge emotional challenges in order to be together at all. Finally, I… show more.

I first read this novel when I was ten. Pages had fallen out and even though I later found intact copies, I read it over and over to fill the gaps in my understanding.

How I loved the way Jane took charge of her fate with such intelligence, the way she captured Rochester’s heart without demeaning herself. But oh that madwoman she encountered in the attic. What did Jane make of Bertha, this “clothed hyena?”

Unlike Rochester, she didn’t blame Bertha for her violence. And while she understood Rochester’s dilemma she couldn’t agree to stay with him. In an intolerable… show more.

The romantic power of this story has never left me.

I read Jane Eyre as a high-school student studying my favorite subject, English Literature. I loved the gothic gloom and mystery, secrets to be explored and solved. Jane epitomizes the seemingly weak female who ultimately shows the greatest strength while Rochester oozes protector energy, a man with a dark past.

The contemporary protector romances I love today haven’t strayed far from the over-arching themes of the books of my teenage years, and there is comfort in that. I’ve yet to figure out exactly why, but like all of us, I… show more.

This is a beautiful book. It is a story of unconditional love and devotion between Jane and Mr. Rochester.

Through Jane, the story shows us how a young woman who starts out as an orphan in a harsh environment where she is forced to accept her lot in life, digests her experiences, and makes her own way.

I like to read about female main characters who triumph over obstacles to find joy and peace. The teachings of Jane’s home and her boarding school restrain her. But Jane becomes strong on her journey to self-development through challenging obstacles and moments of… show more.

I absolutely love wounded heroes, and Charlotte Bronte is a master at this trope.

Even the powerless Jane gets to control her life. It’s hauntingly romantic. I love reading this book and disappearing into her world. No matter how bad her life gets, and it gets pretty bad, things work out for her in the end

Of this novel, Virginia Woolf famously remarked, “The writer has us by the hand, forces us along her road, makes us see what she sees, never leaves us for a moment or allows us to forget her.”

The voice of Jane is so powerful, so real, that some thought that she and her author were one. But no.

In Jane, Bronte presents a truly modern self that all can relate to.

We may not be orphaned, abused, and alone as Jane is. But we do have to, like her, fight for our own sense of self and dignity in… show more.

Jane Eyre is a book I read and teach at least once a year. Its early section about childhood is, for me, the archetype of all impossible childhoods. Jane is orphaned, misunderstood, oppressed by the awful relatives who take her in, and abused by officials of Lowood School, the institution they palm her off on. Deprivation and hunger are the daily facts of her life. Humiliation, physical “punishment,” and the threat of hell are used to control her fellow wards. She is not so easily controlled. She watches while some of her fellow children, including her beloved friend Helen Burns,… show more.