Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontes first novel, published in 1847, was based in part on the authors own days in a brutal boarding school where two of her sisters died of tuberculosis; her characterization of the place in her first published work was an act of revenge. The novels heroine is a plain, impoverished, but spirited young governess who not only wins the heart of her employer--the jaded, Byronic Mr. Rochester--but manages to defy the social conventions of her time to become a strong and fulfilled adult. Told by Jane herself as she looks back over her life, JANE EYRE became the prototype for the classic Gothic novel set in a wild, windswept location where a naive heroine must cope with ghosts and the supernatural. It has also inspired countless romance novels and created the bitter, brooding hero who is brought back to life by the goodness and innocence of the woman who loves him. Brontes tale, however, transcends the genres it inspired. Janes search for love and for meaning also includes a refusal to accept less than