Charlotte Brontë 
Jane Eyre (Centaur Classics) [The 100 greatest novels of all time – #17] 

‘The masterwork of great genius.’ —William Makepeace Thackeray

‘An utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit.’ —George Henry Lewes

‘Charlotte Brontë 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.’ —Virginia Woolf



Charlotte Brontë’s most beloved novel describes the passionate love between the courageous orphan Jane Eyre and the brilliant, brooding, and domineering Rochester.

The loneliness and cruelty of Jane’s childhood strengthens her natural independence and spirit, which prove invaluable when she takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. But after she falls in love with her sardonic employer, her discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a heart-wrenching choice. Ever since its publication in 1847, ‘Jane Eyre’ has enthralled every kind of reader, from the most critical and cultivated to the youngest and most unabashedly romantic. It lives as one of the great triumphs of storytelling and as a moving and unforgettable portrayal of a woman’s quest for self-respect.