Patsy Stoneman has painstakingly investigated how the Brontes' works (specifically Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights) have been perceived and transformed over time. The research she's done is remarkable. She investigates the implications in each film, stage, or musical version. She also dips a bit into how the Brontes themselves have been perceived over time--this part of the book could be expanded. I also think a similiar work investigating the works of Branwell and Anne Bronte is needed.

it was realy love story , i was very proud of jane eyre and also of mr. rochester . it was a crazy love and it shows that the good person must be considered at the end.

Romance and love. Principles and rash decisions. All these are included with much more in the edge-of-your-seat novel: Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.
The main character, Jane Eyre, is first pictured as a poor, neglected, mistreated ten-year-old. Her temper is yet wild and uncontrolled, so she gets into many scraps, consequentially landing her in a boarding school fifty miles away. After a bad epidemic of typhus, the unhealthy structure of Lowood school is discovered. It is at once put to rights.
After eight years at Lowood (two total as a student and six as a teacher), Jane discovers that she longs for a different life. She puts an ad in the paper, and soon receives a letter from an old lady named Mrs. Fairfax. This lady writes to hire Jane as governess of a little French girl. Upon taking the job, Jane presently meets the owner of the house, Mr. Rochester, and falls in love. However, while at the altar, about to make their vows, a disruption occurs.
Jane runs away with nothing but a few pounds, which she accidentally leaves in the coach. After three days out in the open with hardly any food or sleep, she encounters a happy family, which takes her in. Se doesn't give her true identification, but soon becomes at home and gets a job as the local girl's schoolmistress.
However, not very long after, Jane meets a bend in the road. No sooner does she get settled in, but she finds that she does have family and a large fortune after all! She begins to feel restless and uneasy to have left Mr. Rochester, and sets out to find him.
I won't say the ending, but I will say that I loved this book! It is so romantic and sweet. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. Besides, "they all lived happily ever after," and that's the best part.

Jane Eyre is a very touching and heartwarming story that even today, one can relate to its characters. I enjoyed this story very much and understand why it is considered a classic. The characters are very real and although you may not like them all, you can empathise with them.

I firmly believe that Jane Eyre is the best novel ever written. I could go on for hours about the passionate writing, the beautiful symbolism, and the utterly engaging plot. However, since many reviews have been written on this novel, I'm going to focus my review on what makes this specific edition of the book so special. The Official Broadway version has a gorgeous cover shot from the new musical and gorgeous, easy to read typeface, but more importantly, about 10 pages of explanatory footnotes and commentaries from 8 distinguished authors and critics like Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Bronte herself. If you've seen the breathtakingly exquisite Broadway musical, this book would be a perfect keepsake to remember the fantastic time you undoubtedly had. If not, the extras included in the book make it a wonderful purchase anyway.

This invaluable guide and reference book is No1 in English Literature.You will find all the important poems,plays,novels and short stories of the graetest figures of English Literature compiled in two volumes with current updates.These two volumes are musts for those studying English Literature and for those interested in the development of English Literature.You will survey through the beginning till the very end of 20th century.From the middle ages,up to Georgean Era all essential backgrounds can be found in the two volumes.Shakespeare ,Wordsworth,Byron,Dickens,Conrad,Joyce,Woolf are here.This book is really worth buying.As an undergraduate student of English Literature I offer these great volumes to everyone

I have recently read both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre for book reports and I loved them both. Wuthering Heights is a deep, dark tale of romance and revenge that draws you in until the end. This book ended up being one of my favorites, and strangely enough, I did not like any of the characters! Jane Eyre is a sweet love story, with a few twists thrown in. Although Jane Eyre is not as deep as Wuthering Heights, it is equally interesting. You should definitely read these two books, you will not be disapointed.

After many years of placing "Jane Eyre" at the top of my "favorite stories of all time" list, I was glad when my husband gave me this book so I could read some of Bronte's other novels.

What I found was that I liked "Villette" even more than "Jane Eyre" - and, although it was arduous at first, I found "Shirley" was better yet.

"Jane Eyre", for anyone who hasn't read it, is a wonderful gothic romance, moralistic and spiritual, a very good read and fascinating tale.

"Villette" is more mature. The author explores a deeper sort of love - not based on mere physical attraction or infatuation, but based on deep, abiding friendship and respect. This story, too, has its lessons.

The character development in "Villette" was more complete than in any other novel I've ever read. I became fascinated by the unattractive little professor, and by other characters as well.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of French in this story, and what appeared to be the most pivotal moments were written in French... dialogue that I really wanted to understand was just lost on me. That was truly unfortunate. I'll have to find someone to translate for me sometime.

"Shirley" is the best of all. The beginning is arduous. I had to use my dictionary throughout, but the beginning is particular difficult. Shall I say.. boring, even. I found that, once I forced myself through the beginning, I was very much rewarded.

This story is a gem. The female heroines - Shirley and Caroline - were wonderful to get to know. Shirley is not the sort of female I would have thought Bronte had had occasion to know, so this was enlightening for me.

Truly an eye-opening look at 19th century feminism! And incorporated into these wonderful romance stories.

"The Professor" was a bit more dry than the others, although it was fun to read a romance story strictly from the male viewpoint. For a first novel, this was really incredibly well written.

As for "Wuthering Heights", it's been a number of years since I've read the story, so I won't attempt a review here.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes "Wuthering Heights" or "Jane Eyre". All these stories are wonderfully written, with complex characters and interesting plots. The work of true genius.

This novel was written as a looking glass into the life of one Jane Eyre. Welcome to her thoughts, her advice, and descriptions of her beliefs. But before you venture off, keep on the look-out for the contrast that exist in her thoughts compared to your own. By finding contrast you will observe some of the similiarities in her thinking to your own. "listen, then, JaneEyre, to you sentence: to-morrow, place the glass before you, and draw in chalk your own picture, faith-fully, without softening one defect; omit no harsh line, smooth away no displeasing irregularity, write under it, "Portrait of a Governess, Disconnected, poor, and plain." In the novel you come to understand Jane as a strong person with even stronger beliefs that she lives by. You now get a feeling of the contrast of her life. By re-reading the line notice the way she judges and punishes herself for what she finds fualty in her life. An entire novel is created around these constraints and contradiction. You may come to understand a small portion of yourself through Jane's contrasting life.

I thought it was a good book

"Can Jane Eyre Be Happy" is only one of the many questions about classical literature you will have answered by this book. Other novels explored include "Great Expectations", "Mansfield Park", "Hound of the Baskervilles," and other novels of that genre and category. Sutherland's insights are simple and straightforward and his questions are probing and answer those sometimes irrelevant things your curiosity won't let you sit on! However, this book loses one star because Sutherland often does try to contradict the author and occasionally discards the author's motive in writing the novel. Also a warning: Don't read through the table of contents before you have read all the books addressed therein. Some of the questions assigned to each book will give away or ruin in part the ending to the novel. Luckily this is not a major setback. I do heartily recommend this book, but the reader must be open to new ideas about some of his or her favorite novels and authors, and must also take Sutherland's ideas with a pinch of skepticism.

Lovers of Mr. Rochester beware - in this, his second book of literary puzzles, John Sutherland turns his considerable powers of literary analysis towards, amongst other things, undoing the good reputation enjoyed by Jane Eyre's brooding hero. Bronte fans, brace yourself for some idol-smashing. As in his first book of devoted to literary head-scratchers (the wonderful Is Heathcliff a Murderer?), Sutherland here sets himself out to answer some of Western literature's most intriguing questions. Though you might not always agree with some of the conclusions Sutherland comes to (we have to have a talk, he and I, about Mr. Rochester's moral integrity) as a writer he is always witty, as a thinker always innovative, and as a guide through literature's most baffling conundrums, always genial. Buy this book and I promise not only will you learn something (and, if you're anything like me, get into some very heated debates with fellow literature lovers about Jane Eyre's prospects for bliss, etc.) - but you'll also have a heck of a lot of fun.

As Sutherland points out, the 1835 act prohibited marriage with a deceased wife's sister. However, aside from this, she was not "too young to marry for a month or so." A girl could be married at 12 in Britain until the Age of Marriage Act of 1929, although the age of consent for sexual intercourse was raised 1n 1881 from 13 to 16. Whatever Roger Prynne's reasons for staying away, Massachussetts was not a place "where they like to burn witches and wizards." (They hanged them). I enjoyed combing for nits to pick.

Jane Eyre is a plain woman in looks, but her intelligence, strength, and feistiness make her a heroine who I think gives much-needed justice to women of her time. She is a spitfire who makes you want to know her and hear her story, and she tells it in a clear, first-person fashion that makes it an easy story to read.

Orphaned at a young age, Jane is sent to live with her aunt and cousins, who abuse Jane physically and mentally for ten years. Eventually ejected from her aunt's household on false charges of thievery, Jane is then packed off to Lowood, a charity boarding school whose conditions were deplorable; students were scarcely provided with food and clothing (think Oliver Twist), and were regularly terrorized by the school's cruel headmaster. If that weren't enough, Jane's only real friend at Lowood dies during an outbreak of Typhus.

Fast-forward eight years - Jane, still nearly penniless after a two-year stint as a teacher at Lowood, ventures out to make a life for herself as a governess. Her charge is a precocious French child named Adele, with whom she develops a fast friendship. But the real story of Eyre lies in her relationship with the child's foster parent, Mr. Rochester, the dolefule, aloof, yet passionate and somewhat mysterious master of Thornfield. Despite their differing castes and the 20 years separating their ages, their feelings for each other grow deep, and they decide to marry. But it doesn't go exactly as Jane had planned - their wedding ceremony is stopped when it is revealed that Mr. Rochester is already married - to a madwoman whom he has kept locked up in one of Thornfield's bedrooms for years!

Horrified, Jane flees Thornfield, ending up a beggar on the streets because she spent her entire savings to leave. Eventually taken in by a clergyman, St. John Rivers, and his two sisters, Jane makes a new life for herself as a teacher. During this time, Jane finds herself the sole heir of her father's estate. Soon after, St. John proposes marriage to her repeatedly, but Jane finds his cold demeanor lacking in comparison to the man she truly loves, Mr. Rochester. (She also finds out that St. John is actually her first cousin - a staple of this genre, it seems.) Prompted by hearing Rochester's voice calling her name during a prayer for guidance, Jane returns to Thornfield, only to find it burned down, and Mr. Rochester blinded by the fire his wife set before killing herself. Naturally, Jane and Mr. Rochester live happily ever after, but if you think this is merely another sappy love story (which I am no fan of!), you would be wrong. In Eyre, Charlotte Bronte shows us a depth and realness of characters which you would be hard-pressed to find in any other novel.

Do yourself a favor by reading it - you'll understand why it's considered one of the finest examples of English literature.

I first read this book when I was ten and reread it every decade as a special treat to myself. It is one of the great classics of English literature. It is, essentially, a Cinderella story, and I STRONGLY recommend it as an andidote to the Woman-Hear-Me-Roar (or is it "Girl Power"?) stuff being pushed on young ladies nowadays as a means to making the sex strong. The story begins when the heroine, Jane Eyre, is a young orphan of about nine, and follows her through school and her career as a governess in a wealthy but mysterious man's home. She falls in love, learns of an impediment to her immediate gratification, does the right thing and suffers for her pains, but in the end is rewarded for her suffering. Very irrelevant to the late twentieth century, obviously. Charlotte Bronte (the author) is frquently encountered around the same time in life one encounters Dickens--youth--but, like Dickens, she most definitely wrote for adults. Therefore, the book is probably a difficult read for all but the most tenacious middle schooler, but as it begins from the very real, very painful point of view of a powerless child, it has a good hook to draw in the young reader. Its literary style is Romantic, with the liberal use of semi-colons, inverted sentences, and detailed descriptions. This book is a MUST for all well-educated young ladies--the next step after Little Women and before the Jane Austen novels. And sorry for the gender stereotyping; I'm sure there are boys and men out there who read this book and loved it, but I never met one.

When I first read Jane Eyre, I (and I think many others) was taken in by the odd combination of romance and ominous overtones that makes Jane Eyre such a unique book. Of course, the Victorian-era writing and social commentary also made an impression.

But upon reflection, underneath all of this is a story of people with difficult lives learning to find and accept each other and hopefully coming to peace and happiness despite long odds. Maybe my second reading just comes from a twenty-first century mind reading things into a nineteenth century book that just aren't there. But to me, the book does have the feel of a modern story of hardship as well as a Victorian story of people trying to overcome their backgrounds to find love.

Jane Eyre tells the life story of an orphaned girl sent away to a harsh boarding school by a cruel aunt. Despite the harsh nature of the school, Jane thrived at the school since she is finally out from her aunt's crushing dislike for her. She graduated and took a job as a governess for a girl in the care of a mysterious man who spent much of his time traveling abroad, Mr. Rochester.

At first, the two do not like each other. This is compounded by the fact that Jane thinks she is plain looking and not worthy of his company. But the two develop a peculiar friendship, and there are many signs that their feelings are deeper. But Mr. Rochester is busy courting other ladies at the time. Mr. Rochester also seems to have a secret that he will not divulge to Jane but may have serious consequences for her.

Jane's job as a governess and the friendship that develops make it seem that the book will quickly become a Jane Austen book (which of course, would not have been a bad thing) in which the man and woman from different classes find love with one another, but from the point of the friendship blooming, Jane Eyre takes a few remarkable twists and turns that I had not expected and that make for real page-turning.

But it is as much the quiet desperation of both Jane and Mr. Rochester and their struggle to find each other despite this that makes Jane Eyre a book truly worth reading and treasuring.