a book

Jane Eyre

Name: Jane Eyre
Rating: 5 (14 reviews)
Author: Charlotte Brontë
ISBN: 9780553211405

Charlotte Brontë · 2003 · 528 pages

Introduction by Joyce Carol Oates • Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Initially published under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1847, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyreerupted onto the English literary scene, immediately winning the devotion of many of the world’s most renowned writers, including William Makepeace Thackeray, who declared it a work “of great genius.” Widely regarded as a revolutionary novel, Brontë’s masterpiece introduced the world to a radical new type of heroine, one whose defiant virtue and moral courage departed sharply from the more acquiescent and malleable female characters of the day. Passionate, dramatic, and surprisingly modern, Jane Eyre endures as one of the world’s most beloved novels.

recommended by 14 people

sourced from public statements

Shonda Rhimes
“It's #BookLoversDay. Here are some of my favorite books📚.”↗
Christiane Amanpour
“As a schoolgirl this book had an enormous impact on me. It’s not just one of the great works of English fiction, but many describe how it morphs its meaning to suit all seasons of the reader’s life. The story of the evolving emotions and thoughts of a young girl who reaches womanhood and falls in love with an older man evokes a great romantic love. But on the other hand, the story of his wife, hidden away — descending into madness — caused me frissons of deep fear at the mental illness which was very much the unspoken unknown then, and in my own childhood. At the end of the day it’s an important work for all boys and girls to read, because of its highly developed, complicated and wonderful female heroine.”↗
Erica Jong
“There is so much about this book that was revolutionary. You have a heroine who is plain, but she’s clever. Also, Jane is a woman who speaks her mind—she doesn’t lie to please the establishment, or to please men.”↗
Rose McGowan
“‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.’ This is an important book that as a young girl showed me that we can be indomitable, regardless of whether we are seen or not.”↗
Ursula K. Le Guin
“Of Jane Eyre, I just want to say that if you think you know the book because you’ve seen a movie based on it, do think again.”↗
Stevie Nicks
“I first read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights (written by Charlotte’s sister Emily Bronte) when I was in college in California in the late 1960s. They are two of my favourite books because they’re just so brilliantly written. The beauty of both these classics is that they were fantastic when I was a teenager and they still appeal to me now as a 63-year-old woman.”↗
Stacey Abrams
“This remains a perfectly told, ethically challenged gothic novel of love, betrayal, and redemption. (I might also recommend a fantastic offshoot story: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.)”↗
Gretchen Rubin
Gwyneth Paltrow
Alice Walker
Amanda Craig
Nathan Ballingrud
Sophie Bakalar
Pedro Pascal