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| Jane Eyre (Oxford World's Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Charlotte Bronte
Creators: Margaret Smith, Sally Shuttleworth
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $7.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 369787
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 542
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0192839659
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780192839657
ASIN: 0192839659
Publication Date: February 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Jane Eyre (1847) has enjoyed huge popularity since first publication, and its success owes much to its exceptional emotional power. Jane Eyre, a penniless orphan, is engaged as governess at Thornfield Hall by the mysterious Mr Rochester. Her integrity and independence are tested to the limit as their love for each other grows, and the secrets of Mr Rochester's past are revealed. A brilliant new edition of this flagship of Victorian fiction, this book includes a new introduction and revised notes from one of the foremost Bronte scholars. This text is based on the definitive Clarendon edition, based on the original editions of Bronte's great work.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Three Brilliant Bronte Masterpieces In One Edition - Worth Its Weight In Gold! August 8, 2005
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
Three authors who greatly influenced the direction of the English novel also happened to be sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte. Charlotte's "Jane Eyre," Emily's "Wuthering Heights, and Anne's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," extraordinary novels all, comprise this Oxford University Press edition. The people, events and settings which marked these young women's lives, as well as their vivid imaginations, impacted their writing significantly.
Charlotte Bronte consciously tried to achieve financial success from the family's literary efforts. She wanted to make her living as a writer, and her goals were the most professional of the three. Her novel "Jane Eyre," a dark gothic romance, is the story of a governess and her passionate love for her Byronic employer, Mr. Rochester. It is ranked among the great English novels. There are many recurring themes here, some of which are repeated in other works by Charlotte Bronte: relationships between men and women and their different roles and limitations in society; relations between social classes; religion and morality; the need to fulfill the desires of others versus the necessity to maintain one's personal integrity; the conflict between reason and passion, and, of course, Jane's deep need to love and be loved. However, primary to the tale is the magnificent, complex character of Jane herself.
Long before the women's suffrage movement, Miss Bronte created, in the character of Jane, an intelligent, independent, strong-willed female, determined to make her place in the world. Equality between the sexes is not brought up in the novel, neither legally nor politically. What the persona of Jane addresses here is obvious in the following very famous lines: "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex."
Emily Bronte is said, by many literary critics, to be the undisputed genius of the family. An uncompromising, enigmatic, almost reclusive personality, she produced only one novel and a few poems, yet she is ranked among the giants of English literature. "Wuthering Heights," her masterpiece, is the wild, passionate story of the intense love between Catherine Earnshaw, another intelligent, independent, strong-willed heroine, and the gypsy-like foundling Heathcliff. This novel, however, is much more than a love story. "Wuthering Heights" is about hatred, cruelty, delusion, frustrated yearning, deep despair and vengeance. At times its very darkness is depressing and painful. Yet love and faithfulness, which endure beyond death, bring hope and much needed light to this tale; as does a second love story, born from the seeds of the first. The author also addresses the issues of social class here. Emily's powerful prose, its very beauty and energy, make the book such a literary classic. Charlotte published "A Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell" in 1850, in which she explained the morbidity of Emily's work by referring to the "horror of great darkness" in her life.
Of the three extraordinarily gifted Bronte sisters, Anne has been judged the least talented. I say, look at her competition, and her short lifespan. I also think her novel "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall," about a young woman's marriage to a dissipated, villainous rake, is brilliant. Some of the behavior described in the narrative is apparently taken from events which Anne witnessed when she worked as a governess. She openly stated that in "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" she, "wished to tell the truth, for truth always conveys its own moral to those who are able to receive it." This well written, extraordinary tale can most definitely hold its own against the works of her sisters, and those of other noted authors of the period. Both "Agnes Grey" and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" have been wildly praised for their realism and integrity.
All three girls were born in Thornton, England in the early 1800s. Their father Patrick, was a poor Anglican clergyman. He and his wife had six children. The two oldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth died before reaching adulthood. Their brother Patrick Branwell, was just a year older than Emily. Shortly after Anne's birth their father accepted a position in Haworth, located within the Yorkshire moors, a wide, wild, vast, uninhabited wilderness which was to have a major effect on all three women's writing. Emily loved walking the moorlands with her dogs, so much so, in fact, that she became desperately unhappy when away from home. She was extremely introspective, and preferred the outdoors to the company of her peers. Thus she made few friends. Her intensity of character is evident in "Wuthering Heights."
When Mrs. Bronte died, soon after reaching Haworth, the children were cared for by their maternal aunt. Charlotte and Emily were sent to Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire but they returned within a year. The treatment at Cowan Bridge was very harsh, and Charlotte later modeled Lowood School, ("Jane Eyre"), after it. "The food was poor and insufficient and they were treated with inhuman severity." The two oldest sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, actually died as a result of the conditions and the sickness contracted there. Charlotte's fiction is full of motherless and orphaned heroines whose loneliness is frequently the driving force behind their search for a place of belonging
For the next several years, the Bronte children were taught at home. They were extremely inventive and creative with their games and imaginary stories. Charlotte attended Miss Wooler's school at Roe Head for one year in 1831, then returned home and taught her sisters. She went back to the Wooler's school to teach in 1835, but after bouts of depression and poor health, she resigned from her position. Again, Charlotte draws material from this experience to use in Jane Eyre.
Charlotte, Emily and Jane collaborated on a book of poems, published at their own expense, entitled "Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell." The pseudonyms were chosen to match the first letter of their names. In 1847 Anne's "Agnes Grey" and Emily's "Wuthering Heights" were published together in three volumes. Although her first novel, "The Professor" was rejected, Charlotte's "Jane Eyre: An Autobiography" was an immediate success. Oddly, Currer Bell was identified as the editor rather than the author. The subtitle was dropped in subsequent editions.The popularity of the Bronte novels allowed Anne's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" to be published shortly thereafter. The sisters' identity as authors was at first unknown, even to their publishers. It was not until after the publication of Charlotte's "Shirley" in 1849 that the truth was made public. By the date of this last publication, the Bronte's family life was to be tragically destroyed.
Branwell Bronte, an unstable man with a history of alcohol and opium use died in September 1848. Emily then fell ill and died of tuberculosis December 19, 1848. Anne soon followed, contracting tuberculosis that same year and dying May 28, 1949. Charlotte continued to live virtually alone at Haworth. The three sisters are almost as famous for their short, tragic lives as for their novels.
Charlotte published "Villette" in 1853. During this period, Charlotte also accepted an offer of marriage from her father's curate Arthur Bell Nicholls and on June 29, 1854, she and Nicholls were wed. She became quite ill with toxemia during pregnancy, complicated by the Bronte susceptibility to tuberculosis. She died March 31, 1855. Her first novel "The Professor "was published posthumously in 1857, and a fragment from an unfinished work entitled "Emma" was published in 1860.
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte were writers destined to have a tremendous impact on English literature. I cannot recommend their novels highly enough.
JANA
By Far, The Best October 16, 2003
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
"Jane Eyre" has been my favorite book for years! Charlotte Bronte did an excellent job of exploring human nature and the depth of a person's character. The story follows a young woman who sets out to find her place in the world with the education she has received. Jane goes through some interesting and hard experiences that teach her forgiveness, understanding, and help her discover the inner strength she possesses and become a godly woman. Portraying a Christian woman's struggles who faces the realities of a hard life, and deals with what is given her, is encouraging to me. No other book has touched me the way this book has. Read it... it's more than worth your time.
Jane Eyre- The Real Story Behind the Book September 13, 2000
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
I had to read Jane Eyre as a required book for my highschool English class. I wasn't too excited about reading it, it seemed very long, and I only had 3 days until I had to finish it. The first day I picked up the book, I don't think I let that book go, until I was finished with it. It was that amazing. The beginnnig was very good, the way they set up the story. The introduction kept you at suspense the whole time, you kept wondering what would happen next. The climax part of the book was the best, the descriptions were so clear, that I felt that I was in the story myself. I could imagine every scene in my head. At the end, it was unpredictable...I didn't know what would happen, but when I found out, it seemed like the perfect ending. I definitly recommend everyone to read it, that has some intrest in it. You can make it the best book you've ever read.
 A 19th century masterpiece February 28, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Jane Eyre is one of the classics of 19th century English literature. It is not possible to judge the book by to-day's literary standards: books must be judged in their own time and social setting. The language is, at times, tedious, and the plot absurd - with impossible coincidences, but, to English reader of the mid 19th century, these were accepted and demanded. The characters are well drawn and the atmosphere is vivid. Miss Eyre is a strong character who proves that the good and honest will prevail in God's good time. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a better appreciation of the evolution of literature.
A Great Read: Compelling and Entertaining October 26, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Just to correct some other comments, the present book is only "Jane Eyre." It is not a collection of books by the Bronte sisters as implied in the spotlight comments above.
This is a great read. I bought this Oxford Classic after reading some very negative comments by Virginia Woolf in her polemic "A Room of One's Own." There she thought that Charlotte Bronte had gone overboard mixing fiction with her own conservative views of feminism. So, I was eager to see how bad this book was.
This is a great read and I read the book almost non-stop for two days. It is hard to put down. This was Charlotte Bronte's first successful book and it is her best. I am reading her next book written after "Jane Eyre", "Shirley," and it is not as clearly structured. The present book is similar in some ways to that great classic "Madame Bovary" in that it is compact, concise, and consists of a well formulated plot; and, it has one strong central protagonist. It is a clear and compelling read. By the way, the character is almost the complete opposite of Madame Bovary in terms of morals.
One can quibble about parts of the story since it relies to some extent on coincidence and luck. Those parts lack realism.
The book was attacked by Christians at the time of publication almost 160 years ago and later by feminists. But that is secondary.
This Oxford version has a good analysis. It has a biography of Charlotte Bronte and comments on her sisters. The Oxford introduction by Sally Shuttleworth places the book in histrical context. Also, extra notes are included on the text. I read the comments after reading the book, and the less you know about the plot before reading the book better off you will be.
This is simply a great read.
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