About the work
Jane Eyre is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë, published in 1847 under the male pseudonym Currer Bell by Smith, Elder & Co. in London. It has since been adapted as an independent stage play many times, including a production directed by Lily Sykes at Staatsschauspiel Dresden, scheduled for December 2026.
Plot
The orphaned Jane Eyre grows up amid humiliation at her aunt's house and in a strict boarding school before taking a position as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her employer, Edward Rochester. On their wedding day she learns that Rochester is already married and leaves him, until, years later and after a fire destroys Thornfield Hall, the two are reunited.
Cultural significance
With its psychologically intense first-person narration, the novel is regarded as a forerunner of the modern female protagonist in English literature and was ranked among Britain's ten best-loved books in the BBC's 2003 'Big Read' poll.