Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre was first published on this date in 1847. Here are 10 facts about it:
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The book was originally published in three volumes as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, with Currer Bell listed as the editor. Having only ever corresponded by letter, Brontë’s publisher Smith, Elder, and Company had no idea at first that Currer Bell was a woman.
It’s the first novel to focus on the moral and spiritual development of its protagonist through first-person narrative.
The second edition was dedicated to William Makepeace Thackeray.
There are several aspects of the novel thought to have been based on Charlotte’s own experiences. Jane’s school, Lowood, was based on the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, Lancashire, the school Charlotte and her sisters attended. Jane’s friend Jane Eyre's friend Helen Burns is based on Brontë’s sister, Maria, who was also neglected when she caught TB at school, and later died. The cruel headmaster, Mr. Brocklehurst, was drawn from a real person, Reverend William Carus Wilson. When he read the book, Wilson recognised himself and threatened a lawsuit. Charlotte wrote him an apology, retracting most of the bad things she’d said about the school. She told Wilson he could publish it if he wanted. He didn’t sue, but never published the apology.
Thornfield Hall was probably inspired by North Lees Hall in the Peak District in Derbyshire. Charlotte Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey visited it in the summer of 1845. Like Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë worked as a governess, to the Sidgwick family in 1830. She hated the job, and wrote of it: “I had charge given me of a set of pampered, spoilt, turbulent children, whom I was expected constantly to amuse, as well as to instruct.”
Rochester’s blindness was probably influenced by real life as well. Her father had an operation to have cataracts removed from his eyes while Charlotte was writing the novel. He was blind for a while and eventually regained his sight, just like Rochester.
While Charlotte had no direct encounter with a mad woman in an attic, she was again inspired by real life when creating Bertha Mason. She visited Norton Conyers House in North Yorkshire, where she learned that 60 years before, a mentally ill woman had been confined in “Mad Mary’s Room” in the attic. It was probably true as in 2004, the owners of the house found a blocked staircase connecting the attic and the first floor, like the one described in the novel.
As a child, Brontë made tiny books with her brother Branwell they called The History of the Young Men. One of the characters Charlotte created, one Alfred the Duke of Zamorna, is thought to have been a precedent for Rochester.
Reviews at the time were mixed. One reviewer wrote, "There is not a single natural character throughout the work. Everybody moves on stilts—the opinions are bad—the notions absurd.” Others, however, were more complementary: "It is full of youthful vigour, of freshness and originality, of nervous diction and concentrated interest ...It is a book to make the pulses gallop and the heart beat, and to fill the eyes with tears." Today, Jane Eyre is considered one of the greatest novels in the English language. In 2003 it was ranked as the tenth best-loved book in Britain by the BBC in The Big Read poll.
The novel has been adapted into a number of other forms, including theatre, film, television, and at least three full-length operas.
NEW!!
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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