Jane Eyre"I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils." Jane Eyre -- orphaned, unloved, and confined in Lowood boarding school -- never loses her desire for "real knowledge of life." She makes her way into the world as a governess, but requires all of her intelligence and courage to deal with a series of betrayals and revelations that upend her settled existence. She flees in turn the two men, Edward Rochester and St. John Rivers, who love her. Yet she returns in the end to the one who awakens her soul. Set in the Yorkshire moorlands, Jane Eyre tells the story of a spirited, indomitable woman who defies convention, whether of education, religion, or manners, to secure what she desires most. Her passion for life -- for "hopes and fears," "sensations and excitements" -- has moved readers for over 150 years. |