Jane Eyre is, hands down, my favorite book. I first read it in middle school and have lost count of how many times I’ve reread it since, in different stages of my life. There is always something new to glean from it.

Disclaimer: this book perpetuates the myth that women should look for partners with a darkness about them that must be saved or fixed. It’s still amazing, but young readers should be cautioned not to internalize this ideal. ( )

If a romance could break you but keep you together all at the same time, is it a romance you could find yourself walking away from?

A coming of age story, filled with romance and suspense. Learning that pretty things don’t always equal a beautiful outcome. That sometimes the messy or unthinkable is the route your heart calls you to.

A favorite of mine, that I’ll continue to read over and over again. ( )

I had a teacher in 7th grade who said she read this book every year. At the time it seemed so immensely long that I couldn't imagine that, but once I read it, I understood her passion. Charlotte bronte wanted to prove that a romance between two unattractive people could be interesting and she does. It's funny that movie makers almost always refuse to trust the material and cast good looking people in the roles, but it doesn't hurt the basic story.
I hate the protion where jane is with the missionary, but I suppose it was to build the suspense to the conclusion.
The humor and give and take in their relationship was a revelation for the time and remains enjoyable today. ( )

2024 - Great read. Enjoyed immensely. ( )

Led back to Jane Eyre by Jean Rhys's Wide Sagasso Sea. Loved it. Found myself making notes to capture Charlotte Bronte's wonderful sentences such as,

'I had reviewed the information I had got, looked into my heart, thoughts and feelings, and endeavoured to bring back with a strict hand such as had been straying through imagination's reckless waste into the safe fold of common sense.'

Jane Eyre stands alone but there is no doubt to me that Jean Rhys's Wide Sagasso Sea adds a dimension of horror that enriches the original. ( )

Gothic feminism ( )

Jane Eyre is such a weird and wonderful epic journey of a book. Charlotte Brontë blended up the real-life experiences of her and her sisters, a romantic and isolated disposition, some pretty progressive ideas about independent women, some pretty fantastical ideas about men, and some very unique ideas about the use of semi-colons into a one-of-a-kind Victorian romance. Reader, I'm working on a theory that Jane dies in that bog and the last third of the book -- which takes a rather surprising shift in tone -- is her fantasy as she is dying. I'm not sure Charlotte Brontë would agree, but it helped me get through some of the sloggy bits with St. John and Jane's previously unexplored religiosity. ( )

The story follows Jane from childhood to mature adulthood, delving into her perspective as she finds herself surrounded by eccentric characters. This is a love story where Jane has to take the time to consider what she really wants. Her life choices take her to Rochester, her newfound family, and back to love.


I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )

This book made me sad about the state of the world at the time it was written. A lot of the conflict and struggles in it make very little sense in current society, which I guess makes me feel a little bit better about where we are now, but mostly it was just super frustrating to think about the fact that these would ever be issues that would be relevant.

My rating is mostly about how the book made me feel rather than about how well-written it was or how it might've been seen when it was written. ( )

The story follows Jane from childhood to mature adulthood, delving into her perspective as she finds herself surrounded by eccentric characters. This is a love story where Jane has to take the time to consider what she really wants. Her life choices take her to Rochester, her newfound family, and back to love.


I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review. ( )

This book of course was hard to get into just because I had to figure out the style of writing before I could enjoy the storyline. Not sure why everyone has "fallen in love" with this book. I thought it was ok and had to force myself to keep going back.

I did wind up enjoying it when I was about 40% into it but to get there it was a struggle. I also would not call this an epic romance. I would have called it a great book if you wanted to find out how women lived in the 18 hundreds. I was annoyed with the games Mr. Rochester played with Jane0 on trying to get her to jealous, only to find out her was already married, her to have a conscience and leave (loved this part of the book. Felt it was very progressive- only to come back to him. I would have liked it better if she realized he was a jerk, moved on with her life, and ended up finding true love.

If I could rate books in 1/2 stars I would give this one a 3.5 rating. ( )

Have read this a number of times over the years starting with a childhood read where I identified with the persecuted Jane who only wants to read in peace but is tormented by her awful cousins and aunt. One of the greats - what more can one say? ( )

Finished it to see if the end would be worth the drag, didn't personally think so. Book is bland and slow-going, the writing itself flows well but the content/romance/story didn't hook me. ( )

I hated this book. It dragged, and I had to force myself to keep at it, for starters. The writing was incredibly wordy and the dialogue unrealistic.

I didn't care for any of the characters and was absolutely horrified at the seriously unhealthy relationships being portrayed as if they were good things. (Jane's love interests were arrogant, selfish, entitled, controlling, abusive jerks. And Jane is just so overjoyed and content to be manipulated and treated like a piece of property.)

There were a handful of interesting quotes in this book, but nothing else to like, sadly.

Note: I was also really annoyed that in my edition, in the endnotes, by Stevie Davies, there are spoilers. It got to the point where I couldn't read any of the endnotes for clarification because I didn't want to accidentally read yet another spoiler. Seriously. Who does that? Shame on you, Davies. ( )

I do not know why it has taken me so long to read this. There is a reason why the Bronte sisters are place in the list of greats along with Dickens, Elliot, Austin, and Gaskell. Their ability to make the English language read like prose is uncanny and Jane Eyre is a perfect example of the talent. Though some may have issues with the story or some of the characters they cannot deny the beauty in the phrasing. This is now one of my favorites. Highly recommended. ( )

A book I've read several times over the years and have gone through various different thoughts about it, ranging from boredom to total enjoyment.[return][return]Jane is an unloved child. Left orphaned at a young age, she is sent to stay with her aunt and cousins. Her aunt (by marriage) is a weak woman, who dotes on her wild and willful son, barely tolerates her daughters and hates her niece. As soon as she can, Jane is packed off to Lowood, a "christian" school, that it turn neglets the physical care of it's pupils int he belief it's looking after their souls.[return][return]After a fatal bout of TB hits the school - and Jane's best friend is killed - the school is investigated and turned around. Jane stays there first as a pupil and then as a teacher until she gets the nerve to leave.[return][return]She gets a job looking after the "ward" of a Mr Rochester who is infrequently seen. When he does arrive, he is a moody soul, prone to bouts of silence and uneven temprement.[return][return]However, he soon persuades Jane to marry him, and it's on their wedding day that she learns the truth about both Mr Rochester and the secrets that have been kept in the house.[return][return]She escapes before the marriage can be completed, and by luck ends up at the steps of a brother and two sisters who take her in. As coincidence should have it, they are distant relations. She is made another marriage offer, but does not take it up, as she realises that he does not love her and only wants a companion to treat as a sister on his missionary [return]trip.[return][return]Jane finds out that she has inherited some money from another uncle (her aunt previously announcing that Jane had died). She shares her money with her cousins, preventing the girls from having to go into service, but not preventing the man from going abroad.[return][return]One evening she is woken by a dream, where she thinks Rochester has called for her. She returns to find that the place has been burnt, Rochester has been left blind and in need of help. She marries him and slowly his eyesight begins to return.

I don’t know why it took me until my late 30s to read this!

I loved Jane, she was so sarcastic and lovely and real, and her relationship with Rochester was so interesting and well fleshed out. I loved this. ( )

An orphan raised harshly by her non-blood related aunt, survived a harsh boarding school, became a governess only to be ogled by a man twice her age who is already married, and she’s not even alive two decades. Jane Eyre by Charlette Bronte is a first-person novel of a woman recounting her early life in Victorian England.

While I appreciated the first-person narrative and thought the story was fine, it was the clichés that took me out of this novel overall. Whether it was that the clichés are somewhat dated today or just didn’t hook me or the overall romance aspect just didn’t click thus making them fall flat I haven’t decided. Without any knowledge of what would happen in this book I guessed that Jane and Rochester’s first wedding wouldn’t go off, mainly because basically a third of the book was left. The Chekov’s gun that was Jane’s paternal uncle’s fortune was waiting to be dropped and the twist of Jane being saved by and later befriending her disinherited cousins resulted in a “meh”. After I finished, I didn’t feel like I wasted my time, but I have no interest in ever reading this book again as well.

Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative romance that many put on par with one or more Jane Austen novels, however I would not. ( )

The audiobook was delightful to listen to ( )

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was a long overdue re-read for me. My favorite book of all time is Wuthering Heights and Jane wasn't even on my radar as an all-time favorite. However, it seems that I had forgotten many major episodes and characters contained in Jane Eyre, such as St. John Rivers, Jane's benefactor when she ran away from Thornfield. I'm saddened in the manner in which that Mr. Rochester and St. John treated Jane. She is a more forgiving soul than I. Glad I re-read this after 40 odd years. I listened to this on audio and Emma Messenger was a superb reader. 21 hours 47 mins (435 pages ( )

is it weird and questionably feminist and does it feature a terrible awful age gap? yeah but its so goooooood guys its goooood ( )

Definitely a good story. Charlotte Bronte is masterful in her telling of the story of the titular character Jane Eyre. There are so many memorable characters and moments. Jane is such a strong character, and yet vulnerable at the same time.

Excellent classic reading! ( )

I read this with I was too young for it. Maybe I will read it again. If I can just get past the endless Bronte descriptive passages?. ( )

I read it the first year I was married and living in the heat of Khartoum, Sudan. The cool wind across the heath and the sizzling romance were just right. Read it again about two years ago and fell in love all over. ( )

Love this book. ( )