[EN] “Jane Eyre” Charlotte Bronte, 1847 Review | A woman who says no

★★★★★ Has all the juicy stuff, mainly romance, but it has the themes of coming-of-age, feminism, religion, gothic, class, race/colonialism, anything. She’s a woman who says no. How dare.

🔽 log 🔽
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte, 1847
624 pages
Read in 2026.01

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

It's always pleasantly surprising to find many of the classics are entertaining, but then, it does make sense, if it was boring or merely difficult, it couldn't have been loved for centuries. 

Jane Eyre has all the juicy stuff, mainly romance, more romance-y than I had imagined, but it has the themes of coming-of-age, feminism, religion, gothic, class, race/colonialism, anything that reflects the life in the north of England in early 1800s.

You can easily imagine why there was a huge criticism when it came out - a woman who doesn't obey? A woman who says no? All with her plain childish looks? How dare.

But today we of course see it differently. 
She's a cool independent woman, she doesn't want her man to shower her with expensive stuff, she wants an equal relationship, only when she's sure that she can also be helpful, does she accept.
She knows how to forgive, she knows how to be useful in practical ways, and she grows and glows.

The matter of the madwoman in the attic is also an interesting point. 
Pretty clearly a typical racist view of the time; indicating her to be of the mixed race, thus a black woman, therefore she is irrational and violent, must be kept away from the white civilisation. 
Also the madwoman haunts Jane, but Jane doesn't seem particularly to hate her, despite everything she represents and does?

Gripping, and surprisingly entertaining with difficult themes tangled up.

 

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Jane Eyre: Charlotte Bronte (Penguin Classics) 

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Jane Eyre (italiano)