Jane Eyre (61)

"Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and
little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!--I
have as much soul as you and full as much heart!"

The following books and films will introduce you to Jane Eyre, who said these words in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. To order a book or film, or for more information, follow the title links to Amazon.com, or return home to browse other characters.

Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre (Michael Mason, Ed.). Penguin USA, 1996.
- Jane can be considered the first feminist in literature. She has remained influential because of her assertion of autonomy in exactly those situations that denied women control over their lives. Despite the "happy" ending when she is reunited with a diminished Rochester, it is not love but courage that defines her character.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre (World's Classics). Oxford University Press, 1987.
Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre (Norton Critical Edition; Richard J. Dunn, Ed.). Norton, 1988.
Jane Eyre (1944) [DVD]. Starring Joan Fontaine, Orson Welles. 20th Century Fox, 2007.
- Although a host of interesting film adaptations of Jane Eyre have appeared in recent decades, few fans of the novel would wish to part with the classic 1944 film, with its heavily Gothic atmosphere and brilliant performances by Fontaine and Welles in the leading roles, and a host of distinguished supporting players. Fontaine is anything but a plain Jane, with her luminous beauty, but it is her fierce personality--fueled by Brontë's tart dialogue--that makes the deepest impression.
Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre, 2006) [DVD]. Starring Ruth Wilson, Toby Stephens. WGBH Boston, 2007.
- In this most recent adaptation, Ruth Wilson brings an amazing inner stillness to her portrayal, illuminating her attractiveness for both the restless Edward Rochester and the austere St.-John Rivers.
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Life of Charlotte Brontë (World's Classics). Oxford University Press, 1996.
- Gaskell's sensitive 1857 biography of her friend Charlotte has remained an indispensable resource for those wishing to know how the life of the Brontë household, so often visited by illness, shaped the writer. Gaskell herself was a novelist of some note, author of Cranford, Mary Barton, and Wives and Daughters.
Moglen, Helene. Charlotte Brontë: The Self Conceived. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
- Moglen shows how Jane, the antithesis of the traditional romantic heroine, was thereby freed to test the limits of a woman's power in Victorian society.
Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing. Princeton University Press, 1978.
- Showalter's analysis of Jane Eyre reveals why she was such a pathbreaking character, and her comprehensive treatment of women novelists from Brontë through Doris Lessing (The Golden Notebook, The Four-Gated City) documents the novel's persistent influence.
Figes, Eva. Sex and Subterfuge: Women Writers to 1850. Persea Books;Macmillan, 1982.
- Discusses sexual symbolism in Jane Eyre, especially the incident of her punishment by being locked in the "red room."
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. Norton, 1996.
- Prequel to Jane Eyre, showing Rochester's marriage to Antoinette (Bertha Mason) in the West Indies and her subsequent deterioration: the madwoman in the attic has her say.

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