Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

My Favourite Book

Photo by Hannah Smith on Unsplash

Here are my thoughts about the book and why it has taken pride of place on my bookshelf and has been read and reread many times over the years!

First, a brief explanation of the storyline.

Synopsis

“Jane Eyre” is a novel by Charlotte Brontë, first published in 1847. The story is a coming-of-age tale that follows the life of Jane Eyre, an orphaned young woman, as she grows up and becomes a governess.

The novel begins with Jane’s difficult childhood, including her abusive treatment by her aunt and cousins. Eventually, she is sent away to a boarding school where she excels academically, develops close friendships, and thinks about her place in the world.

After leaving school, Jane becomes a governess for a wealthy family, where she meets and falls in love with the moody and mysterious Mr. Rochester. However, their romance is complicated by a dark secret in Rochester’s past.

As Jane navigates her feelings for Rochester and the challenges of her position as a governess, she must also confront her identity and sense of morality. Ultimately, Jane must make hard decisions about her future and her relationships.

Why is this my favourite book of all time?

When I first read Jane Eyre’s story, it made a significant impression on me because I could relate to the characters she describes in the passages so well. It is about an iconic love story, and who doesn’t want to read an emotional love story? The beautiful writing has not been changed; the words are not the vocabulary we use today, but were relevant for their time. Traditional Yorkshire dialect was crafted spontaneously throughout the book. It was an honest, open, vulnerable account of this young lady who went into a situation with naivety, exposed to human deceit that was so unexpected. You felt her hurt as if it were your own, so this magnified the deep regret of sorrow for her. The author Charlotte Bronte captivated me with detailed, vivid descriptions of people, nature and places. You felt transported down the decades and almost living side by side with the very characters she realistically portrayed that effortlessly weaved themselves into your subconscious.

I grew up only a few miles from Haworth, where the Brontë family lived in the now-famous Brontë Parsonage. Looking back, I feel incredibly privileged to have explored the haunting beauty of the Yorkshire moors as a young woman, those same desolate, windswept landscapes that Charlotte Brontë so vividly captured in Jane Eyre. It’s this deep, sensory connection that first drew me to the novel and keeps me returning to it time and time again.