Jane Eyre is the story of an orphaned girl who, thanks to her strong spirit, manages to escape a life of oppression and become an independent woman. Jane is brought up by heartless relatives and is forced to attend a school for the poor. After a few years she becomes a teacher at the school, but leaves when she is offered a position as governess at Thornfield Hall, a great mansion resembling a medieval castle. The owner, Mr. Edward Rochester, soon becomes Jane s love interest, but it turns out that Rochester is married and keeps his mad wife locked away in a secluded part of the mansion. One of the great classics of English literature, Jane Eyre is at once a love story, a variation on the Gothic genre, and a harsh depiction of reality from a woman s perspective. CHARLOTTE BRONTË [1816-1855] was an English author, born in Thornton, West Yorkshire. She had five siblings, two of whom were authors Emily and Anne. Several of Charlotte Brontë s novels belong to the classics of English literature. Among them, Jane Eyre is undoubtedly the most important.