Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation
Graphic: Confinement, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide
Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Xenophobia, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Abandonment, Colonisation, Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexism, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Ableism, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Confinement
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Gaslighting, Abandonment
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Colonisation, Classism
Jane Eyre truly revolutionized fiction and paved the way for modern day literature. Most books were not written in first person perspective, but Charlotte Brontë used it to create a sense of intemacy.
Jane Eyre tells the story of a female protagonist looking for agency and meaning.
“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! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!”
Jane Eyre is active and fights back and stands by her values.
“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”
And although I am not a big fan of Rochester (
“Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear.”
It's just so beautifully written.
“If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Death of parent, Colonisation
Minor: Suicide, Fire/Fire injury
So, okay, it's complicated. There are reasons to avoid it. But there are also reasons that you may be interested, particularly if you're a romance reader. If Pride and Prejudice is the mother of modern romance, Jane Eyre is the cool younger auntie.
I would highly recommend podcasts Whoa!mance's Public Access Read-a-Long and Hot and Bothered "On Eyre" series for audio reading companions.
TO TEACH? 🍎
Jane Eyre is delicious for the Gothic, of course. I've been assigned Jane and R's first meeting for year 10. We'll see how that goes (honestly, that meeting is real sexy and I feel like my colleague who made this decision... maybe didn't register how sexy it is...
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting
Moderate: Racism, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, Classism
Minor: Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Colonisation
Minor: Fire/Fire injury