Jane Eyre (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by the English
writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by
Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper
& Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its
eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding
master of Thornfield Hall.
The novel revolutionised prose fiction, being the first to focus on the moral and spiritual
development of its protagonist through an intimate first-person narrative, where actions and events
are coloured by a psychological intensity. Charlotte Brontë has been called the "first historian of
the private consciousness" and the literary ancestor of writers such as Marcel Proust and James
Joyce.
The book contains elements of social criticism with a strong sense of Christian morality at its
core, and it is considered by many to be ahead of its time because of Jane's individualistic
character and how the novel approaches the topics of class, sexuality, religion and feminism.
Jane Eyre, along with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is one of the most famous romance novels.