title: Jane Eyre: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)
author:  Charlotte Bronte 
description: Jane Eyre is a wildly emotional romance with a lonely heroine and a tormented Byronic hero, pathetic orphans, dark secrets, and a madwoman in the attic. When it was <br />published in 1847, it was a great popular success. The power of the writing, the masterly <br />handling of the narrative, and the boldly realistic style were much admired. But many found it difficult to believe that Currer Bell, the pseudonymous author, was Charlotte Bront , a young woman from a bleak Yorkshire parsonage.
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  Table of Contents
  
    
  
  [From the Pages of Jane Eyre](index_split_002.html#filepos6690)
  
  [Title Page](index_split_003.html#filepos9652)
  
  [Copyright Page](index_split_004.html#filepos9808)
  
  [Charlotte Brontë](index_split_005.html#filepos13249)
  
  [The World of Charlotte Brontë and Jane
  Eyre](index_split_006.html#filepos17521)
  
  [Introduction](index_split_007.html#filepos26664)
  
  [Dedication](index_split_008.html#filepos87916)
  
  [Preface to the Second Edition](index_split_009.html#filepos88198)
  
  [Note to the Third Edition](index_split_010.html#filepos94209)
  
    
  
  [Chapter I](index_split_011.html#filepos95204)
  
  [Chapter II](index_split_012.html#filepos108893)
  
  [Chapter III](index_split_013.html#filepos127298)
  
  [Chapter IV](index_split_014.html#filepos150385)
  
  [Chapter V](index_split_015.html#filepos189772)
  
  [Chapter VI](index_split_016.html#filepos224211)
  
  [Chapter VII](index_split_017.html#filepos244295)
  
  [Chapter VIII](index_split_018.html#filepos268440)
  
  [Chapter IX](index_split_019.html#f