The year 1847 was a particularly eventful one for the Bronte
family. Three novels were published by the Bronte sisters under
various pen names: Wuthering Heights by Ellis Bell; Agnes Grey
by Acton Bell; and Jane Eyre: An Autobiography, edited by
Currier Bell. Jane Eyre was published in five parts and was the
talk of London. Charlotte Bronte’s novel continues to have great
impact on the reading world. Her strong, lovely use of language
and head-on confrontation of social issues of the day build a
foundation for a story that is part personal, part allegorical,
and as absorbing a tale today as it was over a hundred years
ago. Jane Eyre, an orphan whose care is considered an onerous
duty to her aunt by marriage, never fits in with the spoiled,
socially fixated family who consider her status far beneath
them. Banned from the company of her cousins, she curls up in a
window seat with a book. The nine-year-old Jane strikes back
when her older cousin John finds her and punishes her for
touching part of his future inh