Jane Eyre is an 1847 novel by Charlotte Bronte. It is Brontes strongest work and one of the most famous of British novels. Charlotte Brontë first published the book as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography under the pseudonym Currer Bell. The novel was an immediate critical and popular success.

Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative of the formative years of the title character, a small, plain-faced, intelligent, and passionate English orphan girl. The plot follows the form of a Bildungsroman, a novel that tells the story of a child's maturation and focuses on the emotions and experiences that lead to his or her maturity.

The novel goes through five distinct stages: (1) Jane's childhood at Gateshead, where she is abused by her aunt and cousins; (2) her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations; (3) her time as governess at Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; (4) her time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End (or Moor House) and at Morton, where her cold clergyman-cousin St. John Rivers proposes to her; and (5) her reunion with and marriage to her beloved Rochester at his house of Ferndean. Partly autobiographical,

the novel abounds with social criticism and sinister Gothic elements. Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters, and most editions are at least 400 pages long (although the preface and introduction on some copies can take up another 100)