Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Published in 1847, Jane Eyre brought almost instant fame to its obscure author, the daughter of a clergyman in a small mill town in northern England. On the surface, the novel embodies stock situations of the Gothic novel genre such as mystery, horror, and the classic medieval castle setting; many of the incidents border on (and cross over into) melodrama. The story of the young heroine is also in many ways conventional-the rise of a poor orphan girl against overwhelming odds, whose love and determination eventually redeem a tormented hero. Yet if this all there were to Jane Eyre, the novel would soon have been forgotten. In writing Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë did not write a mere romantic potboiler.

Her book has serious things to say about a number of important subjects: the relations between men and women, women's equality, the treatment of children and of women, religious faith and religious hypocrisy (and the difference between the two), the realization of selfhood, and the nature of true love. But again, if its concerns were only topical, it would not have outlived the time in which it was written. The book is not a tract any more than it is a potboiler. It is a work of fiction with memorable characters and vivid scenes, written in a compelling prose style. In appealing to both the head and the heart, Jane Eyre triumphs over its flaws and remains a classic of nineteenth-century English literature and one of the most popular of all English novels.

Charlotte Brontë was born at Thornton, Yorkshire, on April 21, 1816. Her father, Patrick Brontë, and her mother, Maria Brontë, died the following year, leaving behind five daughters and a son who were cared for in a parsonage by their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. The eldest daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, died in 1825 from tuberculosis contracted at the religious boarding school to which they had been sent. (All the Brontë children ultimately suffered from lung disease.)

Raised at home thereafter, Charlotte, Emily, their youngest sister, Anne, and brother, Branwell, lived in a fantasy world of their own making, drawing on their voracious reading of Byron, Scott, Shakespeare, The Arabian Nights, and gothic fiction, and writing elaborate poetic and dramatic cycles involving the histories of imaginary countries. Charlotte's early writings revolved around the kingdom of Angria, about which she wrote melodramatic tales of passion and revenge. She spent a year studying at Miss Wooler's school in Roe Head (later relocated to Dewsbury Moor), and went back there to teach from 1835 to 1838; subsequently she worked as a governess.

With Emily, Charlotte traveled in 1842 to study languages at a boarding school in Brussels; her close emotional attachment to her instructor, M. Heger, a married man, would later figure in her fiction. Charlotte and Emily went home after a year because of their aunt's death; Charlotte subsequently returned to Brussels for a year of teaching, 1843 to 1844. A joint collection of poems by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne published pseudonymously as Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell-appeared in 1846. The three sisters had in the meantime each written a novel, of which Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey were accepted in 1847 for publication the following year. Charlotte's first novel, The Professor, based on her experiences in Brussels, was rejected by a series of publishers (it finally appeared posthumously in 1857).

Jane Eyre was published under Charlotte's pseudonym, Currer Bell, in 1847 and achieved commercial and critical success; it had gone through four editions by the time of Charlotte's death. Jane Eyre won high praises; William Makepeace Thackeray (who later became a friend) declared himself "exceedingly moved and pleased," and George Henry Lewes applauded its "deep significant reality"; it was also criticized by some for the rebelliousness of its heroine and for what the Quarterly Review called "coarseness of language and laxity of tone."

During this period the Brontës underwent repeated tragedies. Branwell, despite his early promise, had been ravaged by the effects of drink and drugs, and when he found work as a tutor in the same household where Anne was a governess, his involvement with his employer's wife led to his dismissal; he died in September of 1848, followed three months later by Emily and the following year by Anne. Charlotte, the sole survivor, published two more novels, Shirley (1849), a novel of Yorkshire during the Napoleonic period, and Villette (1853), a further fictional exploration of her Brussels experiences. In 1850 she met the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, with whom she formed a close friendship; Gaskell later wrote the classic biography of her friend, The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857). Charlotte married her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, in 1854, and died on March 31, 1855.

A governess goes to work for a moody employer, captures his heart, a dark secret intrudes. Charlotte Brontë's 1847 love story comes to life in a two-part adaptation, a stirring romance realized in all its heartrending beauty and mythic power.

Newcomer Ruth Wilson stars in the title role as the spirited but plain young woman who escapes a cruel charity home to find improbable true love. Toby Stephens is Edward Rochester, the enigmatic master of Thornfield Hall, who hires Jane as a governess for his young ward Adele. Or is it his daughter? All that is certain is that he is a man with a passionate past.

Directed by Susanna White (Bleak House) and adapted by Sandy Welch (Our Mutual Friend), the cast also includes Francesca Annis as Lady Ingram, confident that she is Rochester's future mother-in-law, and Christina Cole as her fair but fatuous daughter, Blanche.

Tara Fitzgerald plays Mrs. Reed, Jane's cruel aunt, and Pam Ferris is the sinister Grace Poole, the laundry woman who may or may not be responsible for the nighttime shrieks, pyromania and other strange incidents that seem to originate in Thornfield Hall's North Tower.

The story also has its edifying angle: Jane keeps her virtue despite some morally terrifying plot twists, and she eventually finds refuge in the pious home of aspiring missionary (and eligible bachelor) St. John Rivers (Andrew Buchan) and his kind sisters. Even so, the book's original audience was astonished by Jane's soulful relationship with the obviously licentious Rochester, and perhaps even more by her strong-willed, independent and forthright personality.

In addition to its intense romanticism, Jane Eyre features a satisfying assortment of wicked relatives, terrifying mayhem, extrasensory messages and astonishing coincidences, enough to have kept readers thoroughly entertained for 160 years.

The Oscar-nominated actress is about to take an iconic role-starring as the title character in BBC Films' new big-screen version of Charlotte Brontë's classic 1847 novel.

Ellen Page is best known for her role as the title character in the 2007 film Juno. For this performance, Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress.

Alison Owen of Ruby Films, who most recently produced "The Other Boleyn Girl," is working with BBC Films to develop the new adaptation of Bronte's classic 19th century romance.

"Jane Eyre" is one of the most adapted novels in English literature, with at least 20 previous film or TV versions. Most recently, the BBC made it into a miniseries that won three Emmys last year. The last bigscreen adaptation, in 1996, was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starred Charlotte Gainsbourg.