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    Jane Eyre
    Jane Eyre
    Jane Eyre
    Ebook724 pages13 hours

    Jane Eyre

    By Charlotte Brontë

    4.5/5

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    HarperCollins is proud to present a range of best-loved, essential classics.

    'I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.'

    Bronte's infamous Gothic novel tells the story of orphan Jane, a child of unfortunate circumstances. Raised and treated badly by her aunt and cousins and eventually sent away to a cruel boarding school, it is not until Jane becomes a governess at Thornfield that she finds happiness. Meek, measured, but determined, Jane soon falls in love with her brooding and stormy master, Mr Rochester, but it is not long before strange and unnerving events occur in the house and Jane is forced to leave Thornfield to pursue her future.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJun 3, 2010
    ISBN9780007382460
    Author

    Charlotte Brontë

    Charlotte Brontë, born in 1816, was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters, and one of the nineteenth century's greatest novelists. She is the author of Villette, The Professor, several collections of poetry, and Jane Eyre, one of English literature's most beloved classics. She died in 1855.

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    Reviews for Jane Eyre

    4.5/5

    329 ratings290 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This one took awhile as an audio book. I finally brought it into work to finish it. The reader did a fantastic job with emotion of each of the characters. Very enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      I’ve never read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë before, because it wasn’t on our reading lists at school or university, but I must say that, although pious, it’s quite an enjoyable and insightful read. I especially liked that Jane Eyre is still a relatable character in some ways today, though she is tenacious and passionate, she is also kind and intelligent. Few well-rounded female characters like Jane Eyre exist today, which is a shame, considering that human beings are more than just good or just bad. There are numerous other facets to the human psyche, which Charlotte Brontë was able to project into her writing, which makes Jane more than just another literary character. I also felt quite deeply for Mr. Rochester, who so beautifully complimented Jane’s personality, especially when he became passionate and called her: “Sprite! Witch! Elf!” and other, equally silly nicknames. He might not have been incredibly handsome, like every male protagonist is in every single coming-of-age novel these days, but his flaws gave him depth and made him memorable.

      Though, at times, the narrative was sometimes littered with religious babble, it’s imperative to the story and to the time. Not many readers would especially enjoy the biblical context (or at times the submissiveness of female characters), but Jane Eyre carries a lot of weight in regards to the evolution of literature. In other words, it’s a must-read novel if one is to have a well-rounded and rich literary knowledge. Funnily enough, Brontë does hint at fantasy at times with the way Jane sees the world. Fairies, sprites, magical beings, and ghosts are mentioned within the novel too …

      Themes that are present in the book include: love vs. autonomy, religion, social class, and gender relations.

      Jane Eyre might not be as popular lately, due to the increase of paranormal romances, but it’s definitely a book you have to read at least once in your life. Readers who enjoy coming-of-age novels, in general, will love Jane Eyre. Though, not exactly similar, I’m sure that fans of The Selection series by Kiera Cass will also take great pleasure from Brontë’s most popular novel.
    • 3/5
      I'm an old guy. Not so old that I could have dated the author in high school (she was a couple years ahead of me), but still, not exactly the prime audience for this book. So, maybe I should skip a review altogether. And maybe I should add my two-cents for those other old guys out there thinking of reading the book. This is supposed to be a romantic novel, right? A listing I just saw an online poll that says this is the third most popular classic book ever. On the other hand, my ebook reader system doesn't categorize it as "Book", but under "Kids". Why? Because the lead character starts out as a child and ends up as barely an adult? Let me ignore all that and just say I don't think this is a romance. I think it's a book about "What is love?" Plus, it's also about 350 pages too long, attaching the equivalent of a ten page lyric poem to pretty much every look out the window or walk outside. It's also very hung up on "plain" appearances, though that is one aspect of how it assesses what love is. "Is it possible to truly love a plain person?" "Does a plain person deserve love?" ("Can plain people find love and happiness just like regular folks?") Coincidentally, the author makes it easier to conclude an answer to that question by manipulating the narrative to provide a person who can't actually see the plain appearance. It should be mentioned that education and having "culture" is also thrown into the mix. Thankfully, the author seems to relent and conclude that beauty and culture are not absolute requirements for bliss, but nevertheless provide a higher standard of love, so don't pass them up if you can get them. Finally, I want to make a point about the many movies and television shows that have been made about this book and how -- I think -- they have distorted our view of the actual text of the book. For instance, I watched a video summarizing which actor played the best "Rochester". The conclusion was unquestionably, the handsome former James Bond actor, Timothy Dalton. I ask, did anyone even read the book's description of Rochester? There were other videos that compared multiple film versions of one of the first "proposal" scene. While I only viewed about six of the roughly dozen filmed versions available to me, not one of them had the right setting, the means by which the characters come together for the scene, the dialogue, and/or the reactions of the characters to the proposal discussion, as it was set in the actual book. I also watched the very start to about five films. All but two left out the entire first third of the book, with only one starting with the initial scene that sets the tone. My point isn't that a movie must be faithful to a book. My point is that I strongly suspect that what some people remember so fondly in the book was never there to begin with, and that the book simply does not measure up to the films that may be in peoples' minds.
    • 4/5
      What can I say, I love Jane, she is such a strong and likeable heroine. Not one to shy away from adversity, and I think an introvert at heart given that she doesn't like to draw unnecessary attention her way. The story was a bit slow at the start. Is it just me or does anyone else think that Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall and her time spent at Lowood School has a rather Dickensian atmosphere to it? It was when the scene shifted to Thornfield that I really became engrossed with the story. The interplay between Jane and Rochester is captivating! The drama. The intensity. Just perfect. I loved their intellectual conversations and the way the two would engage in word play, dancing around the elephant in the room. Readers who have read this one may understand where I am coming from when I say that my love for the story tends to ebb and flow: parts were riveting and other parts were... good, if a bit slow and sometimes a tad clichéd. The story has some really great scenes of high drama - loved those bits! - but some of the plot resolutions are a little too perfect and a bit too convenient. That being said, if I had read this one in my youth, like I did Wuthering Heights and other stories, I don't think I would have appreciated it to the level that I do reading it now, so chalking this up as being a worthy read and one that I am glad I finally got around to reading.
    • 5/5
      I taught this book as a high school sophomore to my English class; my usually-very-hip instructor refused to teach anything by "those damn Bronte sisters." I taught from the Cliff notes, the Monarch notes and my own head; we watched the 1944 movie with Orson Welles as Rochester and Joan Fontaine as Jane.
    • 4/5
      I decided to give the new Serial Reader app a try. If you don't know about it, it is a free app for your phone that each day sends you a small section of a book, one that you can read in 10-15 minutes. Each day you get sent the next installment. For my first book, I decided to read Jane Eyre. I have never read this before, but I know a lot of people love it.

      The basic story is really interesting. I liked the beginning part, when Jane is still a child. Stories about children in boarding school always fascinate me, and Jane is sent to a horrible school. Her life is so tragic, and still she manages to stay true to her self. I like how strong Jane is, and how she sticks to her moral code.

      The writing style was a bit overdone for my taste, but I think this is a common style from the time that the story was written. There is much moralizing and preaching, and at times it felt like it went on way too long. I did not find Mr. Rochester to be a very likable character. The way he tries to trick Jane and lie to her felt inexcusable to me. But I know Jane is in love with him, and is willing to forgive him. I think the lesson I learned from this is the heart wants what the heart wants, and in the end it can not be denied.
    • 2/5
      I don't understand why this book is considered to be a classic-- not at all.
    • 4/5
      One of my favorite classics. The beginning is kind of slow, so I tend to skim the early chapters. The good parts for me start when Jane has begun working for Mr. Rochester and begins hearing strange noises from the attic. There's an element of suspense, but there's also a love story here. It's also a character study, so there's a little bit of everything for every taste. I don't really like the end, or more specifically, events leading up to the end, but there's something about it all that keeps me coming back.
    • 4/5
      I liked Jane for 3/4 of this book and then she took a turn on me; look, I'm just as enamoured with Mr. Rochester but seriously, Mrs. Jane Rochester? What have you become Jane? After all that time? What did you learn?
    • 5/5
      It is a classic novel about two people in love and their struggle to find each other. It is a well-developed story, complete with details and explanations of motives which delight the reader on every page. Secrets and surprises are hidden between the romantic passages and simple life lessons of poverty and humility are taught. Sure to bring a tear to your eye, this book is one of the best classic novels you could read. It will definitely be added to my list of favorites!
    • 3/5
      I'll admit, I only read this book so I could get the full plot and all the jokes in "The Eyre Affair." I know it's a classic, but it's also fairly boring.
    • 5/5
      I first read this book when I was 12 years old and it went straight to my heart. An absolute classic. You can't go wrong with Jane Eyre.
    • 5/5
      I thought this was a wonderful book and seems to touch in life in a beautiful way. I read Pride and Prejudice before this and I really appreciate this one a lot more, partly because I can relate with them a little more, but also because it seemed to provide a lot more balance between the different classes rather than focusing on only one. Overall, I found this to be one of the best classics that I have read.
    • 5/5
      I first read this during my senior year of high school as part of this huge, ridiculously complicated final assignment for my Advanced Placement English class. Now I read it at least once a semester, after (I know, this is bad) skipping the first few chapters, beginning when Jane arrives at Lowood School. I find the dichotomy between plainness and beauty to be fascinating--Jane, with all those descriptions of her as "plain" hanging over her head, manages to be more beautiful than even the gorgeous Miss Ingram, proving the adage that my grandmother says: "Pretty is as pretty does."
    • 4/5
      This book is a lovely book. It has suspense, romance, etc Really good.
    • 3/5
      Somewhat over-rated in my opinion. A good read, but a novel that feels like the equivalent of a 19th century blockbuster novel (largely due to its melodrama).
    • 2/5
      Not my cup of tea. Just about readable but I prefer Fforde's version.
    • 5/5
      I read this to make sense of "Wide Sargasso Sea." It helped, certainly, but it crushed whatever hope I had of enjoying Jean Rhys's work: you see, "Jane Eyre" was a pleasure to read, and the kind of book I tend to enjoy. It tells a good story in a very pleasing manner; I'm not especially keen on books that want to prove their cleverness by switching narrators and presenting dreams as reality. Just tell me a good story - that's much more important.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite books--i've read it three times and always pick up something new--there's a reason classics are classics--they have stood the test of time (profundity in action--that's me)
    • 5/5
      I always have a very difficult time choosing a favorite book. However, when I am forced to make a short list (I never can just come up with one), Jane Eyre is always on it. Yes, it's dark and gloomy and has a very gothic feel. Yes, it has its preachy moments. But what a wonderful story, what living characters. What sigh-worthy romance. (sigh).
    • 4/5
      Wonderful book!. I read this classic some time ago with an online book group. To me there is no greater or tragic love story.
    • 5/5
      Read this first when I was still playing with Barbies - after that my Barbies and Ken all tended to be Jane and Rochester. Still love to re-read this now quite a few years later. I appreciate quite a bit more from it now than the lovely romance. Jane's independance and strong will, her and Rochester being real people with faults, and even the pathos of Lady Rochester. Perhaps it was Jane's example that helped me see through the nonsense I encountered later in the typical "romance" novels I read a few years later. I never could understand the "fall at his feet, helpless with passion" stuff so prevalent in those stories. Jane's passion was more real for being controlled by her will and understanding of what she could or could not accept in her life. The point is not about morality so much as what she herself could accept about her own life.
    • 3/5
      I read this one before, but I understood and appreciated it more this time around. I decided to pick it up again after reading Jasper Ffojde's The Eyre Affair to fill in the missing pieces.
    • 4/5
      It's much harder to read when you're grown up and not just reading it for the romance. But well worth it. Jane is my new hero.
    • 5/5
      Very much how I remembered. A great book that can be read over and over. St. John was even worse than I remembered. He really pressured Jane.
    • 5/5
      It took me a long time to read the book that I thought I had read in my youth but hadn't. I liked the strength of character of Jane Eyre, her firm and unwavering resolve but not the inflexible, inhuman resolve of of St John Rivers. Principles before emotional waywardness to the level illustrated in Jane Eyre goes beyond modern standards. Oh come on, Jane, I felt at certain times, chill out and marry Rochester after what he's been through. The ending was bleak and a bit far-fetched.I thought the book was brilliant though and am really pleased that I have now read it.
    • 3/5
      A girl with no friends falls in love with the first single man she meets.2.5/4 (Okay).I really wanted to like Jane. But Rochester is so relentlessly awful, I found it impossible to sympathize with someone who's obsessed with him.
    • 4/5
      young girl self determined, governess, survives
    • 3/5
      Orphan Jane Eyre's life from mistreatment at her aunt's house, education at a charity school, first job at Thornfield Hall, and the mess that follows when she falls in love with already married Mr. Rochester. I enjoyed the story reasonably, but I've seen film versions so no surprises. None of the characters are really all that interesting (the "baddies" are quite generically bad rather than multi-dimensional) and the book has long passages of ponderings that, I think, are meant to be profound, but are really just an exercise in circumlocution. Gothic fiction can be a bit hit and miss for me, and I'm putting this in the miss pile, unfortunately.
    • 3/5
      I read this book after reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde so that I could understand what was going on in that book. I know Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen are not my kind of literature and this proved it. The beginning of the book, where Jane suffers so much in her aunt's house was dull and it only picked up when she went to a school for the poor. After she acquires a position as a private governess, she falls in love with the head of the household. This part was not realistic for me and became less so as the book progressed. Aren't there any charismatic men in the 19th century?! Nevertheless, Jane Eyre is beautifully written. Charlotte Bronte was definitely a master (mistress?) of the craft of writing. The ending? Well I will leave that for those who have also read Fforde's The Eyre Affair to argue about.

    Book preview

    Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë

    CHAPTER 1

    There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning; but since dinner (Mrs. Reed, when there was no company, dined early) the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise, was now out of the question.

    I was glad of it: I never liked long walks, especially on chilly afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight, with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John, and Georgiana Reed.

    The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy. Me, she had dispensed from joining the group; saying, ‘She regretted to be under the necessity of keeping me at a distance; but that until she heard from Bessie, and could discover by her own observation that I was endeavouring in good earnest to acquire a more sociable and childlike disposition, a more attractive and sprightly manner,—something lighter, franker, more natural as it were—she really must exclude me from privileges intended only for contented, happy, little children.’

    ‘What does Bessie say I have done?’ I asked.

    ‘Jane, I don’t like cavillers or questioners: besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent.’

    A small breakfast-room adjoined the drawing-room. I slipped in there. It contained a book-case: I soon possessed myself of a volume, taking care that it should be one stored with pictures. I mounted into the window-seat: gathering up my feet, I sat cross-legged, like a Turk; and, having drawn the red moreen curtain nearly close, I was shrined in double retirement.

    Folds of scarlet drapery shut in my view to the right hand; to the left were the clear panes of glass, protecting, but not separating me from the drear November day. At intervals, while turning over the leaves of my book, I studied the aspect of that winter afternoon. Afar, it offered a pale blank of mist and cloud; near, a scene of wet lawn and storm-beat shrub, with ceaseless rain sweeping away wildly before a long and lamentable blast.

    I returned to my book—Bewick’s History of British Birds: the letter-press thereof I cared little for, generally speaking; and yet there were certain introductory pages that, child as I was, I could not pass quite as a blank. They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of ‘the solitary rocks and promontories’ by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to the North Cape—

    ‘Where the Northern Ocean, in vast whirls,

    Boils round the naked, melancholy isles

    Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge

    Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.’

    Nor could I pass unnoticed the suggestion of the bleak shores of Lapland, Siberia, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, Iceland, Greenland, with ‘the vast sweep of the Arctic Zone, and those forlorn regions of dreary space,—that reservoir of frost and snow, where firm fields of ice, the accumulation of centuries of winters, glazed in Alpine heights above heights, surround the pole, and concentre the multiplied rigors of extreme cold.’ Of these death-white realms I formed an idea of my own: shadowy, like all the half-comprehended notions that float dim through children’s brains, but strangely impressive. The words in these introductory pages connected themselves with the succeeding vignettes, and gave significance to the rock standing up alone in a sea of billow and spray; to the broken boat stranded on a desolate coast; to the cold and ghastly moon glancing through bars of cloud at a wreck just sinking.

    I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quiet solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly-risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.

    The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms.

    The fiend pinning down the thief’s pack behind him, I passed over quickly: it was an object of terror.

    So was the black, horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows.

    Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour; and when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery-hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed’s lace frills, and crimped her night-cap borders, fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and older ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of Pamela, and Henry, Earl of More-land.

    With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way. I feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon. The breakfast-room door opened.

    ‘Boh! Madame Mope!’ cried the voice of John Reed; then he paused: he found the room apparently empty.

    ‘Where the dickens is she?’ he continued. ‘Lizzy! Georgy! (calling to his sisters) Joan is not here: tell mama she is run out into the rain—bad animal!’

    ‘It is well I drew the curtain,’ thought I; and I wished fervently he might not discover my hiding-place: nor would John Reed have found it out himself; he was not quick either of vision or conception; but Eliza just put her head in at the door, and said at once:—

    ‘She is in the window-seat, to be sure, Jack.’

    And I came out immediately, for I trembled at the idea of being dragged forth by the said Jack.

    ‘What do you want?’ I asked, with awkward diffidence.

    ‘Say, What do you want, Master Reed?’ was the answer. ‘I want you to come here;’ and seating himself in an arm-chair, he intimated by a gesture that I was to approach and stand before him.

    John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than I, for I was but ten; large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim and bleared eye and flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mama had taken him home for a month or two, ‘on account of his delicate health.’ Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother’s heart turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John’s sallowness was owing to over-application and, perhaps, to pining after home.

    John had not much affection for his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in the day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrank when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had no appeal whatever against either his menaces or his inflictions; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence; more frequently, however, behind her back.

    Habitually obedient to John, I came up to his chair: he spent some three minutes in thrusting out his tongue at me as far as he could without damaging the roots: I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal it. I wonder if he read that notion in my face; for, all at once, without speaking, he struck suddenly and strongly. I tottered, and on regaining my equilibrium retired back a step or two from his chair.

    ‘That is for your impudence in answering mama awhile since,’ said he, ‘and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains, and for the look you had in your eyes two minutes since, you rat!’

    Accustomed to John Reed’s abuse, I never had an idea of replying to it; my care was how to endure the blow which would certainly follow the insult.

    ‘What were you doing behind the curtain?’ he asked.

    ‘I was reading.’

    ‘Show the book.’

    I returned to the window and fetched it thence.

    ‘You have no business to take our books; you are a dependent, mama says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen’s children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mama’s expense. Now, I’ll teach you to rummage my book-shelves: for they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows.’

    I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp; my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.

    ‘Wicked and cruel boy!’ I said. ‘You are like a murderer—you are like a slave driver—you are like the Roman emperors!’

    I had read Goldsmith’s History of Rome, and had formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, etc. Also I had drawn parallels in silence, which I never thought thus to have declared aloud.

    ‘What! what!’ he cried. ‘Did you say that to me? Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana? Won’t I tell mama? but first’—

    He ran headlong at me: I felt him grasp my hair and my shoulder: he had closed with a desperate thing. I really saw in him a tyrant: a murderer. I felt a drop or two of blood from my head trickle down my neck, and was sensible of somewhat pungent sufferings: these sensations for the time predominated over fear, and I received him in frantic sort. I don’t very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me ‘Rat! rat!’ and bellowed out aloud. Aid was near him: Eliza and Georgiana had run for Mrs. Reed, who was gone upstairs; she now came upon the scene, followed by Bessie and her maid Abbot. We were parted: I heard the words:—

    ‘Dear! dear! What a fury to fly at Master John!’

    ‘Did ever anybody see such a picture of passion!’

    Then Mrs. Reed subjoined:—

    ‘Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in there.’ Four hands were immediately laid upon me, and I was borne upstairs.

    CHAPTER 2

    I resisted all the way: a new thing for me, and a circumstance which greatly strengthened the bad opinion Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed to entertain of me. The fact is, I was a trifle beside myself; or rather out of myself, as the French would say: I was conscious that a moment’s mutiny had already rendered me liable to strange penalties, and, like any other rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go all lengths.

    ‘Hold her arms, Miss Abbot: she’s like a mad cat.’

    ‘For shame! for shame!’ cried the lady’s-maid. ‘What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress’s son! Your young master.’

    ‘Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?’

    ‘No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep. There, sit down, and think over your wickedness.’

    They had got me by this time into the apartment indicated by Mrs. Reed, and had thrust me upon a stool: my impulse was to rise from it like a spring; their two pair of hands arrested me instantly.

    ‘If you don’t sit still, you must be tied down,’ said Bessie. ‘Miss Abbot, lend me your garters; she would break mine directly.’

    Miss Abbot turned to divest a stout leg of the necessary ligature. This preparation for bonds, and the additional ignominy it inferred, took a little of the excitement out of me.

    ‘Don’t take them off,’ I cried; ‘I will not stir.’

    In guarantee whereof, I attached myself to my seat by my hands.

    ‘Mind you don’t,’ said Bessie; and when she had ascertained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.

    ‘She never did so before,’ at last said Bessie, turning to the Abigail.

    ‘But it was always in her,’ was the reply. ‘I’ve told Missis often my opinion about the child, and Missis agreed with me. She’s an underhand little thing: I never saw a girl of her age with so much cover.’

    Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she said,—

    ‘You ought to be aware, Miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off, you would have to go to the poor-house.’

    I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to me: my very first recollections of existence included hints of the same kind. This reproach of my dependence had become a vague singsong in my ear; very painful and crushing, but only half intelligible. Miss Abbot joined in:—

    ‘And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them.’

    ‘What we tell you, is for your good,’ added Bessie, in no harsh voice: ‘you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have a home here: but if you become passionate and rude, Missis will send you away, I am sure.’

    ‘Besides,’ said Miss Abbot, ‘God will punish her: he might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go? Come, Bessie, we will leave her: I wouldn’t have her heart for anything. Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don’t repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away.’

    They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them.

    The red-room was a spare chamber, very seldom slept in; I might say never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it contained: yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion. A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre; the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery: the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn colour, with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-table, the chairs were of darkly polished old mahogany. Out of these deep surrounding shades rose high, and glared white, the piled-up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane. Scarcely less prominent was an ample, cushioned easy-chair near the head of the bed, also white, with a footstool before it; and looking, as I thought, like a pale throne.

    This room was chill, because it seldom had a fire; it was silent, because remote from the nursery and kitchens; solemn, because it was known to be so seldom entered. The housemaid alone came here on Saturdays, to wipe from the mirrors and the furniture a week’s quiet dust: and Mrs. Reed herself, at far intervals, visited it to review the contents of a certain secret drawer in the wardrobe, where were stored divers parchments, her jewel-casket, and a miniature of her deceased husband; and in those last words lies the secret of the bedroom—the spell which kept it so lonely in spite of its grandeur.

    Mr. Reed had been dead nine years: it was in this chamber he breathed his last; here he lay in state; hence his coffin was borne by the undertaker’s men; and, since that day, a sense of dreary consecration had guarded it from frequent intrusion.

    My seat, to which Bessie and the bitter Miss Abbot had left me riveted, was a low ottoman near the marble chimney-piece; the bed rose before me; to my right hand there was the high, dark wardrobe, with subdued, broken reflections varying the gloss of its panels; to my left were the muffled windows; a great looking-glass between them repeated the vacant majesty of the bed and room. I was not quite sure whether they had locked the door; and, when I dared move, I got up, and went to see. Alas! yes, no jail was ever more secure. Returning, I had to cross before the looking-glass; my fascinated glance involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure there gazing at me, with a white face and arms specking the gloom, and glittering eyes of fear moving where all else was still, had the effect of a real spirit: I thought it like one of the tiny phantoms, half fairy, half imp, Bessie’s evening stories represented as coming up out of lone, ferny dells in moors, and appearing before the eyes of belated travellers. I returned to my stool.

    Superstition was with me at that moment; but it was not yet her hour for complete victory: my blood was still warm; the mood of the revolted slave was still bracing me with its bitter vigour; I had to stem a rapid rush of retrospective thought before I quailed to the dismal present.

    All John Reed’s violent tyrannies, all his sisters’ proud indifference, all his mother’s aversion, all the servants’ partiality, turned up in my disturbed mind like a dark deposit in a turbid well. Why was I always suffering, always browbeaten, always accused, for ever condemned? Why could I never please? Why was it useless to try to win any one’s favour? Eliza, who was headstrong and selfish, was respected. Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged. Her beauty, her pink cheeks and golden curls, seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity for every fault. John, no one thwarted, much less punished; though he twisted the necks of the pigeons, killed the little pea-chicks, set the dogs at the sheep, stripped the hothouse vines of their fruit, and broke the buds off the choicest plants in the conservatory: he called his mother ‘old girl,’ too; sometimes reviled her for her dark skin, similar to his own; bluntly disregarded her wishes; not infrequently tore and spoiled her silk attire; and he was still ‘her own darling.’ I dared commit no fault: I strove to fulfil every duty; and I was termed naughty and tiresome, sullen and sneaking, from morning to noon, and from noon to night.

    My head still ached and bled with the blow and fall I had received: no one had reproved John for wantonly striking me; and because I had turned against him to avert farther irrational violence, I was loaded with general opprobrium.

    ‘Unjust!—unjust!’ said my reason, forced by the agonising stimulus into precocious, though transitory power; and Resolve, equally wrought up, instigated some strange expedient to achieve escape from insupportable oppression—as running away, or, if that could not be effected, never eating or drinking more, and letting myself die.

    What a consternation of soul was mine that dreary afternoon! How all my brain was in tumult, and all my heart in insurrection! Yet in what darkness, what dense ignorance, was the mental battle fought! I could not answer the ceaseless inward question—why I thus suffered; now, at the distance of—I will not say how many years, I see it clearly.

    I was a discord in Gateshead Hall; I was like nobody there; I had nothing in harmony with Mrs. Reed or her children, or her chosen vassalage. If they did not love me, in fact, as little did I love them. They were not bound to regard with affection a thing that could not sympathise with one amongst them; a heterogeneous thing, opposed to them in temperament, in capacity, in propensities; a useless thing, incapable of serving their interest, or adding to their pleasure; a noxious thing, cherishing the germs of indignation at their treatment, of contempt of their judgment. I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child—though equally dependent and friendless—Mrs. Reed would have endured my presence more complacently; her children would have entertained for me more of the cordiality of fellow-feeling; the servants would have been less prone to make me the scapegoat of the nursery.

    Daylight began to forsake the red-room; it was past four o’clock, and the beclouded afternoon was tending to drear twilight. I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire. All said I was wicked, and perhaps I might be so; what thought had I been but just conceiving of starving myself to death? That certainly was a crime: and was I fit to die? Or was the vault under the chancel of Gateshead Church an inviting bourne? In such vault I had been told did Mr. Reed lie buried; and led by this thought to recall his idea, I dwelt on it with gathering dread. I could not remember him; but I knew that he was my own uncle—my mother’s brother—that he had taken me when a parentless infant to his house; and that in his last moments he had required a promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain me as one of her own children. Mrs. Reed probably considered she had kept this promise; and so she had, I dare say, as well as her nature would permit her; but how could she really like an interloper not of her race, and unconnected with her, after her husband’s death, by any tie? It must have been most irksome to find herself bound by a hard-wrung pledge to stand in the stead of a parent to a strange child she could not love, and to see an uncongenial alien permanently intruded on her own family group.

    A singular notion dawned upon me. I doubted not—never doubted—that if Mr. Reed had been alive he would have treated me kindly; and now, as I sat looking at the white bed and overshadowed walls—occasionally also turning a fascinated eye towards the dimly gleaming mirror—I began to recall what I had heard of dead men, troubled in their graves by the violation of their last wishes, revisiting the earth to punish the perjured and avenge the oppressed; and I thought Mr. Reed’s spirit, harassed by the wrongs of his sister’s child, might quit its abode—whether in the church vault or in the unknown world of the departed—and rise before me in this chamber. I wiped my tears and hushed my sobs, fearful lest any sign of violent grief might waken a preternatural voice to comfort me, or elicit from the gloom some haloed face, bending over me with strange pity. This idea, consolatory in theory, I felt would be terrible if realised: with all my might I endeavoured to stifle it—I endeavoured to be firm. Shaking my hair from my eyes, I lifted my head and tried to look boldly round the dark room: at this moment a light gleamed on the wall. Was it, I asked myself, a ray from the moon penetrating some aperture in the blind? No; moonlight was still, and this stirred; while I gazed, it glided up to the ceiling and quivered over my head. I can now conjecture readily that this streak of light was, in all likelihood, a gleam from a lantern, carried by some one across the lawn: but then, prepared as my mind was for horror, shaken as my nerves were by agitation, I thought the swift-darting beam was a herald of some coming vision from another world. My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort. Steps came running along the outer passage; the key turned, Bessie and Abbot entered.

    ‘Miss Eyre, are you ill?’ said Bessie.

    ‘What a dreadful noise! it went quite through me!’ exclaimed Abbot.

    ‘Take me out! Let me go into the nursery!’ was my cry.

    ‘What for! Are you hurt! Have you seen something?’ again demanded Bessie.

    ‘Oh! I saw a light, and I thought a ghost would come.’ I had now got hold of Bessie’s hand, and she did not snatch it from me.

    ‘She has screamed out on purpose,’ declared Abbot, in some disgust. ‘And what a scream! If she had been in great pain one would have excused it, but she only wanted to bring us all here. I know her naughty tricks.’

    ‘What is all this?’ demanded another voice peremptorily; and Mrs. Reed came along the corridor, her cap flying wide, her gown rustling stormily. ‘Abbot and Bessie, I believe I gave orders that Jane Eyre should be left in the red-room till I came to her myself.’

    ‘Miss Jane screamed so loud, ma’am,’ pleaded Bessie.

    ‘Let her go,’ was the only answer. ‘Loose Bessie’s hand, child: you cannot succeed in getting out by these means, be assured. I abhor artifice, particularly in children; it is my duty to show you that tricks will not answer: you will now stay here an hour longer, and it is only on condition of perfect submission and stillness that I shall liberate you then.’

    ‘Oh aunt, have pity! Forgive me! I cannot endure it—let me be punished some other way! I shall be killed if—’

    ‘Silence! This violence is all most repulsive:’ and so, no doubt, she felt it. I was a precocious actress in her eyes: she sincerely looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.

    Bessie and Abbot having retreated, Mrs. Reed, impatient of my now frantic anguish and wild sobs, abruptly thrust me back and locked me in, without farther parley. I heard her sweeping away; and soon after she was gone, I suppose I had a species of fit: unconsciousness closed the scene.

    CHAPTER 3

    The next thing I remember is, waking up with a feeling as if I had had a frightful night-mare, and seeing before me a terrible red glare, crossed with thick black bars. I heard voices, too, speaking with a hollow sound, and as if muffled by a rush of wind or water: agitation, uncertainty, and an all-predominating sense of terror confused my faculties. Ere long, I became aware that some one was handling me; lifting me up and supporting me in a sitting posture, and that more tenderly than I had ever been raised or upheld before. I rested my head against a pillow or an arm, and felt easy.

    In five minutes more, the cloud of bewilderment dissolved: I knew quite well that I was in my own bed, and that the red glare was the nursery fire. It was night: a candle burnt on the table; Bessie stood at the bed-foot with a basin in her hand, and a gentleman sat in a chair near my pillow, leaning over me.

    I felt an inexpressible relief, a soothing conviction of protection and security, when I knew that there was a stranger in the room, an individual not belonging to Gateshead, and not related to Mrs. Reed. Turning from Bessie (though her presence was far less obnoxious to me than that of Abbot, for instance, would have been), I scrutinised the face of the gentleman: I knew him; it was Mr. Lloyd, an apothecary, sometimes called in by Mrs. Reed when the servants were ailing: for herself and the children she employed a physician.

    ‘Well, who am I?’ he asked.

    I pronounced his name, offering him at the same time my hand: he took it, smiling and saying, ‘We shall do very well by-and-by.’ Then he laid me down, and addressing Bessie, charged her to be very careful that I was not disturbed during the night. Having given some further directions, and intimated that he should call again the next day, he departed; to my grief: I felt so sheltered and befriended while he sat in the chair near my pillow; and as he closed the door after him, all the room darkened and my heart again sank: inexpressible sadness weighed it down.

    ‘Do you feel as if you should sleep, Miss?’ asked Bessie, rather softly.

    Scarcely dared I answer her; for I feared the next sentence might be rough. ‘I will try.’

    ‘Would you like to drink, or could you eat anything?’

    ‘No, thank you, Bessie.’

    ‘Then I think I shall go to bed, for it is past twelve o’clock; but you may call me if you want anything in the night.’

    Wonderful civility this! It emboldened me to ask a question.

    ‘Bessie, what is the matter with me? Am I ill?’

    ‘You fell sick, I suppose, in the red-room with crying; you’ll be better soon, no doubt.’

    Bessie went into the housemaid’s apartment which was near. I heard her say—

    ‘Sarah, come and sleep with me in the nursery; I daren’t for my life be alone with that poor child to-night; she might die; it’s such a strange thing she should have that fit: I wonder if she saw anything. Missis was rather too hard.’

    Sarah came back with her; they both went to bed; they were whispering together for half an hour before they fell asleep. I caught scraps of their conversation, from which I was able only too distinctly to infer the main subject discussed.

    ‘Something passed her, all dressed in white, and vanished’—‘A great black dog behind him’—‘Three loud raps on the chamber door’—‘A light in the churchyard just over his grave’—etc., etc.

    At last both slept: the fire and candle went out. For me, the watches of that long night passed in ghastly wakefulness; ear, eye, and mind were alike strained by dread: such dread as children only can feel.

    No severe or prolonged bodily illness followed this incident of the red-room: it only gave my nerves a shock, of which I feel the reverberation to this day. Yes, Mrs. Reed, to you I owe some fearful pangs of mental suffering. But I ought to forgive you, for you knew not what you did: while rending my heartstrings, you thought you were only up-rooting my bad propensities.

    Next day, by noon, I was up and dressed and sat wrapped in a shawl by the nursery hearth. I felt physically weak and broken down: but my worse ailment was an unutterable wretchedness of mind: a wretchedness which kept drawing from me silent tears; no sooner had I wiped one salt drop from my cheek than another followed. Yet I thought, I ought to have been happy, for none of the Reeds were there; they were all gone out in the carriage with their mama: Abbot, too, was sewing in another room, and Bessie, as she moved hither and thither, putting away toys and arranging drawers, addressed to me every now and then a word of unwonted kindness. This state of things should have been to me a paradise of peace, accustomed as I was to a life of ceaseless reprimand and thankless fagging; but, in fact, my racked nerves were now in such a state that no calm could soothe, and no pleasure excite them agreeably.

    Bessie had been down into the kitchen, and she brought up with her a tart on a certain brightly painted china plate, whose bird of paradise, nestling in a wreath of convolvuli and rosebuds, had been wont to stir in me a most enthusiastic sense of admiration; and which plate I had petitioned to be allowed to take in my hand in order to examine it more closely, but had always hitherto been deemed unworthy of such a privilege. This precious vessel was now placed on my knee, and I was cordially invited to eat the circlet of delicate pastry upon it. Vain favour! coming, like most other favours long deferred and often wished for, too late! I could not eat the tart: and the plumage of the bird, the tints of the flowers, seemed strangely faded: I put both plate and tart away. Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word book acted as a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver’s Travels from the library. This book I had again and again perused with delight. I considered it a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tales: for as to the elves, having sought them in vain among foxglove leaves and bells, under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling old wall-nooks, I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were all gone out of England to some savage country where the woods were wilder and thicker, and the population more scant; whereas Lilliput and Brobdingnag being, in my creed, solid parts of the earth’s surface, I doubted not that I might one day, by taking a long voyage, see with my own eyes the little fields, houses, and trees, the diminutive people, the tiny cows, sheep, and birds of the one realm; and the corn-fields forest-high, the mighty mastiffs, the monster cats, the tower-like men and women, of the other. Yet, when this cherished volume was now placed in my hand—when I turned over its leaves, and sought in its marvellous pictures the charm I had, till now, never failed to find—all was eerie and dreary; the giants were gaunt goblins, the pigmies malevolent and fearful imps, Gulliver a most desolate wanderer in most dread and dangerous regions. I closed the book, which I dared no longer peruse, and put it on the table, beside the untasted tart.

    Bessie had now finished dusting and tidying the room, and having washed her hands, she opened a certain little drawer, full of splendid shreds of silk and satin, and began making a new bonnet for Georgiana’s doll. Meantime she sang: her song was—

    ‘In the days when we went gipsying,

    A long time ago.’

    I had often heard the song before, and always with lively delight; for Bessie had a sweet voice,—at least, I thought so. But now, though her voice was still sweet, I found in its melody an indescribable sadness. Sometimes, pre-occupied with her work, she sang the refrain very low, very lingeringly: ‘A long time ago’ came out like the saddest cadence of a funeral hymn. She passed into another ballad, this time a really doleful one.

    ‘My feet they are sore, and my limbs they are weary;

    Long is the way, and the mountains are wild;

    Soon will the twilight close moonless and dreary

    Over the path of the poor orphan child.

    ‘Why did they send me so far and so lonely,

    Up where the moors spread and grey rocks are piled?

    Men are hard-hearted, and kind angels only

    Watch’d o’er the steps of a poor orphan child.

    ‘Yet distant and soft the night-breeze is blowing,

    Clouds there are none, and clear stars beam mild.

    God, in His mercy, protection is showing,

    Comfort and hope to the poor orphan child.

    ‘Ev’n should I fall o’er the broken bridge passing,

    Or stray in the marshes, by false lights beguiled,

    Still will my Father, with promise and blessing,

    Take to His bosom the poor orphan child.

    ‘There is a thought that for strength should avail me,

    Though both of shelter and kindred despoiled;

    Heaven is a home, and a rest will not fail me;

    God is a friend to the poor orphan child.’

    ‘Come, Miss Jane, don’t cry,’ said Bessie, as she finished. She might as well have said to the fire, ‘don’t burn!’ but how could she divine the morbid suffering to which I was a prey? In the course of the morning, Mr. Lloyd came again.

    ‘What, already up!’ said he, as he entered the nursery. ‘Well, nurse, how is she?’

    Bessie answered that I was doing very well.

    ‘Then she ought to look more cheerful. Come here, Miss Jane: your name is Jane, is it not?’

    ‘Yes, sir, Jane Eyre.’

    ‘Well, you have been crying, Miss Jane Eyre, can you tell me what about? Have you any pain?’

    ‘No, sir.’

    ‘Oh! I daresay she is crying because she could not go out with Missis in the carriage,’ interposed Bessie.

    ‘Surely not! why, she is too old for such pettishness.’

    I thought so too; and my self-esteem being wounded by the false charge, I answered promptly, ‘I never cried for such a thing in my life: I hate going out in the carriage. I cry because I am miserable.’

    ‘Oh fie, Miss!’ said Bessie.

    The good apothecary appeared a little puzzled. I was standing before him; he fixed his eyes on me very steadily: his eyes were small and grey: not very bright, but I daresay I should think them shrewd now: he had a hard-featured yet good-natured looking face. Having considered me at leisure, he said—

    ‘What made you ill yesterday?’

    ‘She had a fall,’ said Bessie, again putting in her word.

    ‘Fall! why, that is like a baby again! Can’t she manage to walk at her age? She must be eight or nine years old.’

    ‘I was knocked down,’ was the blunt explanation jerked out of me by another pang of mortified pride: ‘but that did not make me ill,’ I added; while Mr. Lloyd helped himself to a pinch of snuff.

    As he was returning the box to his waistcoat pocket, a loud bell rang for the servants’ dinner; he knew what it was. ‘That’s for you, nurse,’ said he; ‘you can go down; I’ll give Miss Jane a lecture till you come back.’

    Bessie would rather have stayed, but she was obliged to go, because punctuality at meals was rigidly enforced at Gateshead Hall.

    ‘The fall did not make you ill; what did, then?’ pursued Mr. Lloyd, when Bessie was gone.

    ‘I was shut up in a room where there is a ghost, till after dark.’

    I saw Mr. Lloyd smile and frown at the same time: ‘Ghost! What, you are a baby after all! You are afraid of ghosts?’

    ‘Of Mr. Reed’s ghost I am: he died in that room, and was laid out there. Neither Bessie nor any one else will go into it at night, if they can help it; and it was cruel to shut me up alone without a candle,—so cruel that I think I shall never forget it.’

    ‘Nonsense! And is it that makes you so miserable? Are you afraid now in daylight?’

    ‘No: but night will come again before long: and besides,—I am unhappy,—very unhappy, for other things.’

    ‘What other things? Can you tell me some of them?’

    How much I wished to reply fully to this question! How difficult it was to frame any answer! Children can feel, but they cannot analyse their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the result of the process in words. Fearful, however, of losing this first and only opportunity of relieving my grief by imparting it, I, after a disturbed pause, contrived to frame a meagre, though, as far as it went, true response.

    ‘For one thing, I have no father or mother, brothers or sisters.’

    ‘You have a kind aunt and cousins.’

    Again I paused; then bunglingly enounced:

    ‘But John Reed knocked me down, and my aunt shut me up in the red-room.’

    Mr. Lloyd a second time produced his snuff-box.

    ‘Don’t you think Gateshead Hall a very beautiful house?’ asked he. ‘Are you not very thankful to have such a fine place to live at?’

    ‘It is not my house, sir; and Abbot says I have less right to be here than a servant.’

    ‘Pooh! you can’t be silly enough to wish to leave such a splendid place?’

    ‘If I had anywhere else to go, I should be glad to leave it; but I can never get away from Gateshead till I am a woman.’

    ‘Perhaps you may—who knows? Have you any relations besides Mrs. Reed?’

    ‘I think not, sir.’

    ‘None belonging to your father?

    ‘I don’t know: I asked aunt Reed once, and she said possibly I might have some poor, low relations called Eyre, but she knew nothing about them.’

    ‘If you had such, would you like to go to them?’

    I reflected. Poverty looks grim to grown people; still more so to children: they have not much idea of industrious, working, respectable poverty; they think of the word only as connected with ragged clothes, scanty food, fireless grates, rude manners, and debasing vices: poverty for me was synonymous with degradation.

    ‘No; I should not like to belong to poor people,’ was my reply.

    ‘Not even if they were kind to you?’

    I shook my head: I could not see how poor people had the means of being kind; and then to learn to speak like them, to adopt their manners, to be uneducated, to grow up like one of the poor women I saw sometimes nursing their children or washing their clothes at the cottage doors of the village of Gateshead: no, I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste.

    ‘But are your relatives so very poor? Are they working people?’

    ‘I cannot tell; aunt Reed says if I have any, they must be a beggarly set: I should not like to go a begging.’

    ‘Would you like to go to school?’

    Again I reflected: I scarcely knew what school was; Bessie sometimes spoke of it as a place where young ladies sat in the stocks, wore backboards, and were expected to be exceedingly genteel and precise: John Reed hated his school, and abused his master; but John Reed’s tastes were no rule for mine, and if Bessie’s accounts of school-discipline (gathered from the young ladies of a family where she had lived before coming to Gateshead) were somewhat appalling, her details of certain accomplishments attained by these same young ladies were, I thought, equally attractive. She boasted of beautiful paintings of landscapes and flowers by them executed; of songs they could sing and pieces they could play, of purses they could net, of French books they could translate; till my spirit was moved to emulation as I listened. Besides, school would be a complete change: it implied a long journey, an entire separation from Gateshead, an entrance into a new life.

    ‘I should indeed like to go to school,’ was the audible conclusion of my musings.

    ‘Well, well; who knows what may happen?’ said Mr. Lloyd, as he got up: ‘The child ought to have a change of air and scene,’ he added, speaking to himself; ‘nerves not in a good state.’

    Bessie now returned; at the same moment the carriage was heard rolling up the gravel-walk.

    ‘Is that your mistress, nurse?’ asked Mr. Lloyd. ‘I should like to speak to her before I go.’

    Bessie invited him to walk into the breakfast-room, and led the way out. In the interview which followed between him and Mrs. Reed, I presume, from after-occurrences, that the apothecary ventured to recommend my being sent to school; and the recommendation was no doubt readily enough adopted; for as Abbot said, in discussing the subject with Bessie when both sat sewing in the nursery one night, after I was in bed, and, as they thought, asleep, ‘Missis was, she dared say, glad enough to get rid of such a tiresome, ill-conditioned child, who always looked as if she were watching everybody, and scheming plots underhand.’ Abbot, I think, gave me credit for being a sort of infantile Guy Fawkes.

    On that same occasion I learned, for the first time, from Miss Abbot’s communications to Bessie, that my father had been a poor clergyman; that my mother had married him against the wishes of her friends, who considered the match beneath her; that my grandfather Reed was so irritated at her disobedience, he cut her off without a shilling; that after my mother and father had been married a year, the latter caught the typhus fever while visiting among the poor of a large manufacturing town where his curacy was situated, and where that disease was then prevalent; that my mother took the infection from him, and both died within a month of each other.

    Bessie, when she heard this narrative, sighed and said, ‘Poor Miss Jane is to be pitied, too, Abbot.’

    ‘Yes,’ responded Abbot; ‘if she were a nice, pretty child, one might compassionate her forlornness; but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that.’

    ‘Not a great deal, to be sure,’ agreed Bessie: ‘at any rate, a beauty like Miss Georgiana would be more moving in the same condition.’

    ‘Yes, I doat on Miss Georgiana!’ cried the fervent Abbot. ‘Little darling!—with her long curls and her blue eyes, and such a sweet colour as she has; just as if she were painted!—Bessie, I could fancy a Welsh rabbit for supper.’

    ‘So could I—with a roast onion. Come, we’ll go down.’ They went.

    CHAPTER 4

    From my discourse with Mr. Lloyd, and from the above reported conference between Bessie and Abbot, I gathered enough of hope to suffice as a motive for wishing to get well: a change seemed near,—I desired and waited it in silence. It tarried, however: days and weeks passed: I had regained my normal state of health, but no new allusion was made to the subject over which I brooded. Mrs. Reed surveyed me at times with a severe eye, but seldom addressed me: since my illness, she had drawn a more marked line of separation than ever between me and her own children; appointing me a small closet to sleep in by myself, condemning me to take my meals alone, and pass all my time in the nursery, while my cousins were constantly in the drawing-room. Not a hint, however, did she drop about sending me to school: still I felt an instinctive certainty that she would not long endure me under the same roof with her; for her glance, now more than ever, when turned on me, expressed an insuperable and rooted aversion.

    Eliza and Georgiana, evidently acting according to orders, spoke to me as little as possible: John thrust his tongue in his cheek whenever he saw me, and once attempted chastisement; but as I instantly turned against him, roused by the same sentiment of deep ire and desperate revolt which had stirred my corruption before, he thought it better to desist, and ran from me uttering execrations, and vowing I had burst his nose. I had indeed levelled at that prominent feature as hard a blow as my knuckles could inflict; and when I saw that either that or my look daunted him, I had the greatest inclination to follow up my advantage to purpose; but he was already with his mama. I heard him in a blubbering tone commence the tale of how ‘that nasty Jane Eyre’ had flown at him like a mad cat: he was stopped rather harshly—

    ‘Don’t talk to me about her, John: I told you not to go near her; she is not worthy of notice; I do not choose that either you or your sisters should associate with her.’

    Here, leaning over the banister, I cried out suddenly, and without at all deliberating on my words,—

    ‘They are not fit to associate with me.’

    Mrs. Reed was rather a stout woman; but, on hearing this strange and audacious declaration, she ran nimbly up the stair, swept me like a whirlwind into the nursery, and crushing me down on the edge of my crib, dared me in an emphatic voice to rise from that place, or utter one syllable during the remainder of the day.

    ‘What would uncle Reed say to you, if he were alive?’ was my scarcely voluntary demand. I say scarcely voluntary, for it seemed as if my tongue pronounced words without my will consenting to their utterance: something spoke out of me over which I had no control.

    ‘What?’ said Mrs. Reed under her breath: her usually cold composed grey eye became troubled with a look like fear; she took her hand from my arm, and gazed at me as if she really did not know whether I were child or fiend. I was now in for it.

    ‘My uncle Reed is in heaven, and can see all you do and think; and so can papa and mama: they know how you shut me up all day long, and how you wish me dead.’

    Mrs. Reed soon rallied her spirits: she shook me most soundly, she boxed both my ears, and then left me without a word. Bessie supplied the hiatus by a homily of an hour’s length, in which she proved beyond a doubt that I was the most wicked and abandoned child ever reared under a roof. I half believed her; for I felt indeed only bad feelings surging in my breast.

    November, December, and half of January passed away. Christmas and the New Year had been celebrated at Gateshead with the usual festive cheer; presents had been interchanged, dinners and evening parties given. From every enjoyment I was, of course, excluded: my share of the gaiety consisted in witnessing the daily apparelling of Eliza and Georgiana, and seeing them descend to the drawing-room, dressed out in thin muslin frocks and scarlet sashes, with hair elaborately ringletted; and afterwards, in listening to the sound of the piano or the harp played below, to the passing to and fro of the butler and footman, to the jingling of glass and china as refreshments were handed, to the broken hum of conversation as the drawing-room doors opened and closed. When tired of this occupation, I would retire from the stairhead to the solitary and silent nursery: there, though somewhat sad, I was not miserable. To speak the truth, I had not the least wish to go into company, for in company I was very rarely noticed; and if Bessie had been kind and companionable, I should have deemed it a treat to spend the evenings quietly with her, instead of passing them under the formidable eye of Mrs. Reed, in a room full of ladies and gentlemen. But Bessie, as soon as she had dressed her young ladies, used to take herself off to the lively regions of the kitchen and housekeeper’s room, generally bearing the candle along with her. I then sat with my doll on my knee, till the fire got low, glancing round occasionally to make sure that nothing worse than myself haunted the shadowy room; and when the embers sank to a dull red, I undressed hastily, tugging at knots and strings as I best might, and sought shelter from cold and darkness in my crib. To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow. It puzzles me now to remember with what absurd sincerity I doated on this little toy, half fancying it alive and capable of sensation. I could not sleep unless it was folded in my night-gown; and when it lay there safe and warm, I was comparatively happy, believing it to be happy likewise.

    Long did the hours seem while I waited the departure of the company, and listened for the sound of Bessie’s step on the stairs: sometimes she would come up in the interval to seek her thimble or her scissors, or perhaps to bring me something by way of supper—a bun or a cheese-cake—then she would sit on the bed while I ate it, and when I had finished, she would tuck the clothes round me, and twice she kissed me, and said, ‘Good-night, Miss Jane.’ When thus gentle, Bessie seemed to me the best, prettiest, kindest being in the world; and I wished most intensely that she would always be so pleasant and amiable, and never push me about, or scold, or task me unreasonably, as she was too often wont to do. Bessie Lee must, I think, have been a girl of good natural capacity, for she was smart in all she did, and had a remarkable knack of narrative; so, at least, I judge from the impression made on me by her nursery tales. She was pretty, too, if my recollections of her face and person are correct. I remember her as a slim young woman, with black hair, dark eyes, very nice features, and good, clear complexion; but she had a capricious and hasty temper, and indifferent ideas of principle or justice: still, such as she was, I preferred her to any one else at Gateshead Hall.

    It was the fifteenth of January, about nine o’clock in the morning: Bessie was gone down to breakfast; my cousins had not yet been summoned to their mama; Eliza was putting on her bonnet and warm garden-coat to go and feed her poultry, an occupation of which she was fond: and not less so of selling the eggs to the housekeeper and hoarding up the money she thus obtained. She had a turn for traffic, and a marked propensity for saving; shown not only in the vending of eggs and chickens, but also in driving hard bargains with the gardener about flower-roots, seeds, and slips of plants, that functionary having orders from Mrs. Reed to buy of this young lady all the products of her parterre she wished to sell: and Eliza would have sold the hair off her head if she could have made a handsome profit thereby. As to her money, she first secreted it in odd corners, wrapped in a rag or an old curl-paper; but some of these hoards having been discovered by the housemaid, Eliza, fearful of one day losing her valued treasure, consented to intrust it to her mother, at a usurious rate of interest—fifty or sixty per cent.; which interest she exacted every quarter, keeping her accounts in a little book with anxious accuracy.

    Georgiana sat on a high stool, dressing her hair at the glass, and interweaving her curls with artificial flowers and faded feathers, of which she had found a store in a drawer in the attic. I was making my bed, having received strict orders from Bessie to get it arranged before she returned (for Bessie now frequently employed me as a sort of under-nurserymaid, to tidy the room, dust the chairs, etc.). Having spread the quilt and folded my night-dress, I went to the window-seat to put in order some picture-books and doll’s house furniture scattered there; an abrupt command from Georgiana to let her playthings alone (for the tiny chairs and mirrors, the fairy plates and cups were her property) stopped my proceedings; and then, for lack of other occupation, I fell to breathing on the frost-flowers with which the window was fretted, and thus clearing a space in the glass through which I might look out on the grounds, where all was still and petrified under the influence of a hard frost.

    From this window were visible the porter’s lodge and the carriage-road, and just as I had dissolved so much of the silver-white foliage veiling the panes, as left room to look out, I saw the gates thrown open and a carriage roll through. I watched it ascending the drive with indifference: carriages often came to Gateshead, but none ever brought visitors in whom I was interested; it stopped in front of the house, the door-bell rang loudly, the new comer was admitted. All this being nothing to me, my vacant attention soon found livelier attraction in the spectacle of a little hungry robin, which came and chirruped on the twigs of the leafless cherry-tree nailed against the wall near the casement. The remains of my breakfast of bread and milk stood on the table, and having crumbled a morsel of roll, I was tugging at the sash to put out the crumbs on the window-sill, when Bessie came running upstairs into the nursery.

    ‘Miss Jane, take off your pinafore; what are you doing there? Have you washed your hands and face this morning?’ I gave another tug before I answered, for I wanted the bird to be secure of its bread: the sash yielded; I scattered the crumbs, some on the stone sill, some on the cherry-tree bough, then, closing the window, I replied:—

    ‘No, Bessie; I have only just finished dusting.’

    ‘Troublesome, careless child! and what are you doing now? You look quite red, as if you had been about some mischief: what were you opening the window for?’

    I was spared the trouble of answering, for Bessie seemed in too great a hurry to listen to explanations; she hauled me to the wash-stand, inflicted a merciless, but happily brief scrub on my face and hands with soap, water, and a coarse towel; disciplined my head with a bristly brush, denuded me of my pinafore, and then hurrying me to the top of the stairs, bid me go down directly, as I was wanted in the breakfast-room.

    I would have asked who wanted me: I would have demanded if Mrs. Reed was there; but Bessie was already gone, and had closed the nursery-door upon me: I slowly descended. For nearly three months, I had never been called to Mrs. Reed’s presence: restricted so long to the nursery, the breakfast, dining, and drawing-rooms were become for me awful regions, on which it dismayed me to intrude.

    I now stood in the empty hall; before me was the breakfast-room door, and I stopped, intimidated and trembling. What a miserable little poltroon had fear, engendered of unjust punishment, made of me in those days! I feared to return to the nursery, and feared

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