Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre / Charlotte Brontë ; read by Susan Ericksen.— Grand Haven: Brilliance Audio, 1997.
16 sound discs (20 hrs.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.
Unabridged
Compact discs
Directed by J. C. Howe
ISBN: 1596009403

1. Bildungsromans. 2. England – Fiction. 3. Governesses – Fiction. 4. Love stories. 5. Young women – Fiction.

823.8

Plain but spunky Jane remembers growing up unhappily orphaned among three rude cousins and a tyrannical aunt until she is sent away to a Charity School where she finds friends and a kind headmistress, but also some stern teachers and a penny-pinching administration. At age eighteen she sets out to seek, if not her fortune at least a living, as a governess. She’s hired to teach the ward of an eccentric landowner. Mr. Rochester has come into an inheritance of property and land in England that he had not hoped for as a youth. His manners are brusque and his looks are gruff. But he is unexpectedly charmed by the frankness of the new governess, although he does not express that to her immediately. For her part, Jane falls hopelessly in love with her new master, and must wrestle with the insurmountable difference in their social positions. In Jane’s breast passion, ambition, and honesty strive with reason, duty, obedience, and a desire to be accepted.