Jane Eyre wishes more than anything that she didn’t have to live with her aunt and cousin, who are constantly punishing her for things she didn’t do. So she is almost happy when she learns that she is getting sent to an orphanage far away from her aunt’s house. She ends up spending years there, only leaving when she gets a job as a governess for a young girl at Thornfield Hall. When she arrives, she discovers that the owner of Thornfield, Mr. Rochester, is a mysterious man who is almost never home. However, one morning she discovers that he is home after a long business trip. Though he appears cold and unforgiving, as Jane gets to know him she discovers his kindness, which is seemingly reserved only for her. 

I really liked the premise of this book, and I think it could have been very romantic, but the love interests came off as aggressive and self-centered, not very attractive qualities. This made it a lot harder to enjoy the book, because I wasn’t really rooting for Jane and Mr. Rochester to get married. Mr. Rochester’s character was written in an especially deceiving way, going from being very likeable to very threatening, which made it hard for me to care about him. I have a feeling that Charlotte Brontë was going for a dark and mysterious character, but I was actually a little scared of him. On the other hand, Jane’s character is very strong, especially considering the time period this book was written in. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself, and was overall a very confident and capable woman. 

The writing in this book was often very beautiful, and I can understand why it is considered a great classic, but I wouldn’t recommend it. A book from around the same time period that I would recommend reading is Emma by Jane Austen.