Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Great for anyone who's ever been in love...

Customer Rating:

Simply Stated: This is a story about the importance of not committing your life to love (to marriage) until you know who you really are. In order for you to have a successful, truly successful (by which I mean happy, rewarding, ever-growing, intellectually and emotionally stimulating) marriage, you have to be able to clearly identify and assert what matters to you: who you are, what you want and need in order to be fulfilled on both a daiy and on a lifelong basis. Figuring that out may mean leaving someone you love (as it does for Jane), or hurting someone who loves you (as Jane must do), but the only way to return to the 'right' relationship (or to find the right relationship) certain you won't 'lose yourself' in it (lose your mind, lose your direction, lose your hope), you must first strike out on your own and endure (with your own strength, determination, and defiance) some hardships. You must try on some alternative lives (so you won't wonder about them later, won't sit at your kitchen table saying to yourself, "what if", won't bemoan the choice you've made when the going gets rough), and wear them around for a while, like so many shoes in a shoeshop. Sometimes, it takes walking around in heels for a while before you can really enjoy being barefoot. And it takes being barefoot for a while before you can truly appreciate that versatile, enduring and practical comfort of your tennis shoes. The bottom line is, this is not just a message for women, or about women. It's about people. People in love. And while the book is pretty old, and the language is sometimes alarmingly eloquent, and the character's day-to-day lives involve horses not cars, and talking not internet, the message in it (and the way it's conveyed) is still highly relevent, highly accessible, and highly enjoyable...and I highly recommend it.

buy this edition

Customer Rating:

If you're thinking of reading Jane Eyre, and you want to understand it, this edition is the one for you. The footnotes are very helpful, explaining the allusions to the Bible or older literature that you might not pick up on, as well as some of the vocabulary. The contemporary reviews in the back are great - everyone must read Elizabeth Rigby's review. Our culture has changed so much, we don't understand how revolutionary books like Jane Eyre once were. The essays of modern criticism are also very helpful. Someone did a very good job with this book. A few reviewers wrote that Jane Eyre is not entertaining or something. Actually, it is if you understand it. To me, Jane Eyre is up there with Shakespeare, the Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye as some of the deepest, most well thought-out stories I know of. It is a book to read 2 or 3 times before you draw your conclusion. So - in short - read Jane Eyre, and use the Norton Critical Edition.

Painful	Customer Rating:
All of the drama in the novel is packed into the last 30 pages. The rest of the book is incredibly dull.

The only edition to buy

Customer Rating:

This review is aimed more toward the Norton edition than to JANE EYRE. We all know this is a classic. Bronte was simply a genius and a harbinger of romantic, dramatic, gothic, and horror writing. (However, it still irks me that she couldn't end a simple sentence with a period. Every declarative statement, it seems, must be qualified with a colon or semi-colon. Oh well. Sign of the times.) As for the Norton edition, it's the only one to buy. Bronte makes the assumption that you have read the Bible cover-to-cover a zillion times, and for those of us who have not read it through once, Norton's annotations are more than helpful---they're essential to understanding the novel's Christian allusions. This edition also provides the reader with critical essays, contexts of Bronte's life, Bronte's reactions to critics of her day, etc. Bottom line: you can get the Dover Thrift edition for a couple bucks, but, if you are interested in giving this classic more than a cursory read, this edition is worth the extra money.

Great book..Recommend to all

Customer Rating:

I think Bronte's 'Jane Eyre', as well as an excellent read, provides a brilliant insight for todays readers, into the life of 'misfits' in the 19th century. Jane is a poor, plain, governess who throughout her life struggles to belong somewhere, have some sort of position in society. She had no family, therefore when she discovered cousins in Mary, Diana and St.John, she willingly gave them each 5,000 pounds out of her inheritance. Jane is a strong woman who fights to maintain her moral and religious values even though tempted several times to put them aside. Jane seeks emotional fulfillment and detests society's idea of marriage (marriage for material wealth, political power, position etc). Rochester is Jane's intellectual equal and therefore she agrees to marry him, until she realises he has almost tricked her into a bigamus marriage. Then she must flee Thornfield in order to maintain her values and self-respect. Only when she has her own financial independence and no longer needs to be Rochesters mistress, can she return to him and marry him. He is now actually dependent on her for vision and other things because he has lost the use of one of his hands. Jane Eyre is a satisfying novel that gives women inspriration to stand up for their rights and not be submissive because some men consider them inferiors. Jane teaches women to value themselves. I think in writing this fantastic novel, Bronte had sent out an excellent message to those who believe women should be controlled by men and Jane was the perfect protagonist to get this message across.