Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre

"Adverse to personal fame, we used the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; this ambiguous choice was dictated by a kind of conscientious scruple in taking on masculine Christian names, as we did not want to declare that we were women, because we had a vague impression of being judged with a certain prejudice; we had noticed how critics use the weapon of personality for their chastisements and flattery for their rewards, which do not constitute true praise."

This is what Currer Bell writes, under whose guise hides Charlotte Brontë, in the collection of poems published jointly with her sisters Emily (Ellis) and Anne (Acton) in 1846. She could not have expressed better the natural modesty of the "Brontë sisters," especially how the figure of the woman writer was already looked down upon in the early phase of Victorian England (Victoria had only been on the throne for 10 years and would reign for another 54). Critics did not regard female writers favorably, considering them morally and intellectually inferior to men.

The year following the publication of the poetry volume, the sisters decided, using the same pseudonyms, to publish one novel each. The results were insignificant (two copies sold in 1847), but the works were nonetheless noticed by critics, who suspected that the pseudonyms hid three women and declared that two of the three novels had rather weak plots (Agnes Grey and Jane Eyre).

 Of the Brontë sisters, nowadays the most famous and acclaimed is undoubtedly Emily, for her masterpiece Wuthering Heights, Cime Tempestose, reassessed towards the end of the 19th century. At the time, however, of the three, "Jane Eyre" was the most successful novel.

 The protagonist of the novel is indeed the orphan Jane Eyre, raised by a hostile aunt and sent to Lowood School, where students are neglected and mistreated. Jane Eyre becomes a governess and agrees to work at Thornfield Hall, under the noble Mr. Rochester, with whom she falls in love. They decide to marry, but at the altar, it is discovered that Rochester is already married to the insane Bertha Mason. Jane leaves Thornfield Hall, which will soon be burned to the ground by the madwoman: Rochester is left injured and blind, provoking Jane's compassion, who still loves him and agrees to marry him. Rochester regains his sight just as their firstborn is born.

 In many respects, "Jane Eyre" is a novel imbued with many autobiographical elements: the childhood spent in a rigid school for governesses under inhumane conditions (a parallel between Lowood and the terrible Cowan Bridge, where the Brontë sisters were sent), the very figure of the poor teacher (the profession of Charlotte Brontë), the love for a man of higher status (like Charlotte's husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls).

This work can be considered, due to its compositional structure, as a connection point between the Gothic-Romantic tradition of early 19th-century England and the ideal of the Victorian Novel that would soon develop. The Gothic elements are manifested in the strange appearances of Bertha Mason, kept hidden by Rochester in the attic but who occasionally escapes from her room and appears like a spirit, while the romantic thread is guaranteed by the plot, mainly based on the love story between Rocheter and Jane Eyre. A very different idea of the character already emerges compared to other writers of the time, like Jane Austen, to name one: the heroine Jane Eyre is already much more in line with the Victorian ideal, less frivolous and more passionate and confident. This work can therefore already be connected as a good precursor to the writings of Stevenson, infused with a psychological vein but with a focus predominantly on tradition.

On a final note, but not less importantly, purely from a reader's delight perspective, I must say this novel is second only to "Wuthering Heights": it reads as a pleasure, thanks to Charlotte's narrative mastery and her fluent style. Perhaps a bit too much of an atmosphere of sadness hovers, characteristic of all three Brontë sisters, mainly due to an unhappy childhood spent at Cowan Bridge, the terrible school where they lived for years in poor conditions, malnourished and cold, which would make all the Brontë siblings frail in health.

 Fate decreed that Charlotte was the longest-lived of the Brontë sisters: she died from weakness due to her pregnancy in 1855, at just 38 years old, after seeing her mother die in 1821, her elder sisters Maria and Elizabeth in 1825, her only brother (and painter) Branwell and Emily in 1848, finally Anne in 1849. What could be sadder? The fate of the father, the Irish-born Reverend Patrick Brontë, who died in 1861, at the venerable age of 84, having witnessed the death of his entire family.

Finally, I would like to point out the 1996 film Jane Eyre by Franco Zeffirelli, perhaps the most worthy adaptation of the novel, masterfully performed by a young Charlotte Gainsbourg.