Charlotte Bronte, "Jane Eyre" (Norton Critical Editions), 3rd Edition

This perennially popular Norton Critical Edition again reprints, with expanded explanatory footnotes, the 1848 third edition text, the last corrected by Charlotte Brontë.

The newly expanded and reorganized "Contexts" section provides an extensive sampling of materials concerning Brontë's experiences as a student, governess, and teacher, experiences that influenced her portrayal of Jane Eyre at Lowood school and as the governess of Thornfield Hall. New to the Third Edition are illustrations from and commentary upon Brontë's use of Thomas Bewick's History of British Birds. Numerous letters document Jane Eyre's publication and reception history, including Brontë's retorts to negative reviews by Elizabeth Rigby and The Christian Remembrancer. Expanded excerpts from Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë provide a fellow novelist's comments upon Brontë as a woman author and help to explain Brontë's reactions to her critics.

"Criticism" retains major feminist readings by Adrienne Rich and Sandra M. Gilbert and newly includes essays by Jerome Beaty, Lisa Sternlieb, Jeffrey Sconce, and Donna Marie Nudd.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.

Contents

Preface to the Third Norton Critical Edition
The Text of Jane Eyre

Contexts
 Charlotte Brontë as Student, Governess, and Teacher
 School Register: Clergy Daughters' School
 Report of the Cowan Bridge School for Clergymen's Daughters
 From The Children's Friend
 Charlotte Brontë at Roe Head
  Christine Alexander • Introduction to Brontë's Juvenilia
  "Well, here I am at Roe Head"
  "Now as I have a little bit of time"
  "All this day I have been in a dream"
  "I'm just going to write because I cannot help it"
  "My compliments to the weather"
  "About a week since I got a letter from Branwell"
  Retrospection
  From "Henry Hastings"
  Farewell to Angria
 Charlotte's and Jane's Illustrated Book
  To W. S. Williams, March 11, 1848
  Vignettes from Bewick
  Jane W. Stedman • Charlotte Brontë and Bewick's "British Birds"
 Charlotte Brontë as Governess
  To Emily J. Brontë, June 8, 1839
  To Ellen Nussey, June 30, 1839
  To W. S. Williams, May 12, 1848
  "The Governess-Grinders"
 Charlotte Brontë and Her Publishers, Reviewers, and First Biographer
  To Smith, Elder, & Co., August 7, 1847
  To Smith, Elder, & Co., August 24, 1847
  To Smith, Elder, & Co., September 12, 1847
  To W. S. Williams, October 28, 1847
  To W. S. Williams, January 28, 1848
  To G. H. Lewes, November 6, 1847
  G. H. Lewes, Fraser s Magazine, December 1847
  To W. S. Williams, December 11, 1847
  To W. S. Williams, August 14, 1848
  To W. S. Williams, Early September 1848
 The Christian Remembrancer and The Quarterly
  From The Christian Remembrancer, January 1848
  Elizabeth Rigby, The Quarterly Review, December 1848
  To W. S. Williams, January 2, 1849
  To W. S. Williams, February 10[?], 1849
  To W. S. Williams, August 16, 1849
  From "A Word to The Quarterly"
 Elizabeth Gaskell
  Charlotte Brontë and the Critics
  Charlotte Brontë: Author and Woman
  First Impressions of Charlotte Brontë
  Charlotte Brontë at Home
  Charlotte Brontë's Working Habits

Criticism
 Adrienne Rich • Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman
 Sandra M. Gilbert • A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane's Progress
 Jerome Beaty • St. John's Way and the Wayward Reader
 Lisa Sternlieb • Jane Eyre: "Hazarding Confidences"
 Jeffrey Sconce • [The Cinematic Reconstitution of Jane Eyre]
 Donna Marie Nudd • The Pleasure of Intertextuality: Reading Jane Eyre Television and Film Adaptations

Charlotte Brontë: A Chronology
Selected Bibliography

Tags: Literature, LiteraryCriticism, 19CEngland

John Sutherland, "Can Jan...zles in Classic Fiction" 2 puzzles on Brontë novels

Julia Prewitt Brown, "A R...th-Century English Novel"

Ian Gregor (ed), "Reading...Novel: Detail into Form"

Daniel Pool, "What Jane A...neteenth-Century England"

John Sutherland, "Who Bet...ction (World's Classics)" 1 puzzle on Brontë novels

Kristine Hughes, "The Wri...cy and Victorian England"