Jane Eyre : an authoritative text, contexts, criticism / Charlotte Bronte ; edited by Richard J. Dunn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855.

Contributor:

Dunn, Richard J., 1938-

Series:

Norton critical edition

A Norton critical edition

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Governesses--Fiction.

Governesses.

England.

Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855. Jane Eyre.

Brontë, Charlotte.

Mentally ill women--Fiction.

Mentally ill women.

England--Fiction.

Genre:

Fiction.

Physical Description:

ix, 534 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Edition:

Third edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Norton, [2001]

Summary:

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

The newly expanded and reorganized "Contexts" section provides an extensive sampling of materials concerning Bronte'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 Bronte's use of Thomas Bewick's History of British Birds. Numerous letters document Jane Eyre's publication and reception history, including Bronte's retorts to negative reviews by Elizabeth Rigby and The Christian Remembrancer. Expanded excerpts from Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Bronte provide a fellow novelist's comments upon Bronte as a woman author and help to explain Bronte'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:

Charlotte Bronte as Student, Governess, and Teacher 389

School Register: Clergy Daughters' School 389

Report of the Cowan Bridge School for Clergymen's Daughters 390

From The Children's Friend 392

Charlotte Bronte at Roe Head 394

Introduction to Bronte's Juvenilia / Christine Alexander 394

"Well, here I am at Roe Head" 399

"Now as I have a little bit of time" 401

"All this day I have been in a dream" 403

"I'm just going to write because I cannot help it" 407

"My compliments to the weather" 409

"About a week since I got a letter from Branwell" 416

Retrospection 417

From "Henry Hastings" 423

Farewell to Angria 424

Charlotte's and Jane's Illustrated Book 425

To W. S. Williams, March 11, 1848 426

Vignettes from Bewick 427

Charlotte Bronte and Bewick's "British Birds" / Jane W. Stedman 428

Charlotte Bronte as Governess 432

To Emily J. Bronte, June 8, 1839 432

To Ellen Nussey, June 30, 1839 433

To W. S. Williams, May 12, 1848 434

"The Governess-Grinders" 437

Charlotte Bronte and Her Publishers, Reviewers, and First Biographer 439

To Smith, Elder, & Co., August 7, 1847 440

To Smith, Elder, & Co., August 24, 1847 440

To Smith, Elder, & Co., September 12, 1847 441

To W. S. Williams, October 28, 1847 442

To W. S. Williams, January 28, 1848 443

To G. H. Lewes, November 6, 1847 444

G. H. Lewes, Fraser's Magazine, December 1847 445

To W. S. Williams, December 11, 1847 447

To W. S. Williams, August 14, 1848 448

To W. S. Williams, Early September 1848 448

The Christian Remembrancer and The Quarterly 449

From The Christian Remembrancer, January 1848 449

Elizabeth Rigby, The Quarterly Review, December 1848 451

To W. S. Williams, January 2, 1849 454

To W. S. Williams, February 10[?], 1849 454

To W. S. Williams, August 16, 1849 455

From "A Word to The Quarterly" 456

Elizabeth Gaskell 457

Charlotte Bronte and the Critics 457

Charlotte Bronte: Author and Woman 459

First Impressions of Charlotte Bronte 460

Charlotte Bronte at Home 460

Charlotte Bronte's Working Habits 463

Criticism

Jane Eyre: The Temptations of a Motherless Woman / Adrienne Rich 469

A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane's Progress / Sandra M. Gilbert 483

St. John's Way and the Wayward Reader / Jerome Beaty 491

Jane Eyre: "Hazarding Confidences" / Lisa Sternlieb 503

[The Cinematic Reconstitution of Jane Eyre] / Jeffrey Sconce 515

The Pleasure of Intertextuality: Reading Jane Eyre Television and Film Adaptations / Donna Marie Nudd 522

Charlotte Bronte: A Chronology 531.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 533-534).

ISBN:

0393975428

OCLC:

50383035