With the intelligent and strong-willed Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë created one of the most moving portraits of women in English literature. The heroine finds her greatness in the existential struggle between deep longing for love and what ultimately grants the human soul self-respect: the feeling of personal integrity. The fairy-tale-like story of the orphan from Lowood, written by a then completely unknown debutante in a remote English provincial town, quickly secured a lasting place in world literature. Jane Eyre is an extraordinarily independent and headstrong heroine for her time. Even when happiness seems forever out of reach, she remains true to herself. The fate-disadvantaged, outwardly unremarkable young woman wins not only the heart of the brooding Mr. Rochester through her upright character but also the...