Jane Eyre - Second Edition

Jane Eyre, the story of a young girl and her passage into adulthood, was an immediate commercial success at the time of its original publication in 1847. Its representation of the underside of domestic life and the hypocrisy behind religious enthusiasm drew both praise and bitter criticism, while Charlotte Brontë’s striking exposé of poor living conditions for children in charity schools as well as her poignant portrayal of the limitations faced by women who worked as governesses sparked great controversy and social debate. Jane Eyre, Brontë’s best-known novel, remains an extraordinary coming-of-age narrative and one of the great classics of literature. The second edition has been updated throughout to reflect recent scholarship and includes new appendices on violence against women in Victorian fiction and madness and disability in the Victorian era.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction Charlotte Brontë: A Brief Chronology A Note on the Text Jane Eyre Appendix A: Prefatory Material to Subsequent Editions of Jane Eyre 1. Preface to the Second Edition of Jane Eyre 2. Note to the Third Edition of Jane Eyre Appendix B: Jane Eyre and the Proper Young Woman 1. From Sarah Stickney Ellis, The Daughters of England: Their Position in Society, Character and Responsibilities (1842) Appendix C: Representations of Violence against Women in Victorian Fiction 1. From Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1838) 2. From Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (1847) 3. From Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) 4. From George Eliot, “Janet’s Repentance,” Scenes of Clerical Life (1858) 5. From Thomas Frost, The Mysteries of Old Father Thames (1848) 6. From Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) Appendix D: Race, Empire, and the West Indies 1. [Thomas Carlyle,] “Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question,” Fraser’s Magazine (December 1849) 2. [John Stuart Mill,] “The Negro Question,” Fraser’s Magazine (January 1850) 3. Punch, The Jamaica Question Appendix E: Mental Illness and Disability in the Victorian Period 1. From An Act for the Amendment and better Administration of the Laws relating to the Poor in England and Wales (1834) 2. From Danby P. Fry, The Lunacy Acts (1864) Works Cited and Select Bibliography

About the Author :
Richard Nemesvari is Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies and former Dean of Arts at Wilfrid Laurier University. He is General Editor of the Cambridge University Press edition of the novels and stories of Thomas Hardy and has published widely on Victorian fiction. He also co-edited Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Aurora Floyd for this series.

Review :
Praise for the first edition “Joining fiction to history, this edition of Jane Eyre illustrates the way in which literature addresses important moral and political issues. The original nineteenth-century documents in the appendices provide an invaluable opportunity for readers to view the novel in both its biographical and its historical contexts; it illustrates, in a broader sense, how literature is a vital element in the discourse of an age and thus helps shape history.” — Micael M. Clarke, Loyola University Chicago “While the student who approaches Jane Eyre for the first time or the reader unfamiliar with Victorian culture will find Richard Nemesvari’s introduction and annotations very useful, most helpful of all are the appendices, which place the novel in the context of Victorian writing on governesses, gender roles, empire, and race. The Broadview edition of Jane Eyre makes it possible for readers to approach Brontë’s novel with a fuller sense of how it engages important Victorian social issues. An excellent introduction to Jane Eyre in its time.” — Mary Ellis Gibson, University of North Carolina - Greensboro