It is over 25 years since I last read this book; it was one of our set texts for Eng Lit O-level, so I remembered it as a source of material for essay-writing rather than as an actual reading pleasure. I had forgotten quite a lot of it:

1. that little Adèle is probably Rochester’s illegitimate daughter
2. the whole death scene of Jane’s aunt
3. Jane’s inheritance from the uncle in Madeira
4. that Jane is actually a rather sassy, assertive teenager, who knows what is best for her and, very gracefully, refuses to take crap from anyone (though like her author she is a bit of a snob and racist)
5. the repeated instances of the supernatural – prophetic dreams, culminating in her hearing Rochester call to her from a hundred miles away – which make it a magical rather than realistic novel
6. that it is actually a very enjoyable book.

My Penguin edition has an excellent introduction and a few well-considered endnotes by Queenie Leavis, which shed extra light on the text without showing off the editor’s command of trivia. Brilliant stuff.