Romance · Gothic
Jane Eyre
A poor governess falls for her moody employer, but strange laughter echoes from the top floor of his house.
Five levels, about 80 languages
- A2ElementaryShort sentences and everyday words.
- B1IntermediateYou follow clear stories about familiar things.
- B2Upper intermediateLonger sentences, richer vocabulary.
- C1AdvancedClose to the original, lightly condensed.
- C2ProficientThe complete novel.
One purchase is one book, in one language, at one level: $4.99. Another level of a book you own is $1.99. Editions nobody has asked for yet are written on request: chapter 1 in a few minutes, the rest while you read. How the levels work.
About the book
An orphan at Gateshead
Jane Eyre is ten, an orphan living unwanted with her cruel aunt, Mrs Reed. Punished for fighting back against her bullying cousin, she is locked in the red room where her uncle died, and the terror of that night never quite leaves her. She is sent to Lowood, a harsh charity school, where she learns, suffers and eventually becomes a teacher. At eighteen she advertises for a post as a governess and is hired at Thornfield Hall, by a man she has never met: Mr Rochester. Charlotte Brontë published it in 1847 under the name Currer Bell, and it was an immediate success.
Why it works for learners
Jane tells her own story in a voice that is direct, honest and passionate. She says what she feels and why, which makes even complex emotions easy to follow in a new language. The book moves through clearly separate places, each a world of its own: a cold family home, a strict school, a mysterious manor, the open moor. The vocabulary is house and school, weather and landscape, feeling and conscience. Jane’s pupil at Thornfield, little Adèle, is French, and Jane, who learned French at Lowood, speaks it with her; in the original, those lines are often left untranslated.
Which level to start at
B1 for the story, which is gripping and survives retelling very well. B2 for the full force of Jane’s voice and her arguments with Rochester. C1 and C2 bring Brontë’s own rhythms, intense and sometimes long; the narration, with Jane’s voice telling her own story, helps you keep the thread.
Read next
- Wuthering Heights, her sister Emily’s novel of the same year
- Pride and Prejudice, another heroine who speaks her mind
- The Woman in White, secrets in a great house