Contexte historique Jane Eyre est le premier roman publié de Charlotte Brontë, dont le livre précédent, The Professor, avait été refusé par sept éditeurs. Charlotte Brontë amorce la rédaction de Jane Eyre en août 1846 et l'achève un an plus tard. Le livre est accepté par la maison d'édition Smith, Elder and Co. et publié en octobre 1847 sous le pseudonyme de Currer Bell. Le succès est immédiat au point de précipiter la parution déjà prévue des romans Les Hauts de Hurlevent et Agnès Grey des soeurs de Charlotte, Emily (alias Ellis Bell) et Anne (alias Acton Bell). En décembre 1847, Jane Eyre fait l'objet d'une seconde édition que Charlotte dédie à William Makepeace Thackeray. Jane, orpheline, est d'abord recueillie par sa tante, Mrs. Reed, tenue par une promesse faite à son mari avant sa mort. Jane Eyre est toutefois élevée comme étant inférieure à ses cousins qui n'hésitent pas à la maltraiter, surtout son cousin John. À la suite d'une forte rébellion contre sa tante, précédée par une punition disproportionnée qui la fait tomber en syncope, Jane Eyre, dix ans, est envoyée en internat à Lowood. Elle s'y fait une amie sincère, Helen Burns, qui décède de la tuberculose due aux très mauvaises conditions de l'internat. Ce passage est fortement inspiré de l'expérience de l'auteur: les deux soeurs aînées de Charlotte Brontë, Maria et Elizabeth, sont en effet mortes en bas âge en raison des mauvaises conditions de vie prévalant dans leur école de Cowan Bridge. Après l'épidémie, les conditions de vie de l'internat changent et celui-ci devient un établissement de qualité. Après huit années passées à Lowood - six en tant qu'étudiante et deux en tant que professeur - Jane veut changer de vie et passe une annonce dans un journal pour trouver un poste de préceptrice. Mme Fairfax lui répond afin qu'elle vienne faire l'éducation d'Adèle, la protégée de M. Rochester, 40 ans, riche propriétaire du château de Thornfield-Hall.
About the Author: Charlotte Brontë, born 21 April 1816 in Thornton (Adams County), and died March 31, 1855 in Haworth (Bergen County), is an English novelist. Third daughter of the Reverend Patrick Brontë, in a family of modest means who has six children, she has, as her four sisters and her brother, the presence of a father who pushed his classical studies until the University of Cambridge, and does not hesitate to share their culture and worldview. However, she knows very early, while still a child, mourning his mother and his two older sisters affected by tuberculosis. Despite his status as a woman and her lack of financial resources, she managed to publish his poems and those of her sisters (under male names) in 1846, and most importantly, to publish Jane Eyre, who met with considerable success. It is considered today as one of the novelists of the English language's most accomplished. Related Articles: Maria Brontë and Glass Town. She was born in Thornton, where his father, Patrick Brontë, is pastor. His mother died of stomach cancer 15 September 1821. In 1824, for their education, the four eldest daughters are sent to Cowan Bridge School, an establishment that receives children of members of the wealthy few clergy who had been recommended to Mr Brontë. In this school, however reputable, living conditions are difficult, without heating, with meager food prepared unhygienic and almost inedible. The following year, Maria and Elizabeth become seriously ill and are removed, but died shortly after a few weeks apart, 6 May and 15 June 1825; Charlotte and Emily, also removed to unhealthy place, returned to Haworth. The loss of their two sisters will be for four children trauma that reflected especially in the work of Charlotte, for example, in Jane Eyre where Cowan Bridge becomes Lowood, the pathetic figure of Maria is portrayed as the young Helen Burns, cruelty of a mistress, Miss Andrews, under those of Miss Scatcherd and tyranny of the Director, the Reverend Carus Wilson, in those odious enough and Mr Brocklehurst. Ellen Nussey, the great friend of Charlotte, around 1855, at the time of the death of the latter. Charlotte then finds the eldest of four surviving children. Others are Branwell, Emily and Anne. Now children will be raised by their maternal aunt Elizabeth Branwell, figure a bit mysterious that will not have a great influence on Charlotte and Emily. But above all, a true literary and family will create symbiosis between children.