Read the text and then answer the questions to test your understanding.
JANE EYRE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Edited by Currer Bell.
This is an extraordinary book. Although a work of
fiction, there is nothing but nature and truth about it;
neither is it too close to reality. There is nothing morbid,
nothing vague, nothing improbable about the story of
Jane Eyre; at the same time it lacks neither romance
nor sentiment. On the other hand, we are not taken to
vulgar scenes, and made acquainted with low
mysteries. We have no high life glorified, nor low life
elevated to an enviable state of bliss; neither have we
vice made charming. The story is, therefore, unlike all
that we have read, with very few exceptions; and for
power of thought and expression, we do not know its
rival among modern productions.
The tale is one of the heart, and the working out of a
moral through the natural affections; it is the victory of
mind over matter; the mastery of reason over feeling,
without unnatural sacrifices. The writer dives deep into
human life, and possesses the gift of being able to write
as he thinks and feels. The figures are not elaborately
executed, but true, bold, well-defined, and full of life -
struck off by an artist who embodies his imaginings in a
touch.
The story itself is unique. An orphan girl - a mere child -
is sent from her “home” where she was regarded as an
interloper, and cruelly treated by her relations. She
remains at a sort of half-charity half boarding-school,
where she is severely disciplined and half-starved;
plain, stunted, but educated, and endowed with a
superior understanding, she becomes a governess in a
family. She captivates the mind of a man of uncommon
intellect and some eccentricity.
She loved, and was beloved - she adored, and was
worshipped. There is a secret in the life of her admirer.
This we will not disclose, for we recommend the book
strongly to our readers, and have told what we think will
expire their curiosity. The career of this orphan, whose
early cup of life is full of bitters, is admirably depicted.
The events in which she figures, or with which she is in
any way connected, are nothing to the reflections which
are made to spring out of them. The apt, eloquent,
elegant, and yet easy mode by which the writer
engages you, is something altogether out of the
common way. He fixes you at the commencement, and
there is no flagging on his part - no getting away on
your's - till the end. You discover, in every chapter, that
you are not simply amused, not only interested, not
merely excited, but you are improved; you are receiving
a delightful and comprehensible lesson, and you put
down the volume with the consciousness of having
benefited.
Unsigned review published in the Era (14 November 1847)