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Jane Eyre

By Charlotte Brontë

The novel is set somewhere in the north of England. Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she acquires friends and role models but also suffers privations and oppression; her time as the governess of Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; her…

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Edition
Project Gutenberg eBook #1260 — English text of the 1847 novel; use text-only body
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44 jurisdictions · latest check 31 Aug 2026

author; writer of the Preface and the "Note to the Third Edition" that appear in the plain-text file Charlotte Brontë (pseudonym: Currer Bell) died 1855. All identified copyright-relevant edition contributors are beyond the conservative expiry cutoff applied from the cited jurisdictional duration rule as of 2026-08-31.

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Jane Eyre

Something creaked: it was a door ajar; and that door was Mr. Rochester’s, and the smoke rushed in a cloud from thence. I thought no more of Mrs. Fairfax; I thought no more of Grace Poole, or the laugh: in an instant, I was within the chamber. Tongues of flame darted round the bed: the curtains were on fire. In the midst of blaze and vapour, Mr. Rochester lay stretched motionless, in deep sleep.

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