Jane Eyre — The Companion Edition (eBook)
"Reader, I married him" may be the most famous sentence any governess ever wrote — but the book behind it is stranger, angrier, and funnier than its reputation. This is Charlotte Brontë's complete Jane Eyre — all thirty-eight chapters, unabridged, in the text of the 1847 first edition, the printing that appeared under the mysterious name "Currer Bell" — wrapped in a companion written for reading together.
The text is taken from Project Gutenberg eBook #1260 and collated chapter by chapter against an Internet Archive scan of the 1847 first edition (Smith, Elder & Co.): agreement runs 0.924–0.970 per chapter, ten famous probe passages check out in both witnesses, and the edition follows 1847 where it counts — the novel opens at Chapter I, exactly as it first did, because the celebrated preface and the dedication to Thackeray belong to the second edition and are told as a story in the introduction instead of being printed as if they were 1847's. Around the novel: an original introduction telling the Currer Bell story — the rejected first novel, the six-week path from manuscript to print, the Thackeray dedication's painful accident, and the early reviews, from Lewes's praise to the Quarterly Review's famous attack; a Who's Who of Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, and Moor House (two entries fenced until their chapters); four Victorian explainers — the governess's impossible position, Lowood and the charity-school system behind Cowan Bridge, Thornfield's great-house world, and the period's money and customs, from Jane's £30 salary to her £20,000 inheritance; a guide to the key scenes the book turns on; a short life of Charlotte Brontë; a reading schedule in four meetings; and forty-four discussion questions, spoiler-fenced so the secret of the attic stays sealed until Brontë springs it herself in Chapter 26.
The novel's text is public domain. All companion material is original to this edition. This is an independent publication, not affiliated with or endorsed by any other edition or adaptation.
Formats: EPUB eBook ($9.99, this listing). Paperback ($14.99) and hardcover ($24.99) follow on KDP; the printable Book Club Kit is available in this store.