Initially published under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1847, Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre erupted onto the English literary scene, immediately winning the devotion of many of the worlds most renowned writers, including William Makepeace Thackeray, who declared it a work of great genius. Widely regarded as a revolutionary novel, Brontës masterpiece introduced the world to a radical new type of heroine, one whose defiant virtue and moral courage departed sharply from the more acquiescent and malleable female characters of the day. Passionate, dramatic, and surprisingly modern, Jane Eyre endures as one of the worlds most beloved novels. This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition includes newly written explanatory notes.