Attraction, desire and sex were not proper subjects for a nineteenth century novel and Charlotte Brontë’s clear and open handling of all three in Jane Eyre was shocking, exciting and revolutionary.

Jane Eyre - a small, plain-faced, intelligent and honest English orphan is abused by her aunt and cousins as a child, acquires role models during her education at Lowood Academy, becomes the governess of Thornfield Manor, where she falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward Rochester; spends time with the Rivers family at Marsh's End and Morton, where cousin St John Rivers proposes to her; and is finally reunited with and marries her beloved Rochester at his house of Ferndean.