Jane Eyre (Edited Classic)

A poor, unwanted orphan, Jane Eyre seems destined to live a sad and ordinary life. But chance has brought her to Thornfield, home of Mr. Rochester, and secrets no one will explain. Who is the laughing woman in the third-floor room? What dark memories torment Mr. Rochester? Can a governess help the master of Thornfield Hall overcome the horror of his past? Or will that past haunt them both . . . forever?

Townsend Library classics have been edited to make them more accessible to todays readers. But the books have not been abridged in the sense of shortening them by sacrificing story development, character richness, and the authors voice. In our experience, abridged books result from a simplistic removal of large chunks of material or a formulaic translation that robs a book of its distinctive flavor. By contrast, as we produce a Townsend Library title, we seek to edit the material carefully and respectfully in order to preserve the qualities that have made the book a classic.

TL editors approach every book entirely on its own merits, guided constantly by these questions:

What will get in the way of a readers enjoyment of this wonderful story?

How can the story be made more readable while preserving the integrity of the original book?

Revising Jane Eyre was mostly a matter of slightly simplifying complex sentences and deleting or explaining unfamiliar 19th-century English terms. For instance, a reference to the valuable "plate" in a house is changed to "silver"; the phrase "a false front of French curls" is changed to "a wig of French curls"; the word "benefactress" is changed to "guardian." The original sentence, "Or was the vault under the chancel of Gateshead Church an inviting bourne?" is changed in the TL version to, "Did I really think that the cemetery at Gateshead Church would be an inviting home?"