Editing Jane Eyre (section)

==Reception==

=== Contemporary reviews ===
''Jane Eyre''{{'}}s initial reception contrasts starkly to its reputation today. In 1848, Elizabeth Rigby (later [[Elizabeth Eastlake]]), reviewing ''Jane Eyre'' in [[Quarterly Review|''The Quarterly Review'']], found it "pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition,"<ref name="Shapiro">{{cite journal|last=Shapiro|first=Arnold|title=In Defense of Jane Eyre|journal=SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900|date=Autumn 1968|volume=8|issue=4|page=683|doi=10.2307/449473|jstor=449473}}</ref> declaring: "We do not hesitate to say that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine abroad, and fostered [[Chartism]] and rebellion at home, is the same which has also written ''Jane Eyre.''"<ref name="Shapiro"/>

An anonymous review in [[John Limbird|''The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction'']] writes of "the extraordinary daring of the writer of ''Jane Eyre''"; however, the review is mostly critical, summarising: "There is not a single natural character throughout the work. Everybody moves on stilts—the opinions are bad—the notions absurd. Religion is stabbed in the dark—our social distinctions attempted to be levelled, and all absurdly moral notions done away with."<ref>{{cite web|title=Anonymous review of Jane Eyre|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/anonymous-review-of-jane-eyre|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227043924/http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/anonymous-review-of-jane-eyre|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 December 2014|website=The British Library|access-date=13 September 2021}}</ref>

There were some who felt more positive about the novel contemporaneously. [[George Henry Lewes]] said, "It reads like a page out of one's own life; and so do many other pages in the book."<ref>{{cite web |title=Review of Jane Eyre by George Henry Lewes |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/review-of-jane-eyre-by-george-henry-lewes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713095249/http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/review-of-jane-eyre-by-george-henry-lewes |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 July 2014 |access-date=15 June 2021 |website=The British Library }}</ref> Another critic from the ''[[The Atlas (newspaper)|Atlas]]'' wrote, "It is full of youthful vigour, of freshness and originality, of nervous diction and concentrated interest ...It is a book to make the pulses gallop and the heart beat, and to fill the eyes with tears."<ref>{{cite news |title=Jane Eyre: contemporary critiques |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/jane-eyre-contemporary-critiques-wqhklj7dxsd |work=The Sunday Times |date=14 March 2003 |access-date=31 August 2021 }}</ref>

A review in [[The Era (newspaper)|''The Era'']] praised the novel, calling it "an extraordinary book", observing that "there is much to ponder over, rejoice over, and weep over, in its ably-written pages. Much of the heart laid bare, and the mind explored; much of greatness in affliction, and littleness in the ascendant; much of trial and temptation, of fortitude and resignation, of sound sense and Christianity—but no tameness."<ref>{{cite web|title=Review of Jane Eyre from the Era|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/review-of-jane-eyre-from-the-era|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713175212/http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/review-of-jane-eyre-from-the-era|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 July 2014|website=The British Library|access-date=14 September 2021}}</ref>

''The People's Journal'' compliments the novel's vigour, stating that "the reader never tires, never sleeps: the swell and tide of an affluent existence, an irresistible energy, bears him onward, from first to last. It is impossible to deny that the author possesses native power in an uncommon degree—showing itself now in rapid headlong recital, now in stern, fierce, daring dashes in portraiture—anon in subtle, startling mental anatomy—here in a grand illusion, there in an original metaphor—again in a wild gush of genuine poetry."<ref>{{cite web |title=Jane Eyre: An Autobiography. Edited by Currer Bell. Three Volumes |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092842616&view=1up&seq=319&skin=2021|work=The People's Journal |date=1848 |access-date=16 September 2021}}</ref>

American publication ''The Nineteenth Century'' defended the novel against accusations of immorality, describing it as "a work which has produced a decided sensation in this country and in England... ''Jane Eyre'' has made its mark upon the age, and even palsied the talons of mercenary criticism. Yes, critics hired to abuse or panegyrize, at so much per line, have felt a throb of human feeling pervade their veins, at the perusal of ''Jane Eyre''. This is extraordinary—almost preternatural—smacking strongly of the miraculous—and yet it is true... We have seen ''Jane Eyre'' put down, as a work of gross immorality, and its author described as the very incarnation of sensualism. To any one, who has read the work, this may look ridiculous, and yet it is true."<ref>{{cite journal |title=Sensual Critics. Jane Eyre, By Currer Bell. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433081665931&view=1up&seq=201&skin=2021|journal=The Nineteenth Century |date=1848 | pages=3 v |access-date=17 September 2021| last1=Burr | first1=C. Chauncey }}</ref>

''The Indicator'', concerning speculation regarding the gender of the author, wrote, "We doubt not it will soon cease to be a secret; but on one assertion we are willing to risk our critical reputation—and that is, that no woman wrote it. This was our decided conviction at the first perusal, and a somewhat careful study of the work has strengthened it. No woman in all the annals of feminine celebrity ever wrote such a style, terse yet eloquent, and filled with energy bordering sometimes almost on rudeness: no woman ever conceived such masculine characters as those portrayed here."<ref>{{cite web |title=Jane Eyre. |url=https://archive.org/details/indicatoraliter00collgoog/page/n37/mode/2up?view=theater|work=The Indicator |date=1848 |access-date=17 September 2021}}</ref>

=== Twentieth century ===
Literary critic Jerome Beaty believed the close first-person perspective leaves the reader "too uncritically accepting of her worldview", and often leads reading and conversation about the novel towards supporting Jane, regardless of how irregular her ideas or perspectives are.<ref name = BeatyNC>Beaty, Jerome. "St. John's Way and the Wayward Reader" in {{cite book |last=Brontë|first=Charlotte |title=Jane Eyre |year=2001|orig-year=1847 |publisher=W W Norton & Company|isbn=0393975428|pages=[https://archive.org/details/janeeyreauthorit2001bron/page/491 491–502]|edition=Norton Critical Edition, Third|editor-first=Richard J. |editor-last=Dunn |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/janeeyreauthorit2001bron/page/491}}</ref>

In 2003, the novel was ranked number 10 in the [[BBC]]'s survey [[The Big Read]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml |title=The Big Read |work=BBC |date=April 2003 |access-date=21 December 2013}}</ref>