Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë · Gothic Horror · 38 chapters · 18h 6m · 11 voices

A plain, passionate orphan becomes governess at Thornfield Hall and falls in love with the brooding, sardonic Mr. Rochester — unaware of the terrible secret locked in his attic. A landmark Gothic romance about dignity, love, and independence.

Eighteen hours, thirty-eight chapters, and one of the great first-person voices in English — which makes the casting choice here a deliberate one. Jane narrates her own life, so she is the spine of the recording, and everyone she encounters is set against her: Brocklehurst's pulpit cruelty, Helen Burns's patience, Rochester's testing sarcasm, St John Rivers's cold certainty. Brontë writes arguments, long ones, in which two people hold incompatible positions and neither gives way, and those are the scenes where separate voices stop being a nicety. The Thornfield chapters in particular are almost all dialogue.

The voices that carry it

Rochester and St John Rivers are cast as opposites on purpose — one warm and unreliable, the other correct and frightening — because the last third of the novel is Jane choosing between two kinds of man who both want to define her.

Chapter one plays without an account. Start listening to Jane Eyre.

Voice cast

10 characters plus the narrator, each with their own voice. All the voices of Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre — A small, plain, intensely passionate orphan who refuses to be crushed by poverty or cruelty. Her self-respect and moral clarity are her armour.
Mr. Rochester — The brooding, irregular, sardonic master of Thornfield Hall. Deeply passionate beneath his rough exterior, haunted by a terrible secret in the attic.
Mrs. Fairfax — The pleasant, motherly housekeeper of Thornfield Hall, initially mistaken by Jane for the mistress of the house.
Bessie — Jane's nursemaid at Gateshead who was her only source of warmth as a child. Energetic, kind-hearted, slightly sentimental.
St. John Rivers — The handsome, marble-cold clergyman who discovers Jane and offers her a life of missionary self-sacrifice. His love is duty, not warmth.
Diana Rivers — St. John's warm, spirited sister who befriends Jane with genuine affection.
Miss Ingram — The beautiful, haughty aristocratic rival who everyone expects Rochester to marry. Cold, contemptuous of Jane, ultimately vapid.
Mr. Brocklehurst — The hypocritical treasurer of Lowood School who starves the girls while preaching Christian mortification — and keeps his own daughters in expensive curls.
Helen Burns — Jane's devout, philosophical schoolfriend at Lowood who endures punishment with Christ-like patience and dies of consumption. Her faith is real, not performative.
Adèle — Rochester's French ward, a chatty, affected child who recites poetry and performs for visitors.

Chapters

Chapter I 12m
Chapter II 17m
Chapter III 19m
Chapter IV 34m
Chapter V 29m
Chapter VI 17m
Chapter VII 21m
Chapter VIII 19m
Chapter IX 20m
Chapter X 26m
Chapter XI 40m
Chapter XII 23m
Chapter XIII 24m
Chapter XIV 28m
Chapter XV 29m
Chapter XVI 23m
Chapter XVII 50m
Chapter XVIII 37m
Chapter XIX 21m
Chapter XX 33m
Chapter XXI 49m
Chapter XXII 15m
Chapter XXIII 22m
Chapter XXIV 40m
Chapter XXV 29m
Chapter XXVI 23m
Chapter XXVII 1h 2m
Chapter XXVIII 40m
Chapter XXIX 27m
Chapter XXX 23m
Chapter XXXI 19m
Chapter XXXII 28m
Chapter XXXIII 30m
Chapter XXXIV 56m
Chapter XXXV 26m
Chapter XXXVI 22m
Chapter XXXVII 42m
Chapter XXXVIII 11m

About this recording

Is Jane Eyre a Gothic novel or a romance?

Both, and the catalogue files it under Gothic for the Thornfield chapters: a locked attic, a house with a secret, and a fire. The romance is real but the machinery around it is straight Gothic.

How long is this recording?

About eighteen hours across thirty-eight chapters, making it one of the two longest books in the catalogue. It is a substantial commitment rather than an evening.