The news is that there is a television adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre in the works to be released in time for the 180th year of the novel’s publication. This is the latest in the list of several screen projects based on the book, both faithful versions and modern-day retellings. The 210th birth anniversary of the author of this classic novel was on April 21, and it is interesting to explore why the writer and her best-known book have survived the test of time.

Enduring appeal of Jane Eyre

The complicated love story between Jane and the much-imitated brooding hero, Rochester, has enthralled readers and viewers for decades. At a time when female independence was unthinkable, Bronte’s heroine declared, "I desired liberty; for liberty I gasped; for liberty I uttered a prayer; it seemed scattered on the wind then faintly blowing."

Jane Eyre was one of the most influential books of its time, published under the male pseudonym Currer Bell, because women were not encouraged to write. “The novel received phenomenal critical acclaim, causing a sensation among Victorian readers,” writes Lucy Rahim in bookishly.co.uk.

“Most notable was the insight Brontë provided into the soul of her protagonist; her visceral examination of human emotion which influenced the modern English novel and the concept of the self. More generally, the novel is famous for the romance between the smouldering, Byronic Mr Rochester and the innocent, moralistic Jane, who share an explosive and agonising passion, a relationship that has set the blueprint for many a fictional couple ever since.”

Debate on feminist interpretation

She also quotes an acclaimed study by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar highlighting the text’s ‘rebellious feminism’.........

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