Jane Eyre [Rare Book]

Never before had English readers met a heroine like Jane-small, plain, and even bold and unladylike. Never before had they read such a searching portrayal of pas- sion. Nor had they entered so completely into the character of the narrator, seeing everyone and everything through her eyes and her emotions.

The first person narrative, or auto- biographical technique, had certainly been used before, but not so subjectively, so per- sonally. Indeed, Charlotte Brontë was the first subjective novelist, the literary ances- tress of Proust and James Joyce.