The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. This is a story of a defiant, fiercely intelligent woman who refuses to accept her appointed place in society and instead finds love on her own terms has become famous as one of the greatest romances ever written.

The Penguin English Library Edition of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

'The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself'

Passionate, poetic and revolutionary, Jane Eyre is a novel of naked emotional power. Its story of a defiant, fiercely intelligent woman who refuses to accept her appointed place in society - and instead finds love on her own terms - has become famous as one of the greatest romances ever written, but it is also a brooding Gothic mystery, a profound depiction of character and a transformative work of the imagination.

The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.