Jane Eyre is one of the great romantic heroines of world literature. Orphaned into cold charity at the hands of her rich cousins and, later, at Lowood School, Jane escapes to take up a position as governess to the young ward of Mr Rochester. Their love affair, Jane's discovery of Rochester's secret - hideously concealed in the attic of Thornfield Hall - and her desperate flight are told in a drama of passionate intensity whose pace never slackens. "Jane Eyre" is a love story with a happy ending, rare in its time for its sympathetic portrayal of the love of a married man for another woman. It is, as Thackeray said, "The masterwork of a great genius".