One of the finest novels ever written, Jane Eyre is also one of the most misunderstood masterpieces of world literature.Whereas most modern teaching of the text misreads or misinterprets Charlotte Brontë’s devout and profoundly ingrained Christian faith and intentions, this critical edition emphasizes the semi-autobiographical dimension of the novel, exposing feminist critiques of the work as being woefully awry and illustrating Brontë’s belief in the hard-earned, hard-learned blessings of sanctity and reverence.

Jill Kriegel, English Department Chair at St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Greenville, SC, earned her Ph.D. at Florida Atlantic University. Her dissertation explores Augustinian echoes in the works of Charles Dickens. She has published in the Saint Austin Review, including essays on Chaucer, Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, and Dickens. Her essay, “Shakespeare’s Friar Laurence: Romeo and Juliet’s Near-Tragic Hero and a Case Against Natural Magic”, appeared in LOGOS: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture. A slightly amended version of this essay appears also in the Ignatius Critical Edition of Romeo and Juliet.