Jane Eyre - English

Jane Eyre (English exercise n°616 - Please quote this number when contacting us)

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Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
She was the third daughter of Patrick Brontë,curate of Haworth,Yorkshire.Her mother died in 1821 and she was sent with her sisters in a boarding school.A few years later,the Brontë sisters were educated in their remote home.From 1835,Charlotte worked as a teacher and governess and in 1842 she went to study languages in Brussels. In 1846, she published with her sisters 'Poems of Currer,Ellis and Aton Bell'. Currer, Ellis, Aton and Bell were pseudonyms for Charlotte,Emily,Ann and Brontë.The work was not promoted and did not sell.
However, in 1847, Charlotte published 'Jane Eyre:An Autobiography' by Carrer Bell and it was a considerable success.
In 1854 she married her father 's curate and died the next year of complications in pregnancy.

From Jane Eyre: An Autobiography (1847)
From Volume 1 Chapter 1

'You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mama says, you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live with gentlemen's children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at mama's expense. Now, I'll teach you to rummage my bookshelves: for they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows'.
I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp:my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.
'Wicked and cruel boy!' I said. 'You are like a murderer-you are like a slavedriver-you are like the Roman emperors!'
I had read Goldsmith's 'History of Rome', and had formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, &c. Also I had drawn parallels in silence, which I never thought thus to have declared aloud.
'What! what!' he cried. 'Did she say that to me? Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana? Won't I tell mama? but first-'
He ran headlong at me: I felt him grasp my hair and shoulder; he had closed with a desperate thing. I really saw him a tyrant: a murderer. I felt a drop or two of blood from my head trickle down my neck, and was sensible of somewhat pungent suffering: these sensations for the time predominated over fear, and I received him in frantic sort. I don't very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me 'Rat! rat!' and bellowed out aloud. Aid was near him: Eliza and Georgiana had run for Mrs Reed, who was upstairs; she now came upon the scene, followed by Bessie and her maid Abbot. We were parted: I heard the words:-
'Dear! dear! what a fury to fly at Master John!'
'Did ever anybody see such a picture of passion?'
Then Mrs Reed subjoined:-
'Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in there.' Four hands were immediately laid upon me, and I was borne up stairs.

English exercise "Jane Eyre" created by anonyme (15-11-2004) with The test builder
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1. Who is Jane?
2. Why is John angry?
3. What happens at the very end of the extract?

End of the free exercise to learn English: Jane Eyre (01.11.2008 14:42)
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