Jane Eyre

By: Charlotte Brontë

Narrated by: Elizabeth Klett

Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

Primarily of the Bildungsroman genre, Jane Eyre follows the emotions and experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr. Rochester, the Byronic master of fictitious Thornfield Hall. In its internalization of the action - the focus is on the gradual unfolding of Jane's moral and spiritual sensibility, and all the events are colored by a heightened intensity that was previously the domain of poetry - Jane Eyre revolutionized the art of fiction. Charlotte Brontë has been called the "first historian of the private consciousness" and the literary ancestor of writers like Joyce and Proust. The novel contains elements of social criticism, with a strong sense of morality at its core, but is nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of its time given the individualistic character of Jane and the novel's exploration of classism, sexuality, religion, and proto-feminism.

Public Domain (P)2016 Paperless

I love this book!

This is not the first time that I've read it & I know that it won't be my last either. Yes, it's that good!

A riveting performance.

As I have read this book on paper many times, the story held no surprises for me. But I was very pleasantly surprised by the performance. I found both the voice and the manner of the reading ideally suited for the first person narrative of the book. I have listened to samples of all the other unabridged editions I could find and none of the others sounded quite right for the steadfast yet passionate character that is Jane Eyre. But Elizabeth Klett's performance makes this book truly come to life. Her voice matches my impressions of Jane Eyre so perfectly that it is now inextricably linked in my mind to Jane Eyre of my imagination.

PLEASE HELP STOP THIS ABUSE!!!

I deeply appreciate every one of the followers who will get an email of this review. I hope you all read this and help do something about it. Injustice is found in many places, and most of the time, there isn't much to be done about it, but I'd love to see this one little thing change.

The narrator of this audiobook version of this title in the Public Domain donated her time and talent to the production of it. She and dozens of other wonderful people have done this through Librivox, a fantastic organization that provides audiobook versions of PD works ABSOLUTELY FREE TO THE PUBLIC!!!!!!! This is a lovely service that allows everyone with a computer or device to have FREE access to thousands of classics in the PD, like Dickens, Austen, Twain, etc.

"Paperless," is NOT the rightful publisher of these works. Its agents have downloaded this and many other titles from Librivox, slapped book covers on them and defrauded Audible into believing that they somehow have a right to sell these FREE books for profit. To be clear, they have every right in the world to hire a narrator or narrate them on their own and THEN profit from them. However, this is not the case. The written TEXT may be in the PD, but the artists put their spin on these works and then donated THEIR versions to Librivox. THEY did the work, and THEY donated that product.

"Paperless" has simply downloaded these versions that were recorded by artists who actually DID produce them, and then "Paperless" put price tags on them and sold them. Neither the narrators who produced the titles nor Librivox (who provides them for FREE to the world at large) get one dime from these sales. (I have confirmed this.) "Paperless" gets paid for taking FREE offerings from a group of people who have gone out of their way to make the world a better place out of sheer kindness.

It IS legal to publish titles in the PD, though I would argue that is only true of the written works, not of these versions which have been enriched with voice talent and interpreted and produced by these artists. I'm not a lawyer, but legal or not, what Paperless is doing is absolutely wrong and needs to stop.

I used a credit to "buy" this book, write this review to spread the word in hopes it will stop this abuse. I will return this book and get my credit back, ensuring this publisher does not profit from other people's generosity. I'm not saying you should do this too, but I'm also not NOT saying it.

Buyer beware!!

Any additional comments?

Listeners should be aware that this version has been taken from a free public domain recording that was never intended to be sold. It is available at Librivox . org for free. The publishers have taken it from that site and had no part in its production. I recorded it for LibriVox, not for Audible. There is a second, identical version for sale at Audible released through a different company. Both companies did this without my knowledge. Elizabeth Klett