Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres

(NYTBR) - Early in Queen Victoria’s reign, 30 percent of adult Englishwomen were single — and considered, as one social commentator put it, “redundant.”
If of gentle birth and no means, without a family to care for, an extra woman naturally sought work as a governess. Living in another family’s home made romance unlikely and isolation inevitable, with poverty and unemployment always on the horizon. It was a grim life, grimmer still because it was the only choice open to many. As Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre decides, “I want this because it is of no use wanting anything better.” Continued

Illustration: BBC