"The Secret History of Jane Eyre: How Charlotte Brontë Wrote Her Masterpiece" by John Pfordresher

Jane Eyre has always been one of my favorite novels and I was excited to see a new non-fiction title about the writing of it. The book was written by a Georgetown professor of English and as such, it is very well researched with plenty of source material cited in the end-notes. I did see some negative reviews of the book, which mostly focused on the way it is structured and on numerous alleged inaccuracies. I myself do not have detailed knowledge of Charlotte Bronte's biography. I, therefore, could not relate to the latter criticisms. As for the former, I quite liked the structure of the book. It basically closely follows the narrative of Bronte's novel, and the author draws parallels between the novel and circumstances of Bronte's life, thus establishing that all the inspiration was born out of Bronte's real life experiences, relationships, dreams and disappointments.

I found this book very informative and easy to follow. I would highly recommend it to all Jane Eyre fans. You do need to know the plot quite well in order to be able to follow the book. 4 out of 5 stars. I quite enjoyed it.