Mr. Rochester

Edward Fairfax Rochester has stood as one of literature’s most complex and captivating romantic heroes.

Sometimes cruel, sometimes tender, Jane Eyre’s mercurial master at Thornfield Hall has mesmerized, beguiled, and, yes, baffled fans of Charlotte Bronte’s masterpiece for generations.

But his own story has never been told.

We first meet this tormented hero as a motherless boy roaming Thornfield’s lonely corridors.

On the morning of Edward’s eighth birthday, his father declares that the boy is to be sent away to get an education.

Young Edward’s journey will take him across working-class England and the decadence of continental Europe before he lands on the languid shores of Jamaica, where his inheritance lies.

That island, however, holds secrets of its own, and Edward soon grows entangled in morally dubious business dealings and a passionate, whirlwind love affair with the town’s ravishing heiress, Bertha Antoinetta Mason.

Eventually, in the wake of a devastating betrayal, Edward must return to England with his increasingly unstable wife to take over as master of Thornfield.

And it is there, that he meets the stubborn, plain young governess who will steal his heart and teach him how to love again.