Ten of the best governesses in literature

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the most memorable governesses in literature.

One entry on the list:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Brontë's narrator and heroine is the queen of governesses. After a miserable childhood, clever, plain Jane is hired by Mr Rochester to teach his ward, Adele ... and soon establishes herself as the moral linchpin of the household.

Read about another entry on the list.

Jane Eyre also made Megan Abbott's top ten list of novels of teenage friendship, a list of Bettany Hughes's six best books, the Guardian's top 10 lists of "outsider books" and "romantic fiction;" it appears on Lorraine Kelly's six best books list, Esther Freud's top ten list of love stories, and Jessica Duchen's top ten list of literary Gypsies, and on John Mullan's lists of ten of the best men dressed as women, ten of the best weddings in literature, ten of the best locked rooms in literature, ten of the best pianos in literature, ten of the best breakfasts in literature, ten of the best smokes in fiction, and ten of the best cases of blindness in literature. It is one of Kate Kellaway's ten best love stories in fiction.

The Page 99 Test: Jane Eyre.

--Marshal Zeringue