To
W. M. Thackeray, Esq.
This work
is respectfully inscribed,
by
the author
The manuscript of Jane Eyre survives in the British Museum (Add. MSS 43474-6). This is the actual manuscript used by the printers to set the first edition of the novel, published in October 1847. The latter was not completely free from errors, and there were also differences between the manuscript and the first edition, which were probably due to Charlotte Brontё's proof-corrections. The immediate popular success of Jane Eyre meant that a second edition quickly appeared, in January 1848. In this edition some of the earlier errors were corrected, but others crept in. Again, there were alterations, which were almost certainly due to the author. Almost at once (April 1848) there was issued a third edition of this best-selling novel. Here the pattern continued of correction of old misprints, introduction of new, and revision by the author (Charlotte's own list of errata in the second edition survives). There was one more edition of Jane Eyre in Charlotte's lifetime, the one-volume edition of 1850. It does not seem that she was involved in the preparation of this version.
The text used in this Washington Square Press Enriched Classics Jane Eyre is from the third edition: in other words, the last edition published in Charlotte Brontё's lifetime in which she is known to have been responsible for revisions.