Illustrating Jane Eyre…with a little bit on Jane Austen | Deborah Barnum

Charlotte Brontë never saw her Jane Eyre illustrated, unlike many of her contemporaries who published serially with accompanying illustrations. It is such a visual book and the number and variety of artistic renderings through the years is quite daunting. This talk will be a visual journey through several of the illustrated editions of Jane Eyre that began in 1872, 15 years after its original publication and the different ways the artists portray particular scenes or characters in the novel, and why some might work better than others. I will also compare the work of the very few illustrators who took on Jane Austen as well.

Deborah Barnum, a former law librarian, is the owner of Bygone Books, an online shop of collectible books. She co-founded the JASNA-Vermont Region and is currently the Advisory Chair for the South Carolina Region. She authors the “Jane Austen in Vermont” blog, is on the…