Boston; Beijing; and Texas | Nov. 05, 2026, 12:12 p.m. ET | 4 min read

When Charlotte Brontë released her 1847 novel “Jane Eyre,” about a young woman coming of age among the moors and manors of northern England, the book certainly had its critics.

The focus on Jane’s rich, internal world was radical for the time. Some readers bristled at the depiction of a self-assured, outspoken child – nothing like the sweet little girls who appeared in Charles Dickens’ novels – and decried the book’s emotional intensity as “coarse.”

“We are talking about the Victorian period, after all,” says Sue Newby, learning officer at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England. But even still, these critics were the minority. The book was an immediate bestseller, and has only grown more popular in the nearly 180 years since.

That’s why Ms. Newby – and many parents – are so stumped by the novel’s recent debut on PEN America’s banned books list.…