In her introduction to her sister's novel, Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Bronte wrote: "The writer who possesses the creative gift owns something that strangely wills and works for itself." This astute observation has an especial application to her own novel, JaneEyre, for it explains and emphasizes how her own creative gift gave vitality and individuality to a novel that has become one of the most highly cherished  treasures in English fiction. Since Jane Eyre is partially autobiographical,  it is identified with the pathos in the lives of the Brontes. But it is far more than a personal story; it is a work of the imagination that strangely and beautifully "wills and works" for readers of every taste and inclination.