Why did Charlotte Bronte go to such great lengths on the publication of her acclaimed, best-selling novel, Jane Eyre, to conceal its authorship from her family, close friends, and the press? In The Secret History of Jane Eyre, John Pfordresher tells the enthralling story of Bronte's compulsion to write her masterpiece and why she then turned around and vehemently disavowed it.

Few people know how quickly Bronte composed Jane Eyre. Nor do many know that she wrote it during a devastating and anxious period in her life. Thwarted in her passionate, secret, and...