Public domain in the US, the EU and the UK

Jane EyreCharlotte Brontë, 1847

Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel is free: the orphan, the governess, the locked attic and the fire. Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, which tells Bertha's side, is still protected.

First published
1847
Author died
1855
Original language
English
Start my adaptationOriginal texts

Copyright status

Copyright ends at different dates in different countries. Here is where this work stands in the three places most readers release in.
WhereStatus
United StatesPublic domain. First published in 1847, before 1931: the 95-year US term for works of that age has run out.
European Union and United KingdomPublic domain since 1 January 1926. Charlotte Brontë died in 1855, and the term is 70 years after the end of the year of death.
Other countriesMost countries protect a work for 50 to 100 years after its author's death, and some have transition rules. If you release or sell in a specific country, check its law.

Status checked on October 26, 2026 against the sources listed in our legal guide.

Orphaned Jane Eyre survives a cruel aunt and a harsh charity school, then becomes governess at Thornfield Hall, whose brooding master, Mr Rochester, she comes to love. On their wedding day she learns that he already has a wife, Bertha, locked in the attic. Jane flees, nearly starves, finds a new family, and returns only when she is free to choose, to find Thornfield burned and Rochester blinded.

Free to use

  • The 1847 novel: Jane, Rochester, Bertha Mason, Adèle, Mrs Fairfax, St John Rivers, Helen Burns, Lowood and Thornfield.
  • Jane's first-person voice and her famous line "Reader, I married him."
  • A version from Bertha's point of view, as long as you write it yourself.
  • Any setting and any format, including a horror reading of Thornfield.

Watch out for

  • Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966) is protected: Rhys died in 1979. Don't borrow its characters, its Caribbean backstory or its name for Bertha, Antoinette.
  • The scripts, music and designs of the films and series are protected.
  • New translations and annotated editions are protected. Use the 1847 text or an old translation.
  • Never prompt for an actor from a famous version, and check that your Rochester doesn't resemble one.

The full rules, with the laws and court decisions behind them, are in our guide to adapting public domain works.

An adaptation idea

Thornfield as a haunted house: a governess hears laughter in the walls, and the explanation is worse than a ghost.

Format: A gothic feature, or a six-episode series that keeps the attic's secret until episode four.

Adapt it in ScreenWeaver

These are the steps as they run in ScreenWeaver today. You read and edit every step, and you start every generation yourself, in the app.

  1. 1Download the 1847 text below and save it as a PDF with a text layer.
  2. 2Attach it to a project and ask for the characters, places and objects. Create Thornfield and its attic as places with their own reference sheets.
  3. 3Write the art direction: moors in rain, a dark manor lit by candles, a red room. Add a style image of your own.
  4. 4Ask for the scenes, then the shots, and keep Bertha out of frame until the wedding.
  5. 5Generate the frames in Storyboard, then the clips in Production.

How a whole book becomes scenes and shots: novel to storyboard.

Original texts

Where to get Jane Eyre from a legal source

Questions

Is Jane Eyre public domain?
Yes. Charlotte Brontë published it in 1847 and died in 1855. It is free in the US, the EU and the UK.
Can I tell the story from Bertha's side?
Yes, in your own version. What you can't do is borrow Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, which is a separate protected novel.
Is Jane Eyre long enough for a series?
Yes. Its five settings (Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, Moor House, Ferndean) give a series a natural shape.

General information, not legal advice. Copyright, trademark and personality rights depend on the country and on the facts of each project. For a commercial release, have a lawyer check your chain of rights.

Other works to adapt

Start your adaptation.

Import Jane Eyre, build the cast and the places, write the scenes and cut them into shots. The Screenwriter plan is free.
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