Jane Steele Lyndsay Faye Headline Review 2016 420 Pages The Gothic romance novel as practiced by Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, Susan Howatch et al had a more respectable literary ancestor; Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Bronte. This landmark novel established the basic tropes of the genre – the much put-upon virtuous orphan-turned-governess who falls in love with her tall, dark and brooding employer whose gloomy, isolated estate harbors a mysterious dark secret. Much misadventure and travail usually culminates in the requisite happily-ever-after, with the lovers finally married. Reading the Charlotte Bronte original, I often experienced extreme irritation at the eponymous heroine’s ...