ABSTRACT
The richer and denser the text the more likely that, in its language and country of origin, life will mean change: new generations will read it differently, and new texts will be generated from it. Jane Eyre was first published in London, by Smith, Elder, in October 1847. Within four months the Leipzig firm of Tauchnitz had published an English-language edition for distribution across the Continent. Although the Smith, Elder editions could be had in selected bookshops in large centres such as Paris, by far the majority of copies of Jane Eyre in English read on the Continent bore the Tauchnitz imprint. While the Tauchnitz volumes of Jane Eyre spread across the Continent, serving as the source text for translations, a British copyright agreement with France was being negotiated. The power of the translator over the text was a subject of concern to many of Charlotte Bronte's contemporaries.
