On 15 February 2002, Margaret Sheils wrote with the following query: "I am currently reading Jane Eyre (2nd ed.), and I have no one else to ask. Are the references to _____shire, something the editors or author left blank? All throughout chapter X this omission occurs."
GPL: This is standard eighteenth- and nineteenth-century practice to create a sense of realism: the author leaves out the name of the country or person, thus pretending it is a real one and that he or she does not wish to intrude upon the privacy of real people.
Last modified February 2002