Jane Eyre was a forceful and resource character who, when beginning life at the wrong end of the gender and class relations of 19th century England, did the best with what she had and prevailed.

FORBES: Jane Eyre: Lustful Feminist

She accepted the class and gender relations of the times and merely brokered them to best of her considerable ability for her individual success.

FORBES: Jane Eyre: Lustful Feminist

From this vantage point, Codevilla was able to get a close look not only at the international relations elite, but at the entire American ruling class, from which the former are overwhelmingly drawn.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Pavan Varma, the director-general of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, also thinks that in at least one respect the middle class of his own country behaves more like members of its elite than as a distinctive group of its own.

ECONOMIST: Beyond Wisteria Lane