Hmm, the Brontes do kind of blend together. I remember thinking that Jane Eyre was kind of over-rated, and I don't remember much about Shirley. I think Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were the most memorable of the bunch.
All right, here's what I've done so far

I have managed to acquire a decent selection of the Barnes & Noble classics. Not all of them, but a fair number. So, I have loaded then, tagged them, converted them etc. in Calibre and sorted them by year. I am going to start my classics reading with these. I'll go in order and for every book, I'll read at minimum the introduction and the first little bit---if I hate it, I'll stop and go onto the next one. If I enjoy it, I'll continue. This will be my 'training wheels' set of classics since it has the intros and all that stuff.
After that, I'll just pick whatever strikes me

I do like the idea of going chronologically, at least for this first push. But I have read plenty of classics out of order and with no harm done before this, and I suppose I am quite capable of reading a Wikipedia blurb if I want some 'context' later