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Jane Eyre
You've probably heard the expression that a million monkeys typing for a million years eventually will reproduce the works of William Shakespeare. I give "Jane Eyre" one monkey, ten minutes.While recognizing Bronte's derring-do in writing a novel about a homely 17-year-old governess who rejects a virtuous adonis (St. John Rivers) for her much older and unattractive employer, this is a book I cannot see reading again unless it's the only way to save a terminally ill relative.This book is a slow read. And I mean slow. A snail? Greased lightning. Molasses on a cold day? Quicksilver. Eighth-period study hall in high school on a Friday? Over in a flash. We're talking a slow, boring read here, even without the benefit of a high school English teacher's enthusiasm for ruining literature.The novel chronicles the story of Jane Eyre from her childhood as an orphan up until the birth of her first child. Life was hard for orphans in 19th-century England, particularly when their parents' marriage was considered improper. Fair enough, I suppose: that's why Jane's childhood is so rotten, and she is picked on by the cousins she lives with, misliked and mistreated by her aunt and so on. Unfortunately, Bronte's writing is so dry and lifeless that it's hard to care.It just gets worse from there. The book is written in the first person, with the result that we get to hear every self-pitying thought Jane has (and there are plenty of them), about how plain she is, how her employer Mr. Rochester could never love her, how beautiful her imagined rival in love is, and on and on and on for page after tedious page.My standard joke is "This is both good and original. Unfortunately, the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good." I will give Charlotte Bronte the benefit of the doubt, and will say that "Jane Eyre" is thoroughly original. Unlike the works of Shakespeare and a number of other classics of English and world literature, I can't say it is particularly good.Jocko Grinn
Jane Eyre
I have previously reviewed Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair and stated that although I had never read Jane Eyre, I enjoyed Fforde's take on it. I had also prided myself on never having read recreationally anything that could be considered literature that wasn't required for school. I started Jane Eyre with the attitude that I'll read it until I get bored, then stop. I didn't get bored. Charlotte Bronte created a masterpiece that kept me enthralled from start to finish. There was crime, passion, mystery and women's rights rolled into one effort. For the era in which it was written, Jane Eyre was an amazing book showing a woman of intelligence and strong character. Now I have to reread The Eyre Affair to really appreciate it.
Jane Eyre
The first time I had ever heard about Jane Eyre I was a senior in high school, and no it was not required reading. I feel as though more and more the school systems are moving away from great literary classics. I for one did not read very many, and as an English major in college, I find I have to do a lot of catching up on my classics . . . but that's a totally different topic.I saw very early on in Jane Eyre a sort of Cinderella story unfolding, and it turned out to be very close to the story, however it was by no means exactly like the Disney version everyone knows. I loved her struggle, independence and stop-at-nothing-to-be-happy-and-fulfilled drive to change her life. At first I was angry with her for leaving Rochester, but then I felt respect for her because she was just standing up for her morals and values. Plus, it all turns out happy in the end!The one part of the novel I was unhappy with was when she runs off into the country side and coincidentally discovers her long lost cousins, the Rivers. This part of the book is very dry and dull in my opinion. It also gets creepy when her male cousin St. John tries to marry her. Yuck! But, going through that section makes the ending that much more enjoyable and happy. Some men may not like the end, but it is very beautiful and romantic. Cinderella gets her prince. This is a great feminist novel as well.
Jane Eyre
I had never seen any of the movies before I read the book, but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about since the newestJane Eyre [Blu-ray] came out.Jane Eyrehas now become one of my favorite novels. It's great literature, written very beautifully and in which every sentence, every chapter is important to the events in the book. When Jane Eyre begins telling the reader her story, you're immediately drawn in. The book wasn't that difficult for me to read--I occasionally had to look up some words on my Kindle's built in dictionary and I know absolutely no French (some characters speak sentences/words in French, but it's very minor), however this didn't take away from the beauty of the book at all.The whole romance between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester is amazing. It's definitely not trashy...it's classy and sophisticated...it's romantic.Charlotte Bronte evens manages to weave in a deep mystery at Thornfield Hall, done VERY successfully. I love mysteries and I had my own hypothesis of "who-done-it" and why, and was WRONG. I love that.I don't want to give anything away, if you're a new reader like I was. The movies do not even compare to the book (I went to compare as soon as I finished the book); the book is so much better, it's a delicious classic to read. I was very sad to finally put the book down when I was finished. Jane Eyre is a must read, and definitely a re-read. One of my top favorite books now.For Kindle readers: There are little to no errors in the Kindle Edition ofJane Eyre. Reading on the kindle definitely took out the anxiety factor of reading a thick book. No TOC. The only thing that slightly bothered me was instead of having the whole name of a city/town/county that ended in "shire" it was presented as "---shire". But not a huge dealbreaker considering it's free. I'm not sure if this is how it was supposed to be presented or not.
Jane Eyre
I have to say I am truly surprised. This is the third time I've read Jane Eyre, and yet the first time I've found anything positive about the experience. I read it once as an 11/12 year old because my mother bought me a lovely red leather-bound edition (apparently she loved the book and thought I would too). I hated it- too hard to read, too much philosophical rambling, no action, annoying heroine, etc. I read it for the second time as a freshman in high school because it was required. I no longer found it hard to read, but I still found Jane annoying and unsympathetic, and I still hated the book.Fast forward to this year and my decision to revisit the classics, including giving Jane Eyre one last try before forever consigning it to the "I just don't understand how people can like this book" pile. All I can say is thank goodness I gave it that one last try because the book is a masterpiece. All the philosophical rambling that bored me before is now a central element to the text, superior in many way to the storyline itself. I see now that there is a lot of action for a book of its time, and Jane is certainly not annoying so much as she is inspirational. I mean, she is still a bit pious for my taste, but even so she rebels strongly against the conventions of her time to try to live a life that she finds both emotionally and spiritually satisfying.All of the things that annoyed me when I read this book as a child are the elements that resonate most strongly with me as an adult. I read this book too early, and was too dismissive of it at the time. Like with Anna Karenina, I saw everything in black and white with the merciless clarity of a teenager; I now understand how wonderfully shaded with grey life (and good literature) often is. If you haven't read Jane Eyre since high school, I highly recommend giving it another try- definitely a 5 star!
Jane Eyre
It's hard to imagine a better gothic romance than "Jane Eyre" -- gloomy vast houses, mysterious secrets, and a brooding haunted man with a dark past.In fact, Charlotte Bronte's classic novel has pretty much everything going for it -- beautiful settings, a passionate romance tempered by iron-clad morals, and a heroine whose poverty and lack of beauty only let her brains and courage shine brighter. And it's all wrapped in the misty, haunting atmosphere of a true gothic story -- madwoman in the attic and all.Jane Eyre was an orphan, abused and neglected first by relatives, then by a boarding school run by a tyrannical, hypocritical minister. But Jane refuses to let anyone shove her down -- even when her saintly best friend dies from the wretched conditions.But many years later, Jane moves on by applying to Thornfield Hall for a governess position, and gets the job. She soon becomes the teacher and friend to the sprightly French girl Adele, but is struck by the dark, almost haunted feeling of her new home.Then she runs into a rather surly horseman -- who turns out to be her employer, Mr. Rochester, a cynical, embittered man who spends little time at Thornfield. They are slowly drawn together into a powerful love, despite their different social stations -- and Rochester's apparent attentions to a shallow, snotty aristocrat who wants his wealth and status.But strange things are happening at Thornfield -- stabbings, fires, and mysterious laughter. Jane and Rochester finally confess their feelings to each other, but their wedding is interrupted when Rochester's dark past comes to light. Jane flees into the arms of long-lost family members, and is offered a new life -- but her love for Rochester is not so easily forgotten..."Jane Eyre" is one of those books that transcends the labels of genre. Charlotte Bronte spun a haunting gothic romance around her semi-autobiographical heroine and Byronic anti-hero, filling it with brilliant writing and solid plot. It has everything all the other gothic romances of the time had... but Bronte gave it depth and intensity without resorting to melodrama.Bronte wrote in the usual stately prose of the time, but it has a sensual, lush quality, even in the dank early chapters at Lowood. At Thornfield, the book acquires an overhanging atmosphere of foreboding, until the clouds clear near the end. And she wove some tough questions into Jane's perspective -- that of a woman's independence and strength in a man's world, of extreme religion, and of the clash between morals and passion.And Bronte also avoided any tinges of drippy sentimentality (Mrs. Reed dies still spewing venom) while injecting some hauntingly nightmarish moments ("She sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart"). She even manages to include some funny stuff, such as Rochester disguising himself as an old gypsy woman.The story does slow down after the abortive wedding, when Jane flees Thornfield and briefly considers marrying a repressed clergyman who wants to go die preaching in India. It's rather boring to hear the self-consciously saintly St. John prattling about himself, instead of Rochester's barbed wit. But when Jane departs again, the plot speeds up into a nice, mellow little finale.Bronte did a brilliant job of bringing her heroine to life -- as a defiant little girl who is condemned for being "passionate," as an independent young lady, and as a woman torn between love and principle. Jane's strong personality and wits overwhelm the basic fact that she's not unusually pretty. And Rochester is a brilliantly sexy Byronic anti-hero with a prickly, mercurial wit.Of Charlotte Bronte's few novels, "Jane Eyre" is undoubtedly the most brilliant -- passionate, dark and hauntingly eerie. Definitely a must-read.