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Just an all around good classic love story. I enjoyed this book. It is entertaining and at times very suspenseful.
Found this superior to the Norton edition. Typeface easy on the eye, and the paperstock makes for a pleasantly light tome. The notes and supplemental materials in this edition are truly helpful. I looked at several editions of JE, and found this the most useful.
So I guess there is still something in the story that appeals to me. The only work where I felt that Charlotte finally got a handle on her art was her last novel, the emotionally difficult and thereby much less popular "Villette." The best thing about Jane Eyre are the television and movie productions. It's just so cumbersome and long-winded and I find the imagery and descriptions heavy-handed and awkward- sorry, when she describes the "bonny beck" I just don't feel it. I much prefer her sister Anne Bronte's simpler but clearer writing, not to mention Emily Bronte's masterful prose.
Rochester and his angst are boring by comparison.If you think that Bronte is a good writer I dare you, just dare you, to read any of her other works. I've had a like/dislike relationship with this book since my college days. This is why I give this book three stars rather than two. By contrast, again, Wuthering Heights has surprisingly funny moments for such a dark gothic tale, once again demonstrating Emily's superiority as a writer. And Rochester is a manipulative git. And he says "Jane, Jane." too much and has an irritating tendency to compare her to elves and fairies.
What passes as humor just isn't very funny. All right- mostly dislike.Everyone knows the plot by now, since they at least watched the televised versions, so I'll be brief- neglected orphan who grows up with abusive aunt and cousins is sent to charity school, where she experiences more misfortunes, grows up to become a governess in a gothic countryside mansion and falls in love with her Byronic employer. Nowadays he would have made either a splendid villain or a disillusioned hero. John River is actually a much more interesting character than Rochester. What's most surprising is that St. He really is. There's a million of them and I find myself compelled to watch every single one.
Eventually she finds fortune and happiness through various plot twists, some completely implausible.I've read this book several times since I was 19 and seemed to dislike it more with each reading. I additionally dislike Jane--somehow, I can't feel much liking for her. "Shirley" is painful and I heard that "The Professor" isn't much better. I think that what has always put me off this book is Charlotte Bronte's prose. He's a strikingly handsome, repressed ascetic who directs his passion to his religion. She was also stupendously blind not to suspect that maybe, just maybe, there's another person there with the stony-faced Grace Poole who was the source of that mad laughter. Additionally, Charlotte is completely humorless. I appreciate that Bronte broke the mold with having a poor, plain heroine, but it's stressed so frequently that it loses its effect.
Don't be afraid to order this "bargain Kindle edition" - it came through perfectly, no strange charaters or problems. There is so much more to the story than they can ever show in a movie. This is one of my favorite books. If you've only ever seen the movie, read the book.
However, it doesn't detract from an otherwise powerful, impressive classic. Romanticized in nature, events suggest that this is not the end of Rochester and Jane, and that they will cross paths sometime later. Eventually Rochester asks Jane to marry him, but he has some baggage in his past that he is able to keep from Jane until the moment they are to be married. She doesn't give in because it seems like the proper thing to do, or the easiest.
John's after leaving Thornfield. There is also a sense that Jane, although first seeing herself as lower to others, builds self-confidence and understands herself as equal to others, especially Rochester: "I was an equal--one with whom I might argue--one whom, if I saw good, I might resist." When she discovers and matures, this gives dimension and depth to her character. Rochester, comes and goes from Thornfield, but eventually news comes back that he is to marry the beautiful but snobbish Miss Ingram. Jane knows she cannot marry now, and leaves Thornfield to pursue a new life.
Later in the novel, he is physically blind after the tragic accident that leaves Thornfield a ruin, but, has learned a sense of sympathy and humility that he didn't have earlier. Jane Eyre, after a difficult childhood quite Dickensesque in nature, eventually lands a job as a governess of Thornfield Hall as she approaches adulthood. Jane then discovers the truth: Rochester is married to a woman named Bertha, who is insane and resides locked in the basement of Thornfield. Bronte seemed to have modeled the character and conditions of Jane Eyre around her own life, so the novel has some biographical elements. As time wears on, however, there is an indication that Rochester marrying Miss Ingram might only be a ruse for him to actually find the secrets of Jane's heart.
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, the subject of many AP required reading lists, perhaps strikes discontent to those who read the novel in high school. Perhaps Jane Eyre has as much to do with illustrating a heroine's ability to be a free thinker, independent, and even a bit brash at points, which could be viewed as atypical of female protagonists during this time. First, he is "blind" to humility and life responsibilities in the first half of the book at Thornfield Hall. Her employer, Mr. We experience Jane's introspective outlook on all things by the first person narration, and Jane displays a depth to her character, especially when she is skeptical about Rochester's first proposal of marriage, which seems too "fairy tale" to be true. The scene when Jane battles with her conscience while leaving Thornfield is epically captured by Bronte: "He who is taken out to pass through a fair scene to the scaffold, thinks not of the flowers that smile on his road, but of the block and axe-edge." Although Jane feels a sense of tragedy at this moment, she is not afraid to stick to what her intuition tells her is right, and she uses her faith as her instrument to guide her fate.
A better appreciation for this classic will probably be gained reading it later in life. While a bit overly romanticized at points, Bronte's novel has fantastic character development. Jane also undergoes a transition from her outlook on life: she believes and knows by novel's end that she is equals to her peers. Character depth is illustrated in both Jane and Rochester's change from beginning to end. She refuses to marry Rochester earlier in the novel out of principle, and despite his pleas, she sticks to her guns, even though she knows it will be a rough go in life for both her and Rochester. Jane changes her station by beginning in poverty and living as a governess only to eventually be able to gain a sense of independence.
The story seems to get "stuck in the mud", and many moments of Jane's narration become repetitive.
I felt that it was a strong story, but tended to drag during Jane's stay at St.
One theme Bronte explores is the importance of equality within backgrounds and classes.
Over all, Bronte captures a powerful and moving story of a "plain" girl who overcomes difficult moments to find faith and healing in life.
Jane works here for awhile, and begins to adapt to her new station in life.
Rochester has moments of "blindness" in the novel.
Jane, despite struggles, is often conscientious and fair to others, which is juxtaposed by Miss Ingram and her family, who loathe the site of governesses, thinking them to be unintelligent and worthless.
Jane struggles back and forth between her feelings for Rochester as her employer, and him as a man.
How and under what circumstances you discover in the book's second half.
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