REASONS WHY JANE EYRE WOULD NEVER BE A BESTSELLER IN OUR TIMES:
, Four hundredodd pages of purely descriptive writing
, Overt religious themes and moral preaching
, A plainJane heroine who stays plain, No makeovers to reveal a hitherto hidden prettiness that only needed an application of hydrogen peroxide and some eyebrow plucking to emerge fullblown.
. The world is not welllost for love, In the war between selfrespect and grand passion, principles win hands down, Rousing, yet tender speeches do not make our heroine forsake her creed to fall swooning and submissive into her alpha's arms.
. NO SEX!!!
When I was a little girl, I had a doll named Saloni, Now Saloni wasn't a particularly attractive specimen as dolls go, especially since, over the years, I had drilled a hole in her little rosebud mouth in order to 'feed' her, I had 'brushed' her hair till all the poor synthetic threads had fallen out and I had dragged her around with me so much, one of her big blue eyes had fallen off.
But in my eyes, Saloni was the best doll ever created, She was my comfort, my mainstay in a world filled with confusing new things like school and daycare and other little people.
Jane Eyre is my grownup version of Saloni, Comfort food for my brain,
There are two authors I will read over and over and over again, until the day I die.
One of them is Charlotte Bronte, the other one is Georgette Heyer, I have read Jane Eyre a million times, but I never tire of the story, Every time I reach the scene where she professes her love to Mr, Rochester, I come out in goosebumps, Every single time. Age and experience have taught me to spot the flaws in the story and the characters, The ineffable belief in English superiority, The condescending attitude towards servants and people of the lower class, The illtreatment of mentally disabled people, The almost Quakerish sentiments of Jane Eyre, But all of this detracts not a whit from one of the greatest love stories ever told,
And there are a lot of things to admire in this book as well, Edward Rochester, ugly as sin, but powerful and dominant and unbelievably attractive in spite of his looks, A love that grows and strengthens on the basis of mutual sympathy, respect and a meeting of the minds, that a lot of our authors would do well to learn from.
Jane Eyre, who does not think that her great love excuses acts of selfishness and immorality, Despite being drawn as a somewhat submissive personality, Jane manages to hold her own with quiet fortitude, never loudly asserting her intelligence or talent, but nonetheless displaying a strength of character that would put the Bellas and Noras of out time to shame.
Jane Eyre would never, as I have said above, be a bestseller if it had been written in our times.
And that is a loss we must take upon ourselves, That we have put such prime value on lust and looks and power that we have forgotten to be real in our writing.
There is a reason why millions of people the world over remember and revere a book written a hundred and fiftyodd years ago while the bestsellers of our times slip quickly and quietly from our memories.
Jane Eyre is more than just a beautiful book about a love story that transcends all boundaries it is a testament to the power of pure emotion, that can be felt through the ages and across all barriers of time and culture.
One of the most beloved novels in history for many generations "Jane Eyre" is set in England in the's.
The story of a neglected girl orphan of that name who never gives up her dream of happiness, no matter how remote a possibility, this goal can ever be reached.
Hated by her cruel Aunt Mrs, Sarah Reed NOT A BLOOD RELATIVE, and cousins Eliza, jealous of her more beautiful but spiteful sister Georgiana, and abused by them both.
They look down at the beggar, this little poor girl this imposition, why is she here They show every day their contempt, not even bothering to hide it.
It would be so nice everyone thinks, if Jane wasn't there, Her miserable, tormented life seems everlasting no escape, where would she go And treated like a lowly servant not a loved relative, she the orphan has to keep her feelings to herself.
Bessie the nurse maid, is the only person that treats Miss Eyre kindly, secretly of course, The frosty aunt very reluctantly raised Jane, until the age of ten, then gladly Mrs, Reed sends the unwanted prepubescent Jane , to a charity school Lowood's, run by a clergyman the tyrannical Mr, Brocklehurst, he forgot the teachings of Jesus, Harshly treated there too, as are the other students Jane is hungry and cold, often, by the director Brocklehurst, a man that believes in discipline, except for his own luxury loving family ! Jane grows up a lonely woman with few friends, only one in fact fellow student Helen, here for a short time she hopes there has to be something better than mere existence.
Leaving the horrible school after eight long years, the last two as a teacher the teenager gets a job as a lowly and paid little, governess , in a gloomy mansion far away.
Her new "master" is the rather distant and frightening Mr, Edward Fairfax Rochester, a mysterious man that spends little time at home, Jane becomes attractive to the not very attractive Rochester, many questions are left unaccountably unanswered at Thornfield Hall, The little girl Adele, the governess teaches and takes care of sometimes, Along with her French nurse, Sophie, is she Rochester's child or just his ward Those strange horrific noises up on the third floor , dreadful, devilish and inhuman laughs in the middle of the night, what is causing them How did the owner of the house make all his money Will Rochester marry the beautiful but greedy woman Blanche Ingram, she despises Miss Eyre and make her leave Thornfield Hall.
Will the plain Jane ever find a place to call her own and find love and contentment This classic book written by one of the brilliant but short lived Bronte sisters Charlotte, will not disappoint readers of great literature, still worth the effort after more than a century and a half of its existence.
. . it will continue for who knows how long I could bang Mr, Rochester like a screen door 'till next Tuesday, That's not all I got from this book, honestly, . . He amado cada página de este libro como no creí que fuera posible, Sin duda la relectura me ha hecho disfrutarlo infinitamente más, no sé si es que me he hecho más romántica, más blanda o qué pero en fin, que me he enamorado de cada página, de cada matiz de la historia.
Me quedo sin duda con dos cosas, por un lado con la ambientación oscura y fantasmal y por otro con el personaje de Jane que ha conseguido colarse entre mis predilectos y eso que la primera vez que leí el libro me pareció una sosa, En qué estaba pensando!
Rochester no tienes perdón como ser humano pero como personaje eres dexD
En fin, una lectura maravillosa e inolvidable que además he tenido el placer de compartir con mis brujos del Aquelarre, lo que lo hace todo mucho más disfrutable
Eso sí, después leed 'El ancho mar de los Sargazos' de Jean Rhys para descubrir la parte de historia que nos falta.
I am a very pretentious person,
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I try to seem “hip” and “cool” and “relatable” and “down with the teens” and of course I totally am all of those things but also I have my tendencies toward pretension.
Its who I am. Just last night I shuddered at the idea of popular music, like some kind of eighthundredyearold gremlin,
I am not proud of this side of me, but its who I am, And also it is important background information for you, dear Reader, going into this review, That direct address to you as an audience member was me emulating this book, not an example of my pretension.
Or was it
Anyway, Its important that you know my capacity to be pretentious so that I can make this statement:
I dont get how any reader
can say they dont like classics.
Oof. A doozy, right Arent you glad I warned you Now you know that that wasnt just a oneoff of selfserious condescension but rather a pattern of my personality and oh sht actually my explanation probably made the whole thing a million times worse.
Now Ive painted my insufferability as consistent,
Come back, everyone!!!! Let me explain!
What I need to explain is that this book is excellent, and also a classic.
It is very very old but sometimes old stuff is still worth it! I should know, I have the mannerisms of the type of grumpy old man that gets endearingly profiled in Scandinavian bestsellers,
This is not the classic I would recommend that someone start with if theyre looking to get into the genre.
It is very, very slow, and very wordy, and the language takes some settling in, But also this book is a literal gem,
It was published inth century England, which is no ones idea of Progressive Central, But this book is jarringly feminist when the constraints it and Jane were working in are taken into account.
Jane is an independent woman, and this book from eighteen freakin fortyseven tells her story,
Now, I love Jane Austen books as much as the next girl if the next girl is pretty damn obsessed with Jane Austen, but thats something not even all her books can say.
Heres the thing about this book: I love nineteenth century fiction or what Ive read of it, but even if you didnt youd probably love this book.
So much of this is unique, by the standards of then but also even the standards of today, Its a romance, yes, which: extremely normal, But its a romance between two characters who are not conventionally beautiful, which is unbelievably rare,
Its also not a romance that acts as basically the sole option for its female character, I love Pride amp Prejudice, and I of course think Lizzie Bennet is a feminist and awesome character, but theres no way for that book to end, really, that doesnt include marriage for her.
Three of the five Bennet sisters get married over the course of that book, Its either that or old maid status, baby,
But not lil Jane Eyre, She does not allow marriage to be the only prospect for her!! She goes away and makes a life for herself and then decides whether she wants to follow that path.
We dont even see that in everyst century romance,
Plus, Jane is an excellent character, and of a type we RARELY see, Shes serious and upstanding and smart and moral, She has a strong mind and she doesnt shy away from that, She lacks the requisite features of todays female subjects of romance: the quirkiness or the humor or the adorkable way she trips and falls/spills coffee/etc.
She also lacks the nineteenthcentury version of a lot of those traits, And it is so goddamn refreshing I cant even tell you,
And on top of all that, the language in this book is so gorgeous I want the whole manuscript tattooed on me.
Which would be wild, because this is about a million pages long, And speaking of, yes, it is very slow and hard to get into and basically you have to adjust to a whole new reading experience.
So I wouldnt recommend starting off your nineteenth century fiction binge with this book,
But I would recommend getting into nineteenth century fiction solely for the purpose of reading this book.
Bottom line: ITS JUST SO DAMN GOOD, YOU GUYS,
prereview
hey um, . . i love this book so stupid much
if you've got a free few hours over the course of the next few months i HIGHLY recommend rereading this book at a snail's pace.
worked out for me very well,
i should probably shout about my adoration of this book for several pages so, full reviewcome.