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Quotes from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre is considered a classic of English literature and the masterwork of Charlotte Brontë. Though it was her first published novel, it was the second that she wrote — The Professor  was her first, though it was published only after the author’s death. Jane Eyre was published in October, 1847 under Charlotte’s pen name Currer Bell. Though it was met with some controversy, it was also an instant success.

Jane’s  love for her employer, the mysterious Mr. Rochester is concurrent with her desire to be an independent woman with dominion over her own strong views and identity. This novel was unusual for its time, with the exploration of the inner world of the narrator at its center. Here are selected quotes from Jane Eyre that speak to the author’s sensibilities and strong opinions.

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” 

“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” 

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you.”

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë on Amazon

“I have little left in myself — I must have you. The world may laugh — may call me absurd, selfish — but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.” 

“Friends always forget those whom fortune forsakes.”

“Oh! That gentleness! how far more potent is it than force!”

“If all the world hated you and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved of you and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.”

“I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.” 

“I ask you to pass through life at my side—to be my second self, and best earthly companion.” 

“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, to absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.”

See also: Charlotte Brontë’s Quotes on the Writing Life

“I have for the first time found what I can truly love — I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel — I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.” 

“Some of the best people that ever lived have been as destitute as I am; and if you are a Christian, you ought not to consider poverty a crime.”

“I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst it’s perils.”

“There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.” 

“What necessity is there to dwell on the Past, when the Present is so much surer — the Future so much brighter?”

“It is not violence that best overcomes hate — nor vengeance that most certainly heals injury.”

“It is always the way of events in this life … no sooner have you got settled in a pleasant resting place, than a voice calls out to you to rise and move on, for the hour of repose is expired.” 

“Reader, I married him.”

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1939 Movie Adaptation of Wuthering Heights

The 1939 movie adaptation of Wuthering Heights, based on the novel by Emily Brontë, is considered an American film classic. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by William Wyler, the screenplay took some liberties with the original stories to streamline it into a film whose run time is less than two hours. It covers barely half of the novel’s 34 chapters, cutting out the second generation of characters.

Wuthering Heights was nominated for eight Academy Awards, but faces stiff competition that year from Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. Despite the liberties taken with the story, the film retained the dark, brooding mood of the book, and was generally praised by critics.

Following is a review from the year the film came out:

From the review by Herbert Cohn in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April, 1939: Samuel Goldwyn’s screen version of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, her only novel, has only part of the book’s unhappiness because it relates only part of the story. It has lopped off chunks of Brontë melancholia and occasionally sweetened portions that remained. But Wuthering Heights is capable of overpowering drama; its bitterness becomes even more intense when acted out. It needs such tempering if it is not to out-Brontë Brontë.

Forgiveness for Hollywood’s tampering

Here is one time that the purists — this department included — cannot complain about Hollywood’s tampering. For  the qualities that made the Brontë novel a literary classic — and its tragedy and startling pessimism are among them— are magnificently transferred to the screen. They are not transferred whole, to be sure, sometimes they are represented symbolically, sometimes they are merely in the tone of Cathy’s spitefulness and Heathcliff’s contemptuousness. But they chase way even the tiniest doubt that Mr. Goldwyn has made a classic motion picture from a classic novel.

His Wuthering Heights is magnificent tragic drama. Emily Brontë demands nothing more, though. It deserves a place among the screen’s great, regardless of the present-day popularity of the unhappy authoress of the Yorkshire heaths.

Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier as Cathy and Heathcliff

Merle Oberon has surpassed herself as the willful and emotionally sensitive Cathy. It has been a role coveted by many great actresses but she has made it one that will be always hers. Laurence Olivier has never had a part to equal that of Heathcliff, the gypsy stableboy whose moods fun from extreme dejection to supreme happiness and whose expressions switch suddenly from painful self-punishment to carefree, almost childish, playfulness. Olivier has made of him an unforgettable figure.

A softening of characters

Part of the change in what Wuthering Heights is in the softening of a few of its characters. Edgar, Cathy’s wealthy suitor, gives David Niven a chance to be the only sympathetic character, a quality he didn’t possess in the book. And Healthcliff’s servant, Jospeh (Leo G. Carroll), an intolerant religious fanatic becomes an unimportant handyman. He, like other secondary figures in the novel, takes on a shallowness in the picture that is part of its general simplification.

Simplification is what Wuthering Heights needed to make it compact drama. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur have done a smooth job of remodeling, tossing out the second-generation angle of the Cathy and Heathcliff romance, modernizing the dialogue without sacrificing its straightforwardness, imagining a half dozen colorful romantic scenes on the crags and even supplying a modernized spiritual ending that for once, is not off pitch.

Told in flashback

What is left of Wuthering Heights, then, is a flashback story — set on the eerie Yorkshire moors — of two lovers and their spite work. Heathcliff, the gypsy boy who is despised by Cathy’s brother Robert, is the girl’s very soul. But he is a strange, moody fellow who can never make her “the finest lady in all the county.” So she ignores her love for him — and his for her — and marries the wealthy Edgar.

Heathcliff swears vengeance and disappears for several years. When he comes back he is wealthy enough to take his revenge immediately on Cathy’s bankrupt brother. Then he turn to collect his debt from Edgar by winning his sister, Isabella (Geraldine Fitzgerald) as a wife that he intends to make miserable.

Not a pretty story, but one well told

Not a pretty story, but one that is strange, pack with fascination, and with hidden power waiting for clever actors to develop. The cast — with Fora Robson, Donald Crisp, Miss Fitzgerald, and Hugh Williams — knows hbow. And director William Wyler has set a becomingly grim stage for their delicate portrayals of unlovely characters.

Their combined work has resulted in a splendid screen drama, one that is beautifully written and played and sumptuously mounted. Wuthering Heights is a film that should not and must not be missed.

See other screen versions of Wuthering Heights on Amazon

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Classic and Contemporary Tips for Developing Characters in Fiction

The heart of any compelling story or novel is its characters. Without memorable characters, a story will fall flat and the reader won’t care. Characters don’t need to be good or even sympathetic, but they do need to be driven by their beliefs and motivations to create a strong narrative arc, and to create and resolve conflict.

If you don’t know where to begin, you may appreciate these tips for developing characters in fiction (from classic and contemporary writers) First, let’s see how three classic authors approached the question of developing characters:

Madeleine L’Engle suggested keeping one’s eyes and ears open: “I don’t suppose it’s possible for a writer to create a wholly imaginary character. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are drawing from every human being we have ever known, have passed casually in the street, sat next to on the subway, stood behind in the check-out line at the supermarket. Perhaps one might say that we draw constantly from our subconscious minds, and undoubtedly this is true, but more important than that is the super-conscious level which comes to our aid in writing — or painting — or composing — or teaching, or listening to a friend.” (from A Circle of Quiet, 1972)

Louisa May Alcott made it sound simple — she observed the characters as they developed, almost letting them be in charge of her, rather than the other way around: “While a story is under way I lie in it, see the people, more plainly than the real ones, round me, hear them talk, & am much interested, surprised, or provoked at their actions,” she wrote in an 1887 letter, “for I seem to have no power to rule them, & can simply record their experiences & performances.” If only it were that easy for the rest of us!

L.M. Montgomery carried a notebook for jotting down her ideas for for plots, incidents, and characters. They were at her disposal when she needed a jumping off point. “Two years ago in the spring of 1905 I was looking over this notebook in search of some suitable idea for a short serial I wanted to write for a certain Sunday School paper and I found a faded entry, written ten years before: 

“Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy. By mistake a girl is sent them.” I thought this would do. I began to block out chapters, devise incidents and “brood up” my heroine. Somehow or other she seemed very real to me and I thought it rather a shame to waste her on an ephemeral little serial. Then the thought came, “Write a book about her. You have the central idea and character. All you have to do is spread it out over enough chapters to amount to a book.” The result of this was Anne of Green Gables. (from her Journals, 1907)

It’s always fascinating to see that accomplished authors of the past dealt with the same kinds of writerly issues we all face. But now, let’s get to more nitty-gritty. Here are a few contemporary views on how to create memorable characters, with tips that are a lot more specific:

Learn the basics with “Character 101”

If you’re a beginner and don’t know where to begin, Vicki Essex breaks it down to the basics in Building Complex, Interesting, Memorable Characters. Just one of her tips is to give your character a code — more of an ethical code rather than a secret code. “This is your character’s iron-clad rule that they will not, under any circumstances, break,” she advises. And there’s lots more good advice on where this came from, when it comes to character development.

Name your characters

T.J. Ellison, author of best selling thrillers, has a simple tip that can go a long way — name your characters. “As I begin writing a new manuscript, I make a cast list. All the main characters are there, as well as all the secondary characters.” See more about this in her post on How to Build a Character. 

Nail your characters’ personality types

Here’s a “novel” approach: use the Myers Briggs Type Indicator to get deeper into the personality of your characters. That’s what Kristen Kieffer describes in My Favorite Method for Building Characters’ Personalities. Using this technique, she doesn’t merely write from the character’s perspective, she becomes the character. They come to life in a way she was never able to accomplish before nailing down their personality type.

Dig deep into each character’s motivation

Ellen Brock believes that characters lack depth when a writer focuses too much on personality. She had some great tips on delving deep into a character’s motivation — what they want, their goals, and their emotional state. Learn more in Creating Deep Realistic Characters.

13 more great tips

Justine Musk offers a treasure trove of inspiration in 13 Ways to Create Compelling Characters, from making the character exceptional at something to giving them “blind spots” that stand in the way of their own self-perception. 

See more from our writing advice category — timeless tips from past and present!

Photos: Bigstock

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Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (1945)

Lois Lenski (1893 –  1974) was an incredibly prolific author and illustrator of children’s books, many featuring regional themes. Children were often shown in terms of the work they did to help their families survive. The series that put her on the map was the Regional Stories, which began with Bayou Suzette. Strawberry Girl (1945) was the second in the series, and the one that Lenski is perhaps best remembered for. She won the 1946 Newbery Medal for this book.

From the 1945 J.B. Lippincott edition of Strawberry Girl written and illustrated by Lois Lenski: Birdie Boyer belonged to a large “strawberry family” in Florida, who lived on a flat woods farm in the lake section of the state. They raised strawberries for a living.

Through all the hazards of the uncertain crop — battling against dry weather and grass-fires, the going hogs and cattle of their neighbors — Birdie dreamed of an education that would include playing the organ. In the end she won not only the title of “strawberry girl,” but book learning as well.

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski —

60th anniversary edition on Amazon

This is a story full of enterprise and fun and the excitement of real life in this interesting part of America. Lois Lenski has used her gift for catching the flavor and drama of life in a remote corner of America.

It is the second of a series of regional stories through which she promises to introduce other fascinating and little-known backgrounds to young readers. This story will take a place beside her popular Louisiana story Bayou Suzette in the affection of readers.

The more than eighty illustrations are distinguished for their action and fascinating detail. They add greatly to this true picture of Florida life at a time when old Florida ways were changing to new.

Illustration by Lois Lenski from the 1945 edition of Strawberry Girl

More about Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

Wikipedia
Reader discussion on Goodreads
Review on Plugged In
Review on The Newbery Project

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Lois Lenski

Lois Lenski (October 14, 1893 – September 11, 1974), American children’s book author and illustrator born in Springfield, Ohio, was best known for realistic depictions of childhood in regional settings around the U.S. As a young girl, she showed an early aptitude for art, and it was in the visual and applied arts in which she pursued an education. After graduating from Ohio State University in 1915, she studied at the Art Students League in New York City on scholarship, followed by the Westminster School of Art in London. While abroad, she spent several months in Italy.

Upon returning to the U.S., Lenski married Arthur Covey, who had been one of her instructors during a brief sojourn at a school for industrial arts. A muralist, he was a widower with two children when the couple married in 1921. The couple settled in Connecticut had one son of their own. Covey was considerably older than Lenski, and felt she should set aside her creative pursuits to care for the home and family. That made her even more determined to pursue her career, and with her own earnings, hired household help in order to have more time for her work.

High school graduation photo, circa 1911

The start of a prolific career

Lenski’s first book, Skipping Village, was published in 1927. A Little Girl of 1900 followed, and launching her career as an author-illustrator of children’s books. Phebe Fairchild, Her Book was the first of numerous books depicting American childhood. One thing was clear — the fictional boys and girls represented in her books reflected the reality of their times, in which children had to work to help their families survive.

Newbery Medal and regional stories

In 1946, Lenski won the 1946 Newbery Medal for Strawberry Girl  brought even more attention to her genre of regional books for and about children. Strawberry girl was preceded by Bayou Suzette, and joined by many others, including Blue Ridge Billy, Boom Town Boy, Coal Camp Girl. Through these books, all of which she illustrated, she took readers on journeys all over the United States to give snapshots of how children lived.

Lois Lenski did first-hand research, traveling to all of the areas in which she set her stories. She spent time with families, listens to their stories, and noted their patterns of speech. She did sketches with her drawing pencil, later refining them into the finished illustrations in her books.

Strawberry Girl is perhaps the best known

of Lenski’s dozens of books

Reconsideration of Lois Lenski’s work

In their time, Lenski’s books were considered very innovative, though some critics deemed them a bit grim. Rather than sentimentalizing childhood, they depicted members of working classes and agricultural communities. Librarians and teachers appreciated their gritty realism. The storytelling in these books opened a view into how others lived, creating a means of social awareness for young readers.

Lenski is no longer widely read. In reconsidering her work, modern critics have found her books somewhat didactic and simplistic. Her depictions of people of color have found fault, as well. Still, her work was so unique in its time that it deserves its place in children’s literature. Her prolific output and her bold, appealing artwork showcase her dedication to her craft.

Lenski’s graphic illustration style, whether for her own

or others’ books, was highly recognizable

Later life and legacy

In 1951, Lois Lenski and her husband built a house in Tarpon Springs, Florida, where they spent half of each year. In the 1940s, she had health issues, leading her physician recommended avoiding the harsh New England winters. By the late 1950s, she began receiving honorary doctorates from a number of universities. In 1967, she founded the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation, whose stated mission is “to advance literacy and foster a love of reading among underserved and at-risk children and youth.”

In addition to the dozens of her own books for children that she wrote and illustrated, she also illustrated nearly 60 books by other authors. Her last book for children, Debbie and her Pets, was published in 1971. Her last book, published in 1972, was her autobiography,  Journey into Childhood. Lois Lenski died in 1974 at her home in Tarpon Springs, FL at the age of nearly 81.

More about Lois Lenski

Major Works

Regional Stories

Corn-Farm Boy
Prairie School
Bayou Suzette
Strawberry Girl 
Houseboat Girl
San Francisco Boy
Texas Tomboy
Cotton in my Sack
Boom Town Boy
Coal Camp Girl
To be a Logger
Mama Hattie’s Girl
Prairie School
Blue Ridge Billy
Judy’s Journey
Shoo-Fly Girl
Deer Valley Girl

Roundabout America Books

We Live in the North
Berries in the Scoop
We Live in the South
Little Sioux Girl
We Live by the River
We Live in the City
We Live in the Country
High-Rise Secret

Other books

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jamison
Puritan Adventure
Blueberry Corners
Ocean-Born Mary
Surprise for Mother
Bound Girl of Cobble Hill

Biography and Autobiography

Lois Lenski: Storycatcher by Dr. Bobbie Malone (2106)
Journey Into Childhood by Lois Lenski (1972)

More information

Wikipedia
Reader Discussion of Lenski’s books on Goodreads
Books written and illustrated by Lois Lenski
The Lois Lenski Covey Foundation
Lois Lenski page on Amazon
Meet Lois Lenski (video)

Archives

Lois Lenski left a vast trove of papers behind, and there are several repositories. Here  are three of the largest:

Lois Lenski Papers, UNC Greensboro
Lois Lenski Papers, Florida State University
Lois Lenski Children and Young Adult Literature Collection at Buffalo State

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Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman

Judith Thurman, author of the National Book Award-winning biography of Isak Dinesen produced thus far the most definitive English language biography of Colette. Given the French author’s stature as a literary figure and feminist icon, along with her colorful life, it is remarkable how few biographies exist about her. Secrets of the Flesh, weighing in at over 600 pages, gives readers a thorough view of Colette’s long and colorful life.

From the 1999 Alfred A. Knopf edition of Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman: In 1900, a provincial beauty known as the child bride of a famous Parisian rake captivated the Belle Epoque by writing a story  that invented the modern teenage girl. It was the first in a series of wildly popular, critically acclaimed novels (known as the Claudine stories) that, combined with a flamboyant career on the stage, made this former country girl the first superstar of the century.

But for all her celebrity as one of France’s greatest and most notorious novelists and personalities, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette  was a profoundly reticent and self-suspicious creature who fiercely resists being known. Judith Thurman gives us an incomparably nuanced and revealing portrait of the elusive woman, the prodigious writer, and the revered but misunderstood  idol.

Having spent her village childhood in the shadow of a queenly, possessive mother who taught her the value of resilience, Colette would go on to embody the image of the modern woman. At twenty, she married the canny but unscrupulous Willy, who not only took credit — and the royalties — for her best-selling Claudine novels, but also kept her enthralled in more primal ways. In 1908, she divorced her Pygmalion and pursued the most public of her many affairs with women.

At forty, she gave birth to her only and much-neglected child. Her second marriage, to her daughter’s father — a brilliant predatory, patrician journalist and politician — faltered, then failed.

Secrets of the Flesh by Judith Thurman on Amazon

At forty-seven, she seduced her adolescent stepson. At menopause, she rediscovered her mother. At fifty-two, she embarked on a torrid adventure with a much younger man that bloomed — against all expectations — into the serene and enduring mutual devotion she had yearned for but never knew. The third husband — Maurice Goudeket, also became the source of her worst anguish when he was arrested by the Gestapo during the occupation.

As Colette redefined the conventions of loving and aging, she continued to write with Olympian vitality. Her principal subject was the bonds of love; her one try faith was the consoling power of sensual pleasure.

She opened a beauty institute and did makeovers in a lab coat; she produced a body of incisive journalism; she wrote enchanting masterpieces like Gigi and Sido, and provocative works like Chéri, Break of Day, The Ripening Seed, and The Pure and the Impure.

Her wartime work remains the most controversial part of her legacy, and Thurman addresses the troubling questions it raises with a typically lucid and tenacious intelligence.

Drawing upon a rich mine of new documents, candid interviews, and unpublished letters, Secrets of the Flesh evokes Colette in the fullness of her contradictions. A work of penetrating psychological insight, historical perspective, and literary discernment, it is sure to reanimate our appreciation of its iconic subject.

Learn more about Colette

More about Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman

Reader discussion on Goodreads
Secrets of the Flesh on Audiobook
Review in The New York Times
Review on Salon

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A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep by Rumer Godden (1987)

Rumer Godden (1907 – 1998) was a British-born author who spent much of her childhood in India. She lived an multifaceted  life and wrote prolifically. A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep (1987), which came out the year she turned eighty, was the first of a two-part memoir, followed by A House With Four Rooms (1989). Her best-known novels, including Black Narcissus and In This House of Brede explore the religious life of nuns; many of her other novels, including The River, are set in India.

Once, when Godden was a child, the Arabian pony she was riding bolted and threw her. The injuries she sustained included a concussion. But her father compelled her to get back on the horse as soon as she was able to, despite her fear. He told her: ”If you are frightened of anything, you must do it.” And that was exactly how she lived her life.

From the 1987 Beech Tree Books / William Morrow edition: The first volume of this beloved writer’s autobiography is endowed with all the joy, elegance, honesty, courage, and humanity that distinguish Rumer Godden as a novelist.

Spanning the years 1907 – 1946, A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep tells the story of her beguiling childhood in India, her marriage to a charming but weak stockbroker, her life bringing up two children alone and in poverty after his abandonment, and periods of great distress punctuated by the publication and success of her early novels.

It illuminates Rumer Godden’s understanding of the darker side of life, of tragedy, loss, suffering, and long endurance bravely borne.

A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep is an extraordinary story that give context to this author’s novels, enlarging and enhancing them while shedding light on the moments and events in her life that inspired them. It’s a captivating portrait of a time, a woman, and an outlook.      

From the author: “This book is my life as a young writer; to me and my kind life itself is a story and we have to tell it in stories — that is the way it falls. I have told the truth and nothing but the truth, yet not the whole truth, because that would be impossible.”

From the Prologue of A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep:

Jon and I stood together on the quay at Plymouth watching as the luggage was unloaded into the Customs Shed from the line the had brought us from India. It was March 1920, the chill grey of a Devon morning with a sharp wind blowing from the sea. Everything was wet and colourless and we were cold to our bones — not only with the cold; we had already had a taste of England.

In 1920 we, the two elder sisters of our family of four were the shocking ages of thirteen an twelve, shocking because we belonged to an era in which every English or Western family of any standing living in India sent their children ‘home’, as it was called, at five or six years old, no matter what the heartbreak on both sides; it was partly the climate, the dread of catching a chi-chi accent — we already had one — and partly the lack of suitable schools, so that when we too, were six and five we had been left in London with our Godden grandmother and our four maiden aunts in their tall dark house in Randolph Gardens.

It was only for eighteen months; our mother, Mam, had grown nervous of Zeppelins — this was in 1915, the second year of the First World War — and we had been reprieved for five halcyon years in the Indian sun (that was the title Jon and I gave to the book about those years of our childhood, Two Under the Indian Sun).

More about A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep by Rumer Godden

A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep on Amazon
Reader discussion on Goodreads
Review in the New York Times 
Review on Kirkus Reviews

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Virginia Woolf: A Biography by Quentin Bell (1974)

Quentin Bell (1910-1996), the author of Virginia Woolf: A Biography, was the son of Virginia Woolf’s sister, Vanessa Bell. He was an artist like his mother, working across several media, and like his father Clive Bell, he was a writer and art critic. Quentin Bell also held posts as Professor of Fine Art at several prestigious universities in England.

He once recalled: “Virginia Woolf was my aunt and as a child I illustrated and to some extent inspired some rather fanciful biographies of her friends and relations. Hence the fact that I am mentioned in the preface of Orlando as ‘an old and valued collaborator in fiction.’” In producingVirginia Woolf: A Biography, he possessed the access and family lore that made this biography a more intimate expression than another biographer may have achieved. Here’s a description of this fascinating biography:

From the 1974  Harcourt Brace Jovanovich edition of Virginia Woolf: A Biography by Quentin Bell: “Virginia Woolf was a Miss Stephen.” So begins Virginia Woolf: A Biography, the first truly full-scale treatment of the writer’s life to be published. As a nephew of Virginia Woolf, Quentin Bell brings to his book the authority that family intimacy affords, but he does so without bias, evasion, or sentimentality; and as an observer rather than as a participant.

Virginia Woolf was one of four children, born into a gifted family whose ancestors included generations of writers. As a child, Virginia is remembered for her beauty — flame-cheeked an green-eyed —as well as her terrible rages, and her precocious command of language. She was the family storyteller who could make everyone laugh. It was decided early that her sister Vanessa would be  a painter and Virginia a writer. Her first efforts at composition are seen in a letter written at the age of six to her godfather, James Russell Lowell.

Virginia Woolf: A Biography by Quentin Bell on Amazon

The account continues through her adolescence and the first serious breakdown, to her awkward introduction into London society, the Bloomsbury years, and marriage to Leonard Woolf — “the wisest decision of her life.” The author candidly discusses the question of her sexuality and her mental illness and their effect on her marriage and her other close relationships.

While the ordinary events of her life unfold, the great novels are seen taking shape, accompanied by the anguish of a creative genius that was closely allied to her madness, the terrors of publication and reviews, and periods of enjoyment of her growing fame. The book concluded, simply and movingly, with her suicide in 1941.

Many other well-known writers appear in these pages — among them, Henry James, George Bernard Shaw, Lytton Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, E.M. Forester, Rupert Brooke, Katherine Mansfield, Harold Nicolson — but it is Virginia Woolf who holds the reader throughout, attracting with her intellect and wit, as she did those who were privileged to know her.

 

See also: Virginia Woolf:

The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work

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The post Virginia Woolf: A Biography by Quentin Bell (1974) appeared first on Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life.

Rumer Godden

Rumer Godden (December 10, 1907 – November 8, 1998) was novelist and memoirist born in Eastbourne, Sussex (England) and raised mainly in India at the height of colonial rule. She and her three sisters spent an idyllic childhood in the Bengal region, now actually part of Bangladesh. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be a writer. She was sent to be educated in Britain, as was the custom at the time, and traveled back and forth from England to Britain frequently.

After being trained to be a dance teacher in Eastbourne, Rumer returned to India in 1925 and, at age 18, started a dance school in Calcutta. The school  allowed both English and Indian children to attend together, something that was scandalous for its time and place. Despite this impediment to success, she and her sister Nancy kept the school running for some twenty years.

The start of a prolific writing career

Within this time period, Rumer married Laurence Foster in 1934. She was pregnant when they married, and it was an ill-fated relationship from the start. The couple had two daughters and for the most part lived separate lives.

In 1939, her first novel, Black Narcissus, was published to immediate acclaim and became a bestseller. After eight years of marriage, she and Foster split up, and she took their daughters to live in Kashmir. They first lived on a houseboat, then on a farm. It appeared that a servant attempted to poison her and her daughters; this incident was later fictionalized in her 1953 novel Kingfishers Catch Fire. It was enough to send them briefly back to the more familiar territory of Calcutta in 1945, and the next year, she and her daughters moved back to England.

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Quotes by Rumer Godden, Author and Spiritual Seeker

A feature film

Black Narcissus was released in 1947 as a film, becoming the first of nine adaptations of Rumer Godden’s novels for the movies or television.

In the late forties, Rumer remarried, and also collaborated on the script for a film version of The River, based on her novel of the same title. A coming-of-age story set in India, the film was very true to the book. It was directed by Jean Renoir and released in 1951. It was well received and won the international award at the Venice Film Festival that year. It later became a great favorite of Martin Scorsese, and influenced director Wes Anderson as well.

The influence of religion

In the early 1950s, Rumer became interested in Catholicism. Shifting from the lyrical and atmospheric novels set in India that she’d become known for, she began exploring themes of secular life in her novels. These included Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy and In This House of Brede. In these works of fiction, she explores the spiritual side of human nature, and what it means to commit to a life devoted to religion. She officially converted to Catholicism in 1968.

Children’s Books and Memoirs

In her nearly 60-year writing career, Rumer produced dozens of books in many genres. She wrote more than two dozen books for children, and her memoirs, A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep and A House With Four Rooms are fascinating glimpses into an extraordinary  woman’s life. She wrote a number of other works of nonfiction that weren’t memoir, including a biography of Hans Christian Andersen.

In 1994, when she was already elderly, she returned to Kashmir, India for the last time, to be interviewed for a BBC documentary about her life and work. Rumer Godden’s emotional, witty, and energetic prose spanned the bridge between real life and fiction. Though not as well known as they once were, a number of her books are still read and relevant today. She died in 1998 at the age of 90.

More about Rumer Godden on this site

Quotes by Rumer Godden, Author and Spiritual Seeker
Obituary (1998)

Major Works

As mentioned above, Rumer Godden was incredibly prolific. Those listed below are among the best known of some twenty-five novels she wrote for adults. And in addition, as also noted, she wrote some two dozen books for children as well.

Black Narcissus  (1939)
Gypsy, Gypsy  (1940)
Kingfishers Catch Fire  (1953)
An Episode of Sparrows  (1956)
The Greengage Summer  (1958)
In This House of Brede   (1969)
The Peacock Spring (1975)
Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy  (1979)
Thursday’s Children (1984)
Coromandel Sea Change (1991)

Autobiographies and biographies

A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep  by Rumer Godden (1987)  
A House with Four Rooms   by Rumer Godden (1989)
Rumer Godden: A Storyteller’s Life  by Anne Chisholm (1999)

More Information

Wikipedia
Rumer Godden Literary Trust
Reader discussions of Godden’s books on Goodreads
Rumer Godden page on Amazon

Articles, news, etc.

Rumer Godden: Influential but Underrated
Rumer Godden’s Life Story is a Story in Itself
Rereading the India Novels of Rumer Godden

Television and film adaptations of Godden’s novels (selected)

Black Narcissus (1946)
The River (1951)
Loss of Innocence (1961) – retitled from The Greengage Summer
In this House of Brede (1975)
The Peacock Spring (1996)

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Miniseries and Film Adaptations of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

If you’re the kind of Jane Austen fan who reads Pride and Prejudice every year or two, chances are good that you’ve seen at least one of its miniseries or film adaptations. Considering the unabated reverence for this novel, it’s somewhat surprising that there haven’t been more. For many devotees, there can never be Too Much Jane.

In addition to the miniseries and film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice listed here, there was also a 1967 British TV adaptation which seems to have been lost to time. Which of these have you seen? Which do you think is most faithful to the original spirit of the novel?

2005 film — a British and American collaboration

How do you encapsulate Pride and Prejudice in a 2-hour film? The 2005 version starring Kiera Knightley as Elizabeth and Matthew Macfayden as Darcy manages to do just that. It was a collaboration between British and American film production companies. Ms. Knightly is splendid, though for me, a bit too distinctive for the role — my preference is for an unknown. Evidently, I’m in the minority, as 5-star viewer ratings, at least on Amazon, are the rule. It’s hard to believe, but this was and continues to be only the second movie version of P & P (not counting the miniseries) since the 1940 Hollywood film.

More about this adaptation

Wikipedia
Review in the New York Times
IMDB
Watch or buy on Amazon


1995 BBC / A & E miniseries

The 1995 BBC/A&E production is considered by many the definitive adaptation, though those of us who prefer the 1980 BBC miniseries might argue with this. Jane Austen aficionados might not particularly like it has come to be defined by Colin Firth in a wet shirt, because it has much more than this in its favor. Jennifer Ehle is a splendid Elizabeth, and the cast of actors brings all the beloved characters to life. This 6-part miniseries is packed with period detail, including the lush English countryside and plush English manses.

More about this adaptation

Wikipedia
Review on AustenProse
IMDB
Watch or buy on Amazon


1980 BBC mini-series

This excellent 5-part 1980 BBC adaptation is my personal favorite. It features a delightful portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet by a namesake, British actress Elizabeth Garvie. The pace and dialogue were beautifully captured in the screenplay by British author Fay Weldon. I’d argue that this is the most faithful and respectful adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps it has been eclipsed by the 1995 miniseries, not only due to its fresher date, but that David Rintoul’s portrayal of Darcy wasn’t quite as smoldering as that of Colin Firth’s.

More about this adaptation

Wikipedia
Review on Silver Petticoat
IMBD
Buy on Amazon (not available for streaming)


1940 Hollywood film

The 1940 adaptation from the golden age of the Hollywood studio era stars Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennett and Laurence Olivier as Darcy. As is to be expected, the studio heads altered much about the original so that this black-and-white film would be more glitzy. It was set in a later period, for example, and some of the plot lines were altered. Still, the reception by critics and the public alike was positive. Today, it might be viewed far more as a novelty than as another means to enjoy the iconic story of Pride and Prejudice. It’s not readily available to buy or stream, but you might check your public library system.

More about this adaptation

Wikipedia

IMDB

Watch the trailer on YouTube (absurd!)

One more: Pride + Prejudice + Zombies

If you want to go further afield we dare not call Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) an adaptation of the original P & P. Rather, it’s an outgrowth of the 2009 book of the same title. It’s safe to say that this is the most bizarre piece of Jane Austen fan fiction ever. In this reimagining, our heroine Elizabeth Bennett is a martial arts expert, and Mr. Darcy is a ferocious zombie. Together, they set our to vanquish the undead.

More about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Wikipedia
Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
IMDB
Watch or buy on Amazon

*This post contains affiliate links. If the product is purchased by linking through, The Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing!

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