From the Bookshelf of The Pedro Pascal Book Club…

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

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Feb 23, 2018 Naty rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bought-or-received

More reviews and other bookish posts at: https://natysbookshelf.wordpress.com/

It is so difficult to rate and review this book. It took me months to go through the first 300 pages (my edition has 656 pages), as the story of Jane’s childhood is deeply bleak, depressing and full of fury. Jane loses both her parents very early, and was taken up by her uncle as a daughter. But once he dies, his wife and children mistreat Jane to any extents they can – even locking her up in a room for hours despite h More reviews and other bookish posts at: https://natysbookshelf.wordpress.com/

It is so difficult to rate and review this book. It took me months to go through the first 300 pages (my edition has 656 pages), as the story of Jane’s childhood is deeply bleak, depressing and full of fury. Jane loses both her parents very early, and was taken up by her uncle as a daughter. But once he dies, his wife and children mistreat Jane to any extents they can – even locking her up in a room for hours despite her screams of fear. This causes a deep trauma in Jane, who later on is sent to a charity school.

Her experiences there are not good either, the school is ill-kept, with not enough food, and strict rules. Jane is a child with a temper, she gets angry and speaks out for the injustices she sees – which causes her so much trouble. After graduating from the school, she decides to become a governess instead of a teacher. She wants more from life than becoming a teacher at her school can give her.

This is when she meets Mr. Rochester, for whom she is now working. I did not like their interaction, the way he thinks himself so superior to her and others, but takes such liberties to talk of things to Jane to see if she is “too sensitive” or so. I know their romance is famously swoon-worthy, but I didn’t quite see that. I didn’t like Mr. Rochester, really. He pretends for a really long time to be about to marry a beautiful lady, and constantly tells Jane how “plain” she is, how little she knows of the world. He also dismisses his possible-daughter, who only speaks French (so if you don’t know French, you’ll be quite lost at what she says, but hardly matters… she mostly exclaims things). He is a Byron-style hero, which irks me. Also the age difference makes me cringe.

I did get VERY enthralled by the story at its last 100 or 200 pages, when it becomes so, so intense. The romance then for me was much more beautiful and I actually cheered for them. Also Jane shows lots of backbone and I admire her for that. She was a great character to follow and I love the way she talks so clearly and beautifully and I’m glad the story is narrated by her. A 3rd person narration would hardly be this impacting.

The story has lots of symbolism, allegories and many touches of supernatural. Knowing this is mostly autobiographical, it breaks my heart that Charlotte went through so much. All in all, I actually liked the book, and gave it an extra star for its intense ending. I need to re-read it to fully enjoy it, though, so I look forward to doing that! I recommend it if you like gothic stories, and a slow burn plot.
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