Jane Eyre in bbc book list, the top 100

Sep 28, 2014 Smiley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

More than 50 years ago in my lower secondary school years I knew by chance there then was a seemingly formidable, simplified novel entitled Jane Eyre required to read as external reading as part of the final exam in the higher secondary school syllabus in Thailand. It wasn’t interesting to me since it’s about love between a young governess and her master written by an authoress unknown to me; I tried to browse its first few pages to read and left it at that, I thought I wouldn’t never finish rea More than 50 years ago in my lower secondary school years I knew by chance there then was a seemingly formidable, simplified novel entitled Jane Eyre required to read as external reading as part of the final exam in the higher secondary school syllabus in Thailand. It wasn’t interesting to me since it’s about love between a young governess and her master written by an authoress unknown to me; I tried to browse its first few pages to read and left it at that, I thought I wouldn’t never finish reading it no matter how hard I try and think positively on its content as outstanding literature. However, since a few months ago, I’ve reflected on why I should read Charlotte Bronte again (I first read her juvenilia "The Foundling: A Tale of our Own Times by Captain Tree" being a short one, a means to encourage myself) and decided to do something rebellious, that is, I need to keep going with my reading plan and mission so that I could proceed substantially, week after week, and learn to enjoy reading one of the best romantic novels in English literature.

Presumably rendered from this novel, an interesting popular Thai phrase bitterly sarcastically or jokingly spoken in various contexts [however, some may regard it as offensive/impolite] has once been popular since some fifty years ago in Thailand, that is, ช่วยไม่ได้ /chuay mai dai/, from “I could not help it” or its equivalent, for instance:

Who blames me? Many, no doubt; and I shall be called discontented. I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes. … (p. 160)

… We were now approaching Thornfield. “Will it please you to dine with me to-day?” he asked, as we re-entered the gates.
“No, thank you, sir.”
“And what for ‘no, thank you’? if one may inquire.”
“I’ve never have dined with you, sir: and I see no reason why I should now: till -----”
“Till what? You delight in half-phrase.”
“Till I can’t help it.”
… (p. 403)

… 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; of the disseverment of bone and vein; of the grave gaping at the end: and I thought of drear flight and homeless wandering – and, oh! With agony I thought of what I left. I could not help it. I thought of him now – in his room – watching the sunrise; hoping I should soon come to say I would stay with him, and be his. … (p. 481)

However, as far as I know, there has since been no literary evidence in suggesting its transformation from this novel into our spoken Thai, it might have been a kind of language fad once popularly adopted as a new way of spoken Thai (now rarely heard) from Western culture which, I think, it is all right to use it among friends or juniors but it could be pitifully impolite if spoken to the elderly or seniors. Therefore, one's sense of respect is the key. ...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Angela Randall rated it it was amazing

Shelves: i-own, classics, young-adult-educational-material, we-own, friends-recommend, free-ebook, fiction, ange-recommends, read-2011, bbc-top-100-books

I accidentally let the book get packed up in a box somewhere when I moved house and reading was on hold until I found it and got back into it.

I resumed, but after crying through the most tortured marriage proposal I've ever read I paused a little so that I didn't throw the book across the room violently.

Obviously, the story moved on and I got over that. :)

All in all, this is a brilliant book. It was beautifully written and I was in tears far too often.

Free audiobook and podcast available ...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Robyn Blaber rated it really liked it

Shelves: british-literature

Well... to call the writing a bit "stiff" would be an understatement, however, I'm glad to have this novel floating around in my head and mingling with the other works I have up there. As an aspiring writer with a decidedly female demographic for my first novel, I supposed it to be important to read other works intended for female readers.

As for the novel itself, the Jane Eyre character is simultaneously noble and humble and never the damsel-in-distress even when in terrible distress. Upon refle ...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Nicole rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, classics, british

This review is going to take some time. Every time I re-read Jane Eyre, I get something different out of it. This last time, I was struck by how unabashedly manipulative Mr. Rochester is.

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