From the Bookshelf of Should have read classics…

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

Start date: April 1, 2011

Finish date: May 1, 2011

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Sep 05, 2007 Mounir rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: a-to-re-read, literature-english

"The masterwork of a great genius". That was how William Makepeace Thackeray described Jane Eyre.

When I decided in 1973 to read at lest one English-language novel every year, I started with Jane Eyre, and have re-read it after that once or twice. This is my third or fourth read of this beautiful novel.

Apart from the romantic love story, the gothic setting and the gripping story line, there are other important elements in the novel:
- Advocating an assertive role for women in society, which is se "The masterwork of a great genius". That was how William Makepeace Thackeray described Jane Eyre.

When I decided in 1973 to read at lest one English-language novel every year, I started with Jane Eyre, and have re-read it after that once or twice. This is my third or fourth read of this beautiful novel.

Apart from the romantic love story, the gothic setting and the gripping story line, there are other important elements in the novel:
- Advocating an assertive role for women in society, which is seen in Jane Eyre herself who strives to be an independent and free individual;
- Showing that women need not be the pasive or dependent gender, actually in the novel Jane Eyre is the one who offers help to Mr. Rochester when he falls off his horse, and is also the one who saves his life from the fire, and insists on finding a job when staying with the Rivers.
- Advocating equality between men and women, and drawing attention to the fact that women have the same feelings, emotions and aspirations like men ( these ideas had led contemporary critics to describe her literature aa "coarse", apparently in the same way that the young Jane in the novel was believed to be "evil" just because she was so passionate)
- a strong social awareness about the high class people and how they treat their "inferiors", Jane Eyre in one scene is actually present among high class ladies who crititicize governesses sharply and illogically while they are aware she is listening. When she works in a charity school for poor peasant girls, she reminds herself not to be partial against them because of their ignorance or bad habits, and with time becomes convinced that provided they get an adequate education and better living circumstances, they would not be different from any high class girl.
- The interesting conversations between Jane and Mr. Rochester, thier opposing views on morality, conscience, freedom, human will and destiny, and whether to give the upper hand to Reason or to Passion.
- The novel could be called "Passion and Reason" or something like that, and it is interesting to trace how Jane was always "passionate" during her childhood against the suppressed emotions of everybody else, which made her a difficult and "strange" child; even Jane herself mentioned at least once that she is different from the others. But in another situation with Mr. Rochester, Jane found that she had to resort to Reason and not be swept away by her emotions. And yet, in another scene with st. John Rivers, she refused to lead a dry life devoid of love or passion, even if it was apparently in the service of God.

Some elemets and events in the novel are autobiograohical, especially in the early chapters, e.g. the miserable conditions under which the girls lived in Lowood ( Charlotte and three of her sisters lived in a similar institution during part of their childhood, and where her two elder sisters died of tuberculosis). Charlotte Brontë worked for about a year as governess, and complained that employers treated governesses like slaves.

Jane Eyre, TV series, 1983:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... ...more

11 likes · Like · see review

Jun 30, 2011 Everyman rated it it was ok

My review of Jane Eyre can be found here:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 14, 2008 Jailynn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: my-very-best-reads

I re-read this book every couple of years

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2011 miteypen rated it it was amazing

I read this when I was in the third grade at the suggestion of our school librarian. It changed my view of literature forever. Before that I'd been reading books like The Bobbsey Twins, which I loved, but they didn't exactly transport me to another world. Jane Eyre did. I loved everything about it. I don't know how I would have reacted if I'd read it first as an adult, but I'll never forget the impact it had on me as a child. ...more

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Jul 17, 2007 Janie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: just-a-few-favorites-is-all, classics, british-classics, chunksters, victorian-literature, strong-women, top-ten

This was THE BOOK for me. I had spent a pre-university education reading (and sometimes not reading) classics because they were required. Finally, in my senior year, we were invited to choose a great work of literature as our big project in AP English. I chose Jane because its an awesome name to have.

Reading it was the first time I've ever really loved a work of classic literature. Jane and Helen, Jane and Rochester, Jane and God, Jane and Herself. These were all relationships that were powerful ...more

4 likes · Like · see review