Jane Eyre in flight paths

Oct 30, 2016 Petra rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

I had read this book way back in my teens. All I remembered was a bit from the end (and, it turns out, I remembered that in a skewed manner). Even while reading, none of the events were familiar or shook out any memories of that first read.
The first thing I have to say is that this is not a romance.....at least not in my eyes. This is so much more than a man and woman falling in love and facing hardships in order to spend their lives together.
First and foremost, the writing made me fall in lov ...more

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Oct 28, 2020 Barbara McEwen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, uk

Ahhh, an enjoyable classic. Sooo dramatic, but it works. I knew some of what was coming from popular culture but I was still entertained throughout.

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Apr 16, 2011 Kamakana rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: literature, romanticlit, feminismlit, aa-womanauthor, aa-europelit, aa-englandlit, penguin-classics, xlong-over-400, zz1840-1859, gothic-sensation

120811: this is a much later addition (7 years): yes hard to believe it has been so long and maybe i should try it again? unfortunately i remember too clearly the existential frustration with the plot of fortunate coincidences, and certain genres such as romantic literature have not become more interesting to me. this is yet a favorite of some women i know, some who have been fortunate to find men who validate or agree or at least do not deride it, but this has never been me. so in the 7 years s 120811: this is a much later addition (7 years): yes hard to believe it has been so long and maybe i should try it again? unfortunately i remember too clearly the existential frustration with the plot of fortunate coincidences, and certain genres such as romantic literature have not become more interesting to me. this is yet a favorite of some women i know, some who have been fortunate to find men who validate or agree or at least do not deride it, but this has never been me. so in the 7 years since i have not become romantic...

first review: okay, now why did i give this acknowledged classic such an ordinary rating? i have only read it once, but not innocent of all its hype, some idea of major plot points, its degraded harlequin/mills and boon offspring, and wonder, if i did not know when it was written, if i might have thought it just one such work. i can certainly see how it might be effective for comfort-reading of an adult fairy tale. this is not necessarily bad, not boring, just did not engage me to such an extent that suspended my critical attitude...

a quote, by or about, jane austen: everything important happens at parties. there is a party at which jane comes to observe and sense, somewhat mistakenly, the relationships of rochester and one other woman. note, from somewhere: women always remember what they were wearing at important emotional moments in their life. at this party, jane notices the clothes of everyone, and the clothes are all significant. the clothes. note: when jane receives inheritance, she first disposes it to her cousins, who just happen to rescue her before they know her- and then she redecorates the house!..

jane is viewed approvingly, is caring: there is one character who dies simply so we can learn how kind she is. jane transcends circumstance of her birth, of her being an orphan, and good things happen to her because... she is a good person. coincidence rather than effort. passivity rather than action. she does stupid things for emotional reasons, like running away with no money, no plans, but ends up rewarded by fate. she meets just the right people...

rochester is wounded: by another woman, a madwoman, whom he just has to imprison in the attic. this proves what? he will be emotionally available to jane? he suffers but it is noble and not his fault? he does care too much? he has had dissolute life in paris to prove that simple hedonism is possible but obviously not what he needs and rather than anachronistic psychotherapy or religious counseling or a native witch- he needs love of a good woman...

dark, brooding, domineering, attractively ugly male character with tortured romantic history: who could this be? plain, spunky, smart, kind and forgiving, surviving and rescued female character: where have i heard or read of this character before? this is the origin of these character types? does this mean i have to read even earlier work to put it in context or understand at least ironically in some post modern way? dour, dry, distracted and serious and good man or emotional injured wreck: these are her reasonable choices of manhood? i want the missionary to go without her, after all, she is just a woman... and he has god?...

things happen, not because they are tries but because the plot demands it. why was i more annoyed than pleased when what i thought would happen does happen? fate works in mysterious ways to insure this engaging ending which promises a future of... something like happily ever after? he will never not need her, she will never feel unneeded? this is perhaps why it is so difficult to make as a successful movie: what matters, what the story is all about, is nothing simply visual but in the invisible persistence of emotion, which only words can express. in some ways, though i do not know enough of the context, the story privileges what can only be imagined and perhaps this is an advance from characters so evidently obvious in physical equating moral value- but does she just reverse polarities? beauty equals shallow? but all this makes it sound like i did not like it at all. not so. i had a few moments when i thought of just stopping, but got over it. i tried to think of the target demographic. i thought of all the women who love this book, thought of how i love women, thought of my sympathy for female desire... but if this is ideal as so many women efriends insist, i am on another planet. but it is well-written, rounded, sort-of believable characters, romantic plot... i was impressed. however, reading from my impressionable adolescence, even in memory, even in life lived, books read since: a farewell to arms by hemingway, or great gatsby by fitzgerald, perhaps quintessentially male and essentially tragic, are my kind of romances... ...more

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