From the Bookshelf of Reading the Classics…

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

Start date: September 1, 2013

Finish date: September 30, 2013

Discussion: Past Group Reads

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Past Group Reads

* Washington Square - Reading Schedule
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What Members Thought

Apr 20, 2012 Andrea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-sorted, fiction-general, list-1001-books, 2014-chunkster

When I was little I often asked my family members to tell me a story. My grandmother's stories I liked the most, because she did not just resort to the same old fairytales, but rather told me of the books she'd read in her lifetime. I don't remember much of what she told me, but I do remember Jane Eyre. This is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand I have this wonderful memory of my grandmama sharing a great book with me, but on the other hand I knew about the plot twists and the grande myste When I was little I often asked my family members to tell me a story. My grandmother's stories I liked the most, because she did not just resort to the same old fairytales, but rather told me of the books she'd read in her lifetime. I don't remember much of what she told me, but I do remember Jane Eyre. This is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand I have this wonderful memory of my grandmama sharing a great book with me, but on the other hand I knew about the plot twists and the grande mystery of Thornfield. Kind of a bummer, isn't it?

Without the amazing mystery, I am left to judge the rest of the book. I have to say I liked it a lot, and especially the first part when Jane writes about her childhood. She came off as an intelligent and headstrong child, with a good moral compass and a sense of justice. I loved learning about her life in school and the special friend she made there. I read the whole thing in one sitting!

Then came the part where she moved to Thornfield to be a governess, and the book lost me a little. Oh the romance! There was so much of it I nearly drowned. People magically falling in love with each other out of nowhere, ignoring traditions imposed by society, singling out an otherwise unremarkable woman for her mind like there are no other intelligent females in the whole wide world... Was I reading a Cinderella storybook? And the men! Oh my goodness, every dude in this book wanted to manipulate Jane into marrying him to achieve some kind of selfish goal. And they didn't really ask, they told her to marry them! That other guy (we all know who you are!) even went as far as to frighten her with the wrath of God if she didn't serve his purpose. Sheesh! I also did not enjoy endless "lovemaking", as the puritan society liked to call pages and pages of confessions of love, interwoven with longing looks and sighing by the moonlight (I'm looking at you Rochester!). I know I'm being cynical, but this kind of stuff just doesn't appeal to me in books.

But that was the only flaw of Jane Eyre. The writing was beautiful, but accessible; the heroine - independent and (thank heavens) not susceptible to fainting spells. The plot was engaging, and the atmosphere deliciously gothic at times. I completely supported the choices Jane made, and admired her for sticking to her guns and speaking her mind frankly, sometimes even brutally. What a lovely novel! I do think though that it failed to portray Jane's life as that of hardship and misery, since every time she really was in distress, there came someone to make it all better for her. But that kind of fairytale I am willing to gobble up. ...more

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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

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Apr 18, 2011 Carl rated it really liked it

Better than Pride and Prejudice, not as good as Great Expectations. A better romance than P&P in that it shows the grungier side of the era. I had no idea about the crazy lady reveal. Bronte tells a moving love story and adds in an element of the macabre. Pretty cool book.

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Aug 15, 2011 Bogdan rated it really liked it

Shelves: brits

This is a extraordinary well written novel and I wonder why I did not read it earlier. I think the reason is that I always thought that will be "another dull classic British novel". Well, it isn't. It is a good written romantic novel but with the rigorousness and reason specific to Albion. This is probably why I liked it so much.
The only reason I did not rate it with 5 stars is that there are some events in the book that seemed artificial. And my belief is that a novel must try as much as possib ...more

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