Jane Eyre in Classics Without All the Class

Sep 29, 2011 Audrey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, england, fiction, classics, listens, 1840s, gothic, favorite-heroines, orphans

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Where to begin? I put off this novel for a long time because I thought it would be too dark and creepy. But after hearing from so many others who loved it, I finally decided to give it a try.

From the beginning, this book just sucked me right in (although I will admit that I was a bit impatient for her to get to Thornfield!). I think the first person narrative was a big reason for my getting so immersed in this. I also think it helped to listen to it on audio (although I did read some portions o Where to begin? I put off this novel for a long time because I thought it would be too dark and creepy. But after hearing from so many others who loved it, I finally decided to give it a try.

From the beginning, this book just sucked me right in (although I will admit that I was a bit impatient for her to get to Thornfield!). I think the first person narrative was a big reason for my getting so immersed in this. I also think it helped to listen to it on audio (although I did read some portions of the book, too). The one I listened to was narrated by Juliet Stevenson and it was excellent. She does a marvelous job with all the different characters; I especially like her Rochester voice. :)

I love the way Charlotte Brontë writes. It's so stormy and deeply felt with such wonderful analogies and descriptions. Though I do admit that there were times that, to my 21st century ears, it was a bit tedious or hard to understand (which doesn't make it less brilliant, just me less cultured). But it also makes unpacking all that wonderful narrative more of a treasure. As I mentioned above, I also love the first person voice and how she sometimes addresses us, "the Reader." It makes the story feel very personal and accessible, and it adds something to it that I can't quite put my finger on. I feel like this is such a fascinating book with so many themes and well-drawn characters that I could study it for months and still only scratch the surface. I think in the future I might like to peruse an annotated copy to better understand some of the sayings and context that I am not familiar with (especially the French phrases). There are also some wonderful reviews here on Goodreads that I have read (and plan to read more of) that have heightened my appreciation for this book. I greatly enjoy hearing everyone's thoughts and observations on a work like this.

I love Jane. She is such a thoroughly original heroine; I don't think I've ever encountered a book with a protagonist quite like her. I greatly appreciate that she isn’t the usual devastatingly beautiful heroine. She’s much more relatable. Her beauty is truly there, but it is an interior one, and that much more radiant. But still, she’s also not one of those annoyingly perfect people. She's self-assured, firm in her convictions, but a deep thinker, and very subtle. It's amazing that this whole dramatic story happened in the just the first 19 or 20 years of her life! I am inspired by how she rose out of her horrible childhood experiences and did not let them defeat her. There were also some parts where she calmly recounted events (like around the time all the guests were at Thornfield, I think) without giving her opinion or revealing her inner thoughts. During that time, I kept hoping she would share what was going through her head when Mr. Rochester, etc. did this or that. But I think it was probably just meant to build suspense as to what she really was thinking.

Mr. Rochester is such a complex character. I was annoyed with him sometimes--like when he was rude to Adele or seemed overly simpering in his long-winded confidences to Jane. But in spite of those things, I liked him. I think Jane saw something in him--and brought it out and made it shine--that not many people had noticed. I don't know that he would really make a great husband (I would have a hard time living with him, that's for sure!), but he was so perfect for Jane, and she so right for him. They were such emotional and intellectual equals that it was beautiful to see their love unfold.

The part where Jane randomly stumbles upon her cousins could be called contrived (and I thought it seemed a bit so at first), but somewhere--I think it was one of the reviewers on here--suggested that that could've been a display of God's providence in answering her prayers. That makes more sense to me. One question that puzzled me was why, after leaving Thornfield, did Jane not go to her uncle in Madeira?

St. John thoroughly aggravated me. (As a side note, the narrator to the audio book pronounced his name like “Sinjun.” Is that how it was really said?) What a tyrant he is to poor Jane! What was his power over her that made her follow his every command like an obedient dog? It bothered me that she put up with that bullying and manipulation. He treated her like a slave! Both he and Mr. Brocklehurst were pretty revolting characters (though St. John is maybe less evil than Brocklehurst…but I suppose that point is debatable). It's infuriating how they abused and distorted religion for their own twisted self-serving purposes, and with that sickening air of false piety.

What a shock that Mr. Rochester was blind and lost part of his arm. I really was not expecting that and I'm still getting used to it. I do have a few lingering curiosities about the now Mr. and Mrs. Rochester: do they ever move about from Ferndean and/or rebuild Thornfield? How many kids do they have? Does Mrs. Fairfax ever come back? It made me a little sad at the end that Thornfield, Mrs. Fairfax, etc. were now gone. I felt like they were such a part of the whole story of Jane and Edward that it was kind of bittersweet to see them move on. The gothic intrigue was gone, and they were just in a drafty old country estate (not that it really matters, I suppose). I also wonder what would’ve happened to Jane had Bertha not died. Would she have gone to India? I did like how the author tied up the story so nicely in letting us know what became of the principal characters. However, the ending sentence, after the significant length of the novel, just seemed a bit like it didn't finish it quite right. I probably shouldn't argue with authors who can write circles around me, but it would've been nice to end on a sweet note about Rochester and Jane or how Providence worked things out, instead of that doleful final letter of St. John.

I have so many more feelings about this novel. I don't even know how to unpack them all, but in whole--whatever I may like or dislike about it--I was utterly swept away by the story, and for that I give it 5 stars. I found it oddly fascinating, utterly captivating, and quite brilliant. It's very different than what I usually read, but it has definitely whetted my appetite for some more classics! In short, I'm very glad that I finally read it. ...more

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