What makes Rochester unique is that he does eventually see Jane the way she sees herself. She is a hidden gem in rooms full of people. I would talk about the love story, but what is there to say. It is one for the ages. He was married to someone else, and when Elizabeth Gaskell wrote the biography of her friend, she carefully edited out those very revealing letters of a love that could never be.
Jane Eyre, may you always find the readers you deserve. View all 81 comments. I am a very pretentious person. Just last night I shuddered at the idea of popular music, like some kind of eight-hundred-year-old gremlin.
And also it is important background information for you, dear Reader, going into this review. That direct address to yo I am a very pretentious person. That direct address to you as an audience member was me emulating this book, not an example of my pretension. Or was it??? A doozy, right? Come back, everyone!!!! Let me explain!
What I need to explain is that this book is excellent, and also a classic. It is very very old but sometimes old stuff is still worth it! I should know. I have the mannerisms of the type of grumpy old man that gets endearingly profiled in Scandinavian bestsellers.
It is very, very slow, and very wordy, and the language takes some settling in. But also this book is a literal gem. But this book is jarringly feminist when the constraints it and Jane were working in are taken into account.
So much of this is unique, by the standards of then but also even the standards of today. Three of the five Bennet sisters get married over the course of that book. But not lil Jane Eyre. She does not allow marriage to be the only prospect for her!! She goes away and makes a life for herself and then decides whether she wants to follow that path.
She also lacks the nineteenth-century version of a lot of those traits. And on top of all that, the language in this book is so gorgeous I want the whole manuscript tattooed on me. Which would be wild, because this is about a million pages long. And speaking of, yes, it is very slow and hard to get into and basically you have to adjust to a whole new reading experience.
But I would recommend getting into nineteenth century fiction solely for the purpose of reading this book. View all 29 comments. Jan 16, Ruby Granger rated it it was amazing Shelves: convenience.
Certainly one of the best novels ever written. View all 11 comments. Mar 05, Ilse rated it it was amazing Shelves: favourites , uk , The kind of novel that makes one believe in love again - or at least desire to hold on to the illusion. Likely my favourite read for For the time being, just basking and swooning.
I know it's out of fashion And a trifle uncool But I can't help it I'm a romantic fool The kind of novel that makes one believe in love again - or at least desire to hold on to the illusion. I know it's out of fashion And a trifle uncool But I can't help it I'm a romantic fool View all 79 comments. Child neglect, near death, a dash of magical realism, the power of love, the powerlessness of the poor, sexual rivalry, mystery, madness and more.
It is as powerful as ever - but is it really a l ov e story, given Rochester's Svengali-tendencies, or is it a l if e story? His downfall and her inheritance make them more equal, but is it really love on his part?
I'm not sure, which is what makes it such a good book just not necessarily a love story. I also like the tension between it being very Victo Child neglect, near death, a dash of magical realism, the power of love, the powerlessness of the poor, sexual rivalry, mystery, madness and more. I also like the tension between it being very Victorian in some obvious ways, and yet controversially modern in others: an immoral hero, a fiercely independent and assertive heroine, and some very unpleasant Christians it's not that I think Christians are bad or like seeing them portrayed in a nasty way - it's Bronte's courage in writing such characters I admire.
Childhood About the first quarter of the book concerns the tremendous hardship and abuse that Jane suffers growing up. It's often heavily cut from film, TV and stage adaptations, but despite the fluff about this being a great love story, I think there is merit in paying attention to her formative years as an essential element of explaining what makes Jane the person she becomes. The Red Room, where young Jane is banished shortly before being sent to Lowood, is a very short episode in the book, but its significance is probably greater than its brevity implies.
Is it also some sort of reference to Bertha's attic? Jane endures dreadful hardships: she is orphaned; her aunt says she is "less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep" and invokes the wrath of God who "might strike her dead in the midst of one of her tantrums"; she endures injustice as she strives to be good, but is always condemned, while the faults of her cousins are indulged or ignored.
So, she is sent to Lowood, where she sees the hypocritical tyranny of Brocklehurst, survives cold and near starvation and witnesses her best friend's death. Nevertheless, "I would not have exchanged Lowood with all its privations for Gateshead and its daily luxuries. Christianity gets a very mixed press in the book: Mr Brocklehurst is cruel and comically hypocritical curly hair is evil vanity in poor girls, who "must not conform to nature", but fine for his pampered daughters ; St John Rivers thinks his devoutness selfless, but is actually cold and selfish his motive being to gain glory in Heaven for himself ; Helen Burns is a redemptive Christ figure who accepts her punishments as deserved, helps Jane tame herself "Helen had calmed me" and, of course, dies.
Jane's own beliefs or lack are always somewhat vague though she's very moral and controversially feisty. When, as a small girl, the nasty Brocklehurst asks her what she should do to avoid going to Hell, she replies, "I must keep in good health, and not die"!
Aspects the way Christianity is portrayed may make it more accessible to modern readers from more secular backgrounds, but might have been shocking to devout Victorians. Perhaps they were placated by the fact that despite the cruelty, Jane forgives Aunt Reed for trying to improve her errant niece, even though "it was in her nature to wound me cruelly".
Male Power, Feminism, and Relevance Today Men had most of the power and respect in Bronte's time and often Jane has to go along with that. However, Bronte does subvert that to some extent by making Jane so assertive, determined and independent. The story of Jane Eyre has parallels with the story of Bluebeard, albeit with a very different ending, in which the woman takes charge of her own destiny. Bluebeard was well-known in Victorian fables as a rich and swarthy man who locked discarded wives in an attic though he killed them first.
He took a new young wife and when she discovered her predecessors, he was about to kill her, but she was rescued by her brothers, rather as Mason wants to rescue Bertha. Jane even likens an attic corridor to one in "some Bluebeard's castle", so Bronte clearly knew the story and assumed he readers did too. Despite her minimal contact with men, right from the outset Jane instinctively knows how to respond to the man she describes as "changeful and abrupt". When they first meet in the house and he is quizzing her, she consciously mirrors his tone "I, speaking as seriously as he had done" and "His changes of mood did not offend me because I saw I had nothing to do with their alteration".
Like many bullies, he enjoys a bit of a fight, rather than the nervous, prompt and unquestioning obedience his manner normally elicits, and Jane isn't afraid to answer him back and speak her mind. It isn't long before she can say "I knew the pleasure of vexing him and soothing him by turns".
When Blanche arrives, Jane realises "he had not given her his love" and that "she could not charm him" as she could.
At this point, she realises her self-delusions in overlooking his faults and merely considering them as "keen condiments". What should modern women make of this book? Bronte is radical in that neither Jane nor Rochester is conventionally attractive it is personality that matters and Jane is fiercely independent and assertive, even when she gives the impression of being submissive. She even says, "Women are supposed to feel very calm, generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint Does disappointment and disability truly changed him, and does that, coupled with her independent wealth make them equals?
Will they live happily ever after? Rochester What were Rochester's plans and motives for his relationship with Jane? Why does he insist that Jane appears in the drawing room every evening while Blanche and friends are staying, even though he fully understands and comments on how depressed it makes Jane?
And would Rochester have married Blanche if Mason hadn't turned up, making a big society wedding impossible? If so, was Jane always in his mind as a mistress and backup in case marriage to Blanche was not possible, or did he only decide to marry her much later? What sort of basis for a happy marriage is that, and can the equalising effect of his later disability and her inheritance really conquer it? It's true that Rochester tells Jane "I feigned courtship of Miss Ingram, because I wished to render you as madly in love with me as I was with you", but that is after Mason's visit, so is it true?
Rochester's treatment of Bertha is even more problematic: divorce wasn't viable, and yet he didn't want to leave her behind in the Caribbean In a funny sort of way, he might have felt he was doing the right thing by her, or at least, not the wrong thing. In a society which condemns divorce and cohabitation, is Rochester's planned bigamy justifiable?
As Rochester hints to Jane early on, "Unheard-of combinations of circumstances demand unheard-of rules". He also knows that Jane's integrity means she must be unaware of the details if he is to be with her he says that if he asked her to do something bad, she would say "no sir I cannot do it, because it is wrong" , though in fact there is a bigger tussle between her head and heart than he might have expected.
Later, he ponders the fact that she is alone in the world as being some sort of justification, "It will atone" and extends to the more blasphemous and deluded "I know my Maker sanctions what I do. For the world's judgement - I wash my hands thereof. His proposal is positively alarming, "You are formed for labour, not for love.
A missionary's wife you must - shall be. You shall be mine: I claim you - not for my pleasure, but for my Sovereign's service"! Under the guise of serving God and man, he is irredeemably self-serving. Magic Realism? The strangest element is the small but hugely significant ethereal message from Rochester that might now be called magical realism.
It sits oddly with the rest of the book, but I can never decide whether this is it a strength or a weakness. Who Knows What? A constant theme is "who knows what? Is Aunt Reed ignorant of how awful Lowood is and has she truly convinced herself that her treatment of Jane is appropriate?
How much does Mrs Fairfax know and tell about Rochester's wives, current and intended? Does Rochester know whether or not Adele is really his daughter, and what does Jane believe? Blanche appears to know very little, but is she only seeing what she wants to see?
Overall, there is so much in this book, it is well worth rereading, but I am not convinced that it is a love story. It is the easiest label to apply, and although Jane certainly finds love, I am not sure that love finds her. They're intellectually well-matched, and the sparring and physical attraction bode well. On the other hand, my doubts about his motivations when he was juggling Blanche and Jane make me uneasy.
Incidentally, I first read this book at school a naive mid-teen enjoys and appreciates it for very different reasons than an adult. One day, we were at a point when Jane was with the Rivers and possibly being courted by St John. We were told to read to page x for homework, so I turned to that page to mark it and saw the famous words not that I knew they were , "Reader, I married him" and was shocked to assume it referred to St John.
Coming with no preconceptions, other than knowing it was a classic - so I had a couple of big surprises in the plot. Being at a boarding school myself at the time - though fortunately not much like Lowood. Questioning my faith and the role of religion - then and since. Questioning the roles and rights of women - then and since. Jane, herself. That's a major one. The fact the book is daringly subversive for its time most of the Christians are bad, and Jane is fiercely outspoken and independent - most of the time.
I get something new from it each time. Like many, I first read this at school. I was captivated from the outset. Jane was wild, and brave, and rebellious - all things we weren't supposed to be, and yet we had to read and write about her. I vaguely knew about the wedding scene, but everything about her time with the Rivers was new and unexpected.
For all that I had doubts about Rochester, I felt in a naive, teenage way I shared a passion for him. The actual ending was a happy relief - all the more so because it had been unexpected. I thought I understood the book, and got good marks for essays about it apart from the injustice of being deducted marks for a comment a teacher refused to believe I hadn't copied from Brodie's Notes - a study guide I'd only ever heard of!
But like all great works of art, it speaks differently on each encounter, and the more I've read it, aided by a bit of maturity along the way, and now discussions with GR friends, the more I've seen in it. So no, this not a love story - on the pages. But there is a love story: between the reader and Jane. Mia Waskikowska was good as Jane, and it looked right, but Fassbender as Rochester was awful. He didn't brood enough for my liking, but what I think is less excusable is that he didn't really change during the course of the story.
Just as bad, Jamie Bell was too nice to be St John. In fact the whole episode at the Rivers' was very poorly done. Overall, it removed all ambiguity, making a complex story of truth and lies, divided loyalty and mixed emotions boringly straightforward. I read this book back in High School. I hated it. I thought it was boring and stupid and all I wanted to do was spread the word that this book was terrible and no one should read it.
I had it marked one star on Goodreads and it had a home on my least favorite shelf. Well, I have been waiting years to find the perfect place to use this gif: I reread in late August, early September I have to say that I should probably reread everything I read bank in High School to get a better perspective.
I I read this book back in High School. I enjoyed the book quite a bit this time. The story in intricate and dark. Jane Eyre is a tragic hero who does her best through the whole book but keeps encountering unfortunate situation after unfortunate situation. The story held my interest a lot more than some other classic novels I have read. My only complaint was a few times certain plot points were belabored. I found myself saying, "Okay, I get it, let's move on.
You never know what you might find! View all 89 comments. View all 20 comments. Aug 09, Dana Ilie rated it it was amazing Shelves: classic-literature. For years I've been saying that Jane Eyre is my favorite novel of all time-- and that it is.
The character of Jane is, to me, one of the most admirable and appealing fictional characters of all time. Poor and plain she may be, but her spirit is indomitable. In an era when women were expected to be brainless and ornamental, Jane through the words of Charlotte Bronte refused to bow to those expectations For years I've been saying that Jane Eyre is my favorite novel of all time-- and that it is.
In an era when women were expected to be brainless and ornamental, Jane through the words of Charlotte Bronte refused to bow to those expectations View all 21 comments.
It goes through five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins. Her education at Lowood School, where she gains friends and role models but suffers privations and oppression. Her time as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her mysterious employer, Edward Rochester.
Her time with the Rivers family, during which her earnest but cold clergyman cousin, St. John Rivers, proposes to her And ultimately her reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. View all 4 comments. I'm bumping Jane Eyre up to the full five stars on this reread. It has its Victorian melodramatic moments horrible aunt! And it really is a great romance, at least in my book, but it's just so much more than that.
Reasons I Love Jane Eyre : 1. Jane is no beauty. There's no Cinderella moment. Deal with it. Her beauty is all on the inside. Rochester is not gorgeous. This is not going to change either. In fact, his outward appearance gets worse in the end. And it doesn't matter! When's the last time you read a romance where neither the heroine nor the hero was good-looking?
Great dialogue. Rochester makes sarcastic comments to Jane all the time. She sasses him right back. Though there's definitely physical attraction here too. Jane maintains her pride and self-respect. She sticks to her principles, even when the pressure's on, even when it would be much easier, and would bring her much more short-term happiness, to let those principles go hang. Jane Eyre takes a very nuanced view of religion: there are hypocrites, in at least a couple of different variations.
There are hard, cold people who sometimes use religion as a tool, or an excuse for what they do. There are saintly characters who always turn the other cheek. And there are believers, like Jane, who are imperfect but are doing the best they can. Jane teaches us that we have a great power to take control of our lives and decide our own destiny, even when the cards are all stacked against us.
It's up to us to take action to change our lives, not wait for someone else to change it for us. Jane Eyre empowered women, written at a time when in so many ways we were considered second-class citizens.
It still empowers us now. The Kindle version available for free at Project Gutenberg has wonderful pencil drawing illustrations. View all 87 comments. This is a very beloved book, that stars an orphan girl name Jane that is trying to figure out the world around her. When she is very young, she is forced to live with her not-so-nice aunt, who is absolutely terrible to her.
But soon, her aunt sends her off to an all-girls boarding school, but Jane starts to learn who she is and who she wants to be, and after getting her education, she begins to teach at this school that she now considers her home. But at nineteen, she decides that she would like to try to be a governess so that she can travel and see the world that she has learned so much about.
Jane gets a job teaching a young girl at Thornfield Hall, but soon meets the master of Thornfield Hall, none other than Mr.
Rochester himself. Rochester is distant, and rude, and a bit grumpy, but the more and more time Jane and him spend together, the more and more they realize they have a lot in common. And they develop quite a strange and unconventional relationship, while many spooky and mysterious things are happening at Thornfield Hall. This book is very protofeminist. Jane has so much rage and anger inside of her, because of the gender roles and expectations that are always set on her.
On top of always being sent to places where she is forced to live and be molded into what is expected of her. Jane finally gets to live for herself at Thornfield Hall, and she does so unapologetically. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.
From classism, to marriage, to gender roles, to witchcraft, to slavery, to abuse, to power dynamics, and to so much more. And the things brought up in this book? That was first published in ? May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine. May you never appeal to Heaven in prayers so hopeless and so agised as in that hour left my lips: for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love.
But Jane always puts herself first, and even though she wants to be loved more than anything, she will constantly fight for her own place in the world where she lives on her own terms for her own beliefs. Jane loves herself, and in turn it made me love Jane, and this masterpiece of a story.
Overall, I fell completely in love with this. This was so intelligently crafted and so expertly woven! And the dark feelings and vibes throughout really makes this such a unique and amazing reading experience. And I think this is a book that I will be able to read and reread over and over for the rest of my life. You also best believe that if I ever have children, this will be required reading once they get a bit older, because this book seriously has an immense amount of power.
And I truly believe this is my favorite classic of all-time now. And I never want any woman to feel like a bird trapped in a cage. View all 35 comments. My mother didn't love me and wanted me to go to boarding school. There was a very good one in the nearest city I lived in a village about 13 miles away. My father wouldn't hear of it, he went to work in the city every day and I remember him saying to my mother, how would I feel if I was left there and he came home every day?
They had a big row which I overheard and my mother suggested a compromise, that I come home at weekends. My father wouldn't go for that either. Then I was supposed to go to Cheltenham Ladies' College, but after a brief interview they declined to have the third member of my family. The other two, cousins, one on my father's and one on my mother's and coincidentally we all have variations of the same first name, had both been expelled.
Probably about boys, I forget now, but we were all 'early developers' that way and we weren't like really well-behaved either. And my brother but he was expelled from Hebrew school only. He put a firecracker in the headmaster's desk, which my father had also done and also got expelled for but we didn't know it until my brother got into trouble. That was rubbed in by the housekeeper we had a live-in housekeeper who never lost an opportunity to show how much contempt she felt for me.
She made my brother's bed, washed his underwear, hung up his clothes and shined his shoes. It wasn't that the chores were onerous, it was that I was the only one in the house excluded from having them done. My father though, had hated boarding school. He was expelled from several. He used to run away. He had a strange upbringing. He also lived in a village, and there were boy cousins there was only one girl in his generation of a lot of boys in another village and a lot more in the city.
Whenever any of them got into trouble they would just go and stay with an aunt instead of going home. He told me no one really minded who turned up at the dinner table and they were always ready with excuses. So then he would get away with having run away for a couple of days until the school called his mother, my grandmother who loved me very much , and she would have to track him down and there would be hell to pay. On his third school, he wrote the classic note of novels, I saw it and wished I owned it.
He wrote to his mother, "Don't try to find me, I have gone and joined the army. He hated school. He wanted to be a farmer and went to Agricultural College rather than university, but on his father's death had to join the family company.
So my father was really keen on not sending me away and not forcing me into a career I really didn't want. So in Jane Eyre going to boarding school, I could see myself as the outcast, the one who wasn't accepted, the outcast, the plain girl as my mother was always rubbing in, fat, plain, awful hair, thunderthighs and best dressed in brown, grey, bottle green or navy, never pink, red, or flower prints. So I felt like Jane, I identified with her. I thought if I could get away maybe I could become part of a group, people would like me.
I also thought I could get away from the endless berations of my faults and the accompanying beatings. I reread it at about 13 and understood the book much more. Jean Rhys was from Dominica, an island I know well.
When I was first there her family home in Roseau had become a guest house and that was where I stayed. Not much of a review of an excellent book, but it was why I loved it so much. View all 64 comments. Aug 27, Gabriella Risatti rated it did not like it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read Jane Eyre for the first time as an adult and I can't help but feel sorry for every junior high or high school student who was forced to read this book.
I thought getting through this book was very difficult. I assumed I would love it since I generally love books by Jane Austen, but I didn't find many similarities at all. Jane Eyre was boring and unbelievable. I did enjoy the first half of the book because I had such hope for her, but then it just became dull and unrealistic.
I never bought the romance between Jane and Mr. Rochester, nor did I buy the coincidence of her happening to arrive on the doorstep of the only relations she has in all of England during her time of need. I also find it strange that she dedicates the last paragraphs of the book primarily to St. John Rivers, when he was such a small part of her life, not to mention the fact that the part he did play was primarily negative.
Bronte failed to draw me into the lives of these characters or like them, frankly, which made this a very long read for me. It's beautiful! Around the Year in 52 Books Challenge Notes: - Auden was a British poet, author and playwright best known as a leading literary figure in the 20th century for his poetry.
At the end of the 18th century, poet William Wordsworth helped found the Romantic movement in English literature. He also wrote "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. Olivia Rodrigo —. Megan Thee Stallion —. Bowen Yang —. See More. It is too much to bear. The same year she turned down her first marriage proposal, Charlotte turned away from the illicit fantasies of Angria. Both she and Branwell were in their twenties now, and they had lingered together in their imaginary world for too long. Charlotte had sent the poet a poem of her own, asking whether it was worth pursuing her literary ambitions.
A few years later, burned out on governessing and with no hopes of marriage, she continued her search for cooler climes. This time, she went to Belgium. What she really wanted, though, was a change of scenery, an antidote to her restlessness. She learned more than one language there. He encouraged her to write, to speak her mind. She likely saved the letters as potential evidence; they might prove useful if Charlotte made trouble for the school.
The author may have been hungry for crumbs, but Jane Eyre is not. They spoke almost as loud as Feeling: and that clamoured wildly. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. Or it may have been a reminder to move forward. Jane presses on, running away from sin and toward herself.
If she cannot be on equal footing with her partner, she will not have him at all. Even before he copped to his attic-bound madwoman of a wife, Rochester made it clear that he wanted to own Jane.
As his wife, she would have been his concubine: a petted plaything, but not an equal. By the time she falls in love, Jane knows she can fend for herself. Once again she resolves to keep in good health and not die. She does more than refuse to die; she thrives. Jane escapes Thornfield and befriends the Rivers sisters and their intolerable brother, St. John, a Calvinist minister who gives her a job as a teacher in an obscure village. Coincidence then teaches her that not only are the Rivers siblings her cousins, she is an heiress.
She shares the wealth, enjoying the money that has raised her out of obscurity. Jane has one more obstacle to overcome: St. John is arguably even more sadistic than Rochester. He expects Jane to follow him to the ends of the earth, and to do so with a cold substitute for love. But his words crack like a whip. John would never make out with Jane beneath a tree. The principled minister finds no pleasure in his future wife. Certainly, Charlotte had stopped thinking of herself as a wife by the time she wrote Jane Eyre.
But not wives. Spinsterdom did have its uses: It allowed Charlotte to write. It could be a lonely bargain, but it was one that allowed her to create Jane Eyre. Equipped with new knowledge and a new dismissal of the skim-milk version of love he offers, she decides that sin on her own terms is preferable to virtue on St. Turning down her cousin and returning to a man who, for all she knows, is still married, is helped along when she hears Rochester calling her name.
Jane, bolstered by her own financial security and her refusal to be diminished by a man who sees her only as a source of labor, is in a different position than she was when she left Rochester for the first time. She is ready for his call. She is ready to go to him on her own terms. That return has vexed readers for years. But is Jane really doomed to a life of subservience? Not exactly, says Pell. Gilbert, too, rejects the premise that Jane Eyre demeans herself by returning to Rochester.
In , her love of Rochester is so shocking it borders on treason.
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