Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Jane Eyre

this book will forever be wedged in my soul. i cannot adequately describe how insane jane eyre makes me feel and how much it all is. what i think and feel about how incredible this book it had probably been said a million times over and will be for many years to come. jane eyre is so much, too much, all encompassing… lord almighty.

Content Warnings

elysh_kaye's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. I found it to be slow paced for the first portion, but once the plot began the pacing improved. The language wasn't as inaccessible than other classics I have read, but still full of large descriptive prose regarding nature that I thought was unnecessary and repetitive at times.

My biggest issue was how the "love triangle" aged, having Jane choose to marry either a man "old enough to be her father" or her cousin

Content Warnings

twentyventi's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I had never read Jane Eyre all the way through until now. Such a beautifully written book - Charlotte Bronte’s writing is so evocative, and there are so many gems of dialogue between her characters. The reader is attached to Jane Eyre from the start, a reliable and worthy narrator of her story.

Note: There is definitely some expression of views towards race within this book which is unfortunately not uncommon in books written during this time period/within English literature. It’s a shame as it is not at all relevant or necessary to the plot of the book.

Content Warnings

whattaylorreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Content Warnings

sofiya's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is so perplexing that I literally don't know how to rate it. It's by far one of the most interesting classics I have read (likely due to the heavy dialogue and use of first-person), but it's far more chaotic than I would have ever expected. I have no idea how people label this as an iconic romance because I saw very little good things about the romance. I'd label it more as a coming-of-age/mystery (??) novel than a romance.

I will fault the book in that a lot of the story involves "telling" rather than "showing", particularly the 8 year time jump that's summarized in about 2 paragraphs. Some parts were done really well and others weren't in my opinion. I also found that occasionally my mind would wander as I read, and sometimes I had a hard time staying focused.

I didn't really understand the use of St. John at the end- especially the fact that the story ends by speaking about him. I'm still not really sure what the commentary on Christianity was meant to be, considering that both religious men we meet in the book are quite awful to Jane (and just in general). I know that there were examples of good Christianity and bad, but I wasn't really sure what I was meant to take away from it.

An additional note is that I enjoyed seeing the different levels of class and how it was addressed in the book. During that era, even servents were treated on different levels (usually based on education) and I do find that an interesting thing to examine.

Also, re: the romance. Mr. Rochester is a bit of a psychopath. The g*psy scene is so bizarre and he acts so clingy to Jane that it made me uncomfortable at times (and that's excluding the fact that he locks his mentally ill wife in an attic). I understand that I'm reading the book with a 2021 lens, but I don't understand how the book was ever looked on as romantic.</spoiler

Overall, I enjoyed reading Jane Eyre. I can't say that I'll actively choose to re-read it, but I'm happy to have gotten through it.

Content Warnings

sarahjoym's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

More...