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thaurisil's review against another edition
4.0
The book was engaging; once I picked it up I could not bear to stop. Yet after I finished, I felt it was forgettable. Indeed, I have forgotten many details of the first half already. Perhaps this is because I read it in short snatches at a time, or because I read it too fast. Whatever the case, it is quite a pity because the story was captivating. The characters were richly developed and the themes deeply explored, and I am sure this review will be a long one as I attempt to sort out my thoughts.
First, a synopsis. It starts with ten-year old Jane, an orphan, living with her Aunt Reed and her cousins John, Eliza and Georgiana at Gateshead. Mrs Reed hates Jane, having taken her in as a promise to her late husband. Jane does her best to win favour, but is mistreated by Mrs Reed and her children. Bessie, the nurse, is temperamental but occasionally kind, while Abbot the maid is prejudiced against Jane. One day, Jane is cruelly hit by John with a book. She fights back and is consequently sent to the Red Room, Mr Reed's death chamber, where she is terrified. She calls for help but is rebuked by Mrs Reed, and eventually faints. The compassionate apothecary Mr Lloyd recommends her to be sent to school, and Mrs Reed gets a place for her at Lowood Institution, a charity school. Before leaving Gateshead, she meets Lowood's manager Mr Brocklehurst, a puritanical "black pillar" of a clergyman who takes a dislike to Jane after Mrs Reed pronounces her a liar. Afterwards, in a fit of passion, Jane confronts Mrs Reed, gaining her first triumph over the lady.
At Lowood, conditions are poor and food is scarce, but Jane meets kind friends in the form of Miss Temple, the superintendent, and Helen Burns, a pious and forgiving but careless girl. Mr Brocklehurst shames her in front of the school on a visit, but Miss Temple clears her of being a liar after conducting investigations. Typhus soon infests the school, and Helen dies peacefully in Jane's arms. Inquiries are made into the state of the school, there is a change in management and Jane spends eight years in Lowood, two as a teacher.
After Miss Temple leaves Lowood, Jane becomes governess to a French girl, Adele, at Thornfield Hall. The old housekeeper Mrs Fairfax is kindly and the other staff pleasant, but Jane grows suspicious of Grace Poole after hearing her issue an evil laugh from behind a door on the third storey. Jane soon meets a man on the road to Thornfield, and offers him help after his horse falls. Upon returning to the house, she discovers he is the owner of the house, Mr Edward Rochester. Mr Rochester is aloof, moody and stern, but Jane grows to enjoy heir conversations. One night, she awakes to find Mr Rochester's room on fire, and rescues him by drenching him. Mr Rochester explains that Grace Poole was behind the event and expresses deep gratitude.
Mr Rochester brings a party of gentry to his house. Jane observes that Mr Rochester spends much time with a beautiful girl, Blanche Ingram, but they do not appear to love each other. While Mr Rochester is away, a fortune-telling gypsy comes to the house and tries to persuade Jane to confess her love for Mr Rochester but Jane refuses. The gypsy reveals herself to be Mr Rochester, who expresses great shock upon hearing that a Mr Mason is in the house. That night, Mr Mason is attacked, seemingly by Grace Poole.
Jane is called to Mrs Reed's deathbed, where Mrs Reed shows her a letter from Jane's uncle John Eyre. Jane returns to Thornfield, where she prepares to leave in view of Mr Rochester's marriage to Blanche. After an emotional outburst by Jane, Mr Rochester proposes to her.
Prior to the wedding, Mr Rochester buys luxuries like dresses and pearls which Jane refuses to accept. Ominous signs precede the wedding day, and at the altar, Mr Mason and a lawyer reveal that Mr Rochester is married. He had been tricked by his brother and father into marrying Mr Mason's sister Bertha Mason, a madwoman that he stows in the third storey. The marriage is called off, and against Mr Rochester's pleadings, Jane runs away.
At this point, I flipped forward, and finding no sign of Mr Rochester's name, I wanted to throw the book across the room. Jane's subsequent homeless exploits were too self-pitying for me. She eventually ended up at a house with St John, a cold, stern clergyman, and his two compassionate sisters, Diana and Mary, whom Jane connects with. Jane becomes a mistress at a village school. She is left a fortune by her Uncle John, who turns out to be her benefactors' uncle as well, and she splits the fortune between the four. St John then entreats her to marry him, seeing her a fit fellow missionary. Jane sees no love in the marriage, and instead, hearing Mr Rochester calling her name in a supernatural event, she returns to Thornfield. The house has been burnt down by Bertha, who jumped off the roof in the process. Mr Rochester lost his eyesight and right arm in the fire. Jane finds him at Ferndean, and the two finally marry. Mr Rochester regains his eyesight two years later, in time to see his firstborn.
At its heart, this is a story of love. Mr Rochester and Jane love each other passionately, and it is a triumph for love when Jane abandons the cold, unfeeling and religious St John for the fervent, loving and devilish Mr Rochester. It is a story of love between kindred spirits, of the power of love to save as well as the power of estranged love to destroy. Mr Rochester sought love amongst foreign ladies, and finds it instead in an unlikely source. I like that Jane ended up being Mr Rochester's eyes and right hand, his physical support for life as she was at the start when Mr Rochester leaned on her after spraining his ankle.
Yet during their separation, I started to think that the story was more about the love between God and man than between man and woman. Where I expected Jane to stick by Mr Rochester's side, as the girl in Rebecca did, she instead spurned him and her own feelings to trust in God. God's love is channelled through Miss Temple and Helen Burns, and Helen's message of turning the other cheek affects Jane's outlook on life forever, even if she fails to hold to it at times. There is a sense that even the separation is God's doing, as it draws Mr Rochester closer to God and calms his wild, violent and spontaneous nature. At the same time, Jane disdains the puritanical religion of St John and Mr Brocklehurst, choosing God over earthly romance but rejecting the notion that God would approve of a marriage without romance. She holds to her own brand of religion, trusting in God but cherishing independence.
I have started a comparison with Rebecca, and I shall continue it. I read both books without knowing their similarities. Both are Gothic novels and involve a Byronic wealthy middle-aged man and a young poor girl falling in love, with the girl living in the man's mansion. The ball in Manderley is similar to the party of gentry at Thornfield, and both houses are destroyed in a fire. Both also involve mysteries that involve the man's first wife. But Jane, being headstrong, religious and purposeful, is a much more palatable character than the other unnamed heroine, who is weak and timid. The mystery once solved leads to estrangement rather than affection, and love develops more realistically over a longer period of time. While du Maurier's characters seemed merely infatuated, Brontë paints the characters so well that their compatibility is never in doubt.
It has been said that Jane Eyre was revolutionary for its time, and I can see why. Right from the start, social classes are rejected, with Jane being poor but intelligent and educated. She considers herself financially inferior but morally superior to the Reeds. There is a constant struggle between social inferiority and moral equality in her interactions with Mr Rochester, with her acting for the most part a deferential governess to her master, yet speaking bluntly to him and never failing to defend herself when required. Mr Rochester only proposes marriage after Jane claims equality in spirit, and the marriage takes place only when the two are financially equal.
In addition, Jane treasures independence. She dislikes the inferiority imposed on her as a dependent at Gateshead, and thereafter would rather be poor than receive gifts from Mr Rochester. Brontë was a feminist, and it shows as several males (John Reed, Mr Brocklehurst, Mr Rochester, St John) try to get Jane to submit to them, yet she submits only by action, not in spirit. In fact, she marries only after Mr Rochester becomes dependent on her. Brontë rejects the notion that women should be meek, and although Jane forces reason to preside in her actions, key events (her triumph over Mrs Reed, the marriage proposal, the separation) are marked by outbursts of passion. Yet Brontë allows for some domesticity, with Jane's chief talents being drawing and painting, and with Jane getting more joy out of finding family than with gaining a fortune. Indeed, she is unsettled till she finds a home for both her body and spirit.
I really like Mr Rochester. There is something sweet in a strong, wild man searching for a redemption that eludes him and finally finding it in a plain, small, pale, poor girl. His effort at dressing up as a gypsy to persuade Jane to admit her love to him is bizarre but touching, and the way he hides his wife to avoid losing Jane, yet loses her eventually, is heart-breaking. His final image as a man broken in body but revived in spirit might be pitiful but is not sad. Perhaps the best analysis of his character is Brontë's own:
Mr. Rochester has a thoughtful nature and a very feeling heart; he is neither selfish nor self-indulgent; he is ill-educated, misguided; errs, when he does err, through rashness and inexperience: he lives for a time as too many other men live, but being radically better than most men, he does not like that degraded life, and is never happy in it. He is taught the severe lessons of experience and has sense to learn wisdom from them. Years improve him; the effervescence of youth foamed away, what is really good in him still remains. His nature is like wine of a good vintage, time cannot sour, but only mellows him.
I read the Oxford World Classic's edition with annotations included, and it highlighted several things to me, like Brontë's frequent references to the Bible and other classic texts, and the fact that the time in Lowood is largely autobiographical, which explained why the emotions of a child are so well captured: beauty and kindness are accepted whole-heartedly, cruelty and abuse are rejected vehemently. But the most eye-opening thing are the parallels between Jane at Gateshead and Bertha at Thornfield. Both are outcasts, misunderstood, hated for their innate natures and hidden from guests. Thus we see the same situation from two different perspectives, that of the victim and that of the perpetrator, and it is shocking how easily we form prejudices against the 'other'.
Given that this book was so wrought with emotion, it is ironic that I give it three stars because I simply couldn't feel the emotions enough. I am convinced that has to do with the way I read it in short sections at a time on the bus or the train. A re-reading would probably convince me that it deserves four or five stars, but three is the closest to my true feelings.
----------
UPDATE: This has been changed to four stars; I feel too strongly attached to Jane and Mr Rochester. Perhaps a change of mood?
First, a synopsis. It starts with ten-year old Jane, an orphan, living with her Aunt Reed and her cousins John, Eliza and Georgiana at Gateshead. Mrs Reed hates Jane, having taken her in as a promise to her late husband. Jane does her best to win favour, but is mistreated by Mrs Reed and her children. Bessie, the nurse, is temperamental but occasionally kind, while Abbot the maid is prejudiced against Jane. One day, Jane is cruelly hit by John with a book. She fights back and is consequently sent to the Red Room, Mr Reed's death chamber, where she is terrified. She calls for help but is rebuked by Mrs Reed, and eventually faints. The compassionate apothecary Mr Lloyd recommends her to be sent to school, and Mrs Reed gets a place for her at Lowood Institution, a charity school. Before leaving Gateshead, she meets Lowood's manager Mr Brocklehurst, a puritanical "black pillar" of a clergyman who takes a dislike to Jane after Mrs Reed pronounces her a liar. Afterwards, in a fit of passion, Jane confronts Mrs Reed, gaining her first triumph over the lady.
At Lowood, conditions are poor and food is scarce, but Jane meets kind friends in the form of Miss Temple, the superintendent, and Helen Burns, a pious and forgiving but careless girl. Mr Brocklehurst shames her in front of the school on a visit, but Miss Temple clears her of being a liar after conducting investigations. Typhus soon infests the school, and Helen dies peacefully in Jane's arms. Inquiries are made into the state of the school, there is a change in management and Jane spends eight years in Lowood, two as a teacher.
After Miss Temple leaves Lowood, Jane becomes governess to a French girl, Adele, at Thornfield Hall. The old housekeeper Mrs Fairfax is kindly and the other staff pleasant, but Jane grows suspicious of Grace Poole after hearing her issue an evil laugh from behind a door on the third storey. Jane soon meets a man on the road to Thornfield, and offers him help after his horse falls. Upon returning to the house, she discovers he is the owner of the house, Mr Edward Rochester. Mr Rochester is aloof, moody and stern, but Jane grows to enjoy heir conversations. One night, she awakes to find Mr Rochester's room on fire, and rescues him by drenching him. Mr Rochester explains that Grace Poole was behind the event and expresses deep gratitude.
Mr Rochester brings a party of gentry to his house. Jane observes that Mr Rochester spends much time with a beautiful girl, Blanche Ingram, but they do not appear to love each other. While Mr Rochester is away, a fortune-telling gypsy comes to the house and tries to persuade Jane to confess her love for Mr Rochester but Jane refuses. The gypsy reveals herself to be Mr Rochester, who expresses great shock upon hearing that a Mr Mason is in the house. That night, Mr Mason is attacked, seemingly by Grace Poole.
Jane is called to Mrs Reed's deathbed, where Mrs Reed shows her a letter from Jane's uncle John Eyre. Jane returns to Thornfield, where she prepares to leave in view of Mr Rochester's marriage to Blanche. After an emotional outburst by Jane, Mr Rochester proposes to her.
Prior to the wedding, Mr Rochester buys luxuries like dresses and pearls which Jane refuses to accept. Ominous signs precede the wedding day, and at the altar, Mr Mason and a lawyer reveal that Mr Rochester is married. He had been tricked by his brother and father into marrying Mr Mason's sister Bertha Mason, a madwoman that he stows in the third storey. The marriage is called off, and against Mr Rochester's pleadings, Jane runs away.
At this point, I flipped forward, and finding no sign of Mr Rochester's name, I wanted to throw the book across the room. Jane's subsequent homeless exploits were too self-pitying for me. She eventually ended up at a house with St John, a cold, stern clergyman, and his two compassionate sisters, Diana and Mary, whom Jane connects with. Jane becomes a mistress at a village school. She is left a fortune by her Uncle John, who turns out to be her benefactors' uncle as well, and she splits the fortune between the four. St John then entreats her to marry him, seeing her a fit fellow missionary. Jane sees no love in the marriage, and instead, hearing Mr Rochester calling her name in a supernatural event, she returns to Thornfield. The house has been burnt down by Bertha, who jumped off the roof in the process. Mr Rochester lost his eyesight and right arm in the fire. Jane finds him at Ferndean, and the two finally marry. Mr Rochester regains his eyesight two years later, in time to see his firstborn.
At its heart, this is a story of love. Mr Rochester and Jane love each other passionately, and it is a triumph for love when Jane abandons the cold, unfeeling and religious St John for the fervent, loving and devilish Mr Rochester. It is a story of love between kindred spirits, of the power of love to save as well as the power of estranged love to destroy. Mr Rochester sought love amongst foreign ladies, and finds it instead in an unlikely source. I like that Jane ended up being Mr Rochester's eyes and right hand, his physical support for life as she was at the start when Mr Rochester leaned on her after spraining his ankle.
Yet during their separation, I started to think that the story was more about the love between God and man than between man and woman. Where I expected Jane to stick by Mr Rochester's side, as the girl in Rebecca did, she instead spurned him and her own feelings to trust in God. God's love is channelled through Miss Temple and Helen Burns, and Helen's message of turning the other cheek affects Jane's outlook on life forever, even if she fails to hold to it at times. There is a sense that even the separation is God's doing, as it draws Mr Rochester closer to God and calms his wild, violent and spontaneous nature. At the same time, Jane disdains the puritanical religion of St John and Mr Brocklehurst, choosing God over earthly romance but rejecting the notion that God would approve of a marriage without romance. She holds to her own brand of religion, trusting in God but cherishing independence.
I have started a comparison with Rebecca, and I shall continue it. I read both books without knowing their similarities. Both are Gothic novels and involve a Byronic wealthy middle-aged man and a young poor girl falling in love, with the girl living in the man's mansion. The ball in Manderley is similar to the party of gentry at Thornfield, and both houses are destroyed in a fire. Both also involve mysteries that involve the man's first wife. But Jane, being headstrong, religious and purposeful, is a much more palatable character than the other unnamed heroine, who is weak and timid. The mystery once solved leads to estrangement rather than affection, and love develops more realistically over a longer period of time. While du Maurier's characters seemed merely infatuated, Brontë paints the characters so well that their compatibility is never in doubt.
It has been said that Jane Eyre was revolutionary for its time, and I can see why. Right from the start, social classes are rejected, with Jane being poor but intelligent and educated. She considers herself financially inferior but morally superior to the Reeds. There is a constant struggle between social inferiority and moral equality in her interactions with Mr Rochester, with her acting for the most part a deferential governess to her master, yet speaking bluntly to him and never failing to defend herself when required. Mr Rochester only proposes marriage after Jane claims equality in spirit, and the marriage takes place only when the two are financially equal.
In addition, Jane treasures independence. She dislikes the inferiority imposed on her as a dependent at Gateshead, and thereafter would rather be poor than receive gifts from Mr Rochester. Brontë was a feminist, and it shows as several males (John Reed, Mr Brocklehurst, Mr Rochester, St John) try to get Jane to submit to them, yet she submits only by action, not in spirit. In fact, she marries only after Mr Rochester becomes dependent on her. Brontë rejects the notion that women should be meek, and although Jane forces reason to preside in her actions, key events (her triumph over Mrs Reed, the marriage proposal, the separation) are marked by outbursts of passion. Yet Brontë allows for some domesticity, with Jane's chief talents being drawing and painting, and with Jane getting more joy out of finding family than with gaining a fortune. Indeed, she is unsettled till she finds a home for both her body and spirit.
I really like Mr Rochester. There is something sweet in a strong, wild man searching for a redemption that eludes him and finally finding it in a plain, small, pale, poor girl. His effort at dressing up as a gypsy to persuade Jane to admit her love to him is bizarre but touching, and the way he hides his wife to avoid losing Jane, yet loses her eventually, is heart-breaking. His final image as a man broken in body but revived in spirit might be pitiful but is not sad. Perhaps the best analysis of his character is Brontë's own:
Mr. Rochester has a thoughtful nature and a very feeling heart; he is neither selfish nor self-indulgent; he is ill-educated, misguided; errs, when he does err, through rashness and inexperience: he lives for a time as too many other men live, but being radically better than most men, he does not like that degraded life, and is never happy in it. He is taught the severe lessons of experience and has sense to learn wisdom from them. Years improve him; the effervescence of youth foamed away, what is really good in him still remains. His nature is like wine of a good vintage, time cannot sour, but only mellows him.
I read the Oxford World Classic's edition with annotations included, and it highlighted several things to me, like Brontë's frequent references to the Bible and other classic texts, and the fact that the time in Lowood is largely autobiographical, which explained why the emotions of a child are so well captured: beauty and kindness are accepted whole-heartedly, cruelty and abuse are rejected vehemently. But the most eye-opening thing are the parallels between Jane at Gateshead and Bertha at Thornfield. Both are outcasts, misunderstood, hated for their innate natures and hidden from guests. Thus we see the same situation from two different perspectives, that of the victim and that of the perpetrator, and it is shocking how easily we form prejudices against the 'other'.
Given that this book was so wrought with emotion, it is ironic that I give it three stars because I simply couldn't feel the emotions enough. I am convinced that has to do with the way I read it in short sections at a time on the bus or the train. A re-reading would probably convince me that it deserves four or five stars, but three is the closest to my true feelings.
----------
UPDATE: This has been changed to four stars; I feel too strongly attached to Jane and Mr Rochester. Perhaps a change of mood?
spiritedcoati's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
4.0
Flot skrevet, interessant historie. Men ikke helt så fængende, som jeg havde håbet.
mozbolt's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book so much more reading it the second time and in my 20s... Jane is incredibly relatable and wonderful
acmarinho3's review against another edition
4.0
Comecei muito entusiasmada com a história. Até meio do livro considerei dar-lhe 5 estrelas na review, porque estava a ser uma leitura verdadeiramente prazerosa. No entanto, senti que foi perdendo intensidade e a narrativa começou a ser algo redundante, "mais do mesmo". No geral, acho-o um bom livro, que se lê facilmente e cuja personagem é uma grande mulher. É muito fácil gostar de Jane Eyre.
larryebonilla's review against another edition
5.0
One of my greatest blind spots in literature is pre-twentieth century literature. In university, I’m taking Victorian literature to remedy my blindspots.
Jane Eyre is the first novel we have read, and it deserves all the renowned acclaim it receives. This is the novel of the Victorian period. Brontë writes with a deeply level of patient and delicacy to weave the attitudes of the period in one novel. There is commentary on gender, class, religion, and morality,
while ostensibly remaining as a romance novel. It is also an inspired work; there are notable gothic elements integrated into the narrative in a unique way compared to her contemporaries. The title character and our protagonist is the very example of an admirable character: we suffer with her, we laugh with her, we are happy for her. Despite it being a five-hundred-page book, one should find it easy reading Jane Eyre. The novel is very well paced. There are slower paced moments which are contrasted by rewarding quicker-paced moments.
Don’t let the “the curtains are blue” meme get to your head. Brontë writes with intention; it deserves to be read by everyone.
Jane Eyre is the first novel we have read, and it deserves all the renowned acclaim it receives. This is the novel of the Victorian period. Brontë writes with a deeply level of patient and delicacy to weave the attitudes of the period in one novel. There is commentary on gender, class, religion, and morality,
while ostensibly remaining as a romance novel. It is also an inspired work; there are notable gothic elements integrated into the narrative in a unique way compared to her contemporaries. The title character and our protagonist is the very example of an admirable character: we suffer with her, we laugh with her, we are happy for her. Despite it being a five-hundred-page book, one should find it easy reading Jane Eyre. The novel is very well paced. There are slower paced moments which are contrasted by rewarding quicker-paced moments.
Don’t let the “the curtains are blue” meme get to your head. Brontë writes with intention; it deserves to be read by everyone.
erobb's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.75
nat2440's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kianz_'s review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
mutedinks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0