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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
Well written and enjoyable. Memorable original characters, and while faithful to Jane Eyre's plot and characters, still adds enough surprises to keep that part of his story interesting too.
Jane Eyre is my favorite classic novel. I love reading this book from Mr. Rochester’s point of view. I think I’ll be rereading Jane Eyre very soon to remind myself of everything I loved about the original.
More of a 3.5. Read as part of an exercise in re-reading “Jane Eyre” and “Wide Sargasso Sea”.
The first two thirds of the book are strong. Young Edward is a solid and believable creature who carries his hurts as any of us would. It’s when we return to England and meet Jane that things start to fall apart somewhat. The transition of the Edward we meet to the Mr Rochester of “Jane Eyre” has some rough points, further complicated by some unnecessary tertiary characters. Worthwhile nevertheless.
The first two thirds of the book are strong. Young Edward is a solid and believable creature who carries his hurts as any of us would. It’s when we return to England and meet Jane that things start to fall apart somewhat. The transition of the Edward we meet to the Mr Rochester of “Jane Eyre” has some rough points, further complicated by some unnecessary tertiary characters. Worthwhile nevertheless.
Back story for Mr. Rochester, of Jane Eyre fame. Slow start, and I felt the ending was almost rushed. My favorite was probably the middle section, when he was in Jamaica and trying to navigate his life there. I thought the author did a wonderful job weaving a plausible backstory for him and Bertha, while staying true to the content from the original story.
Having loved Jane Eyre when I read it a couple of years ago, I was a little disappointed to find that I didn’t seem to connect with Jane very much in this book. Perhaps it was the narrative style, perhaps my stage of life at the moment (tired and pregnant
Having loved Jane Eyre when I read it a couple of years ago, I was a little disappointed to find that I didn’t seem to connect with Jane very much in this book. Perhaps it was the narrative style, perhaps my stage of life at the moment (tired and pregnant
I was hooked after the first three chapters--my overall take on the novel was: This Explains Everything. Shoemaker does a fine job of matching a semi-florid, 19th century romantic style of writing, and crafts a believable (but, to modern sensibilities, horrifying) backstory for Edward Fairfax Rochester. All of it-- being sent away to school at a very young age, being sold out in favor of the elder brother, the early loss of a kindly, beautiful mother-- helps redeem Rochester, who (let's face it) is one of literature's least sympathetic anti-heroes.
Once the story becomes familiar, when Jane Eyre and Rochester meet on the horse trail, and the tale must be adapted to Bronte's original text, the writing is more constrained. The things that irritate modern readers (Rochester's habit of trying to verbally trap Jane or make her jealous, for ex) are put into the context of his fractured life, but are still annoying. The lurid finale, flames licking the rooftop, never gets old and Shoemaker doesn't overextend the Epilogue, giving us just enough new detail to satisfy.
Four stars plus. Recommended.
Once the story becomes familiar, when Jane Eyre and Rochester meet on the horse trail, and the tale must be adapted to Bronte's original text, the writing is more constrained. The things that irritate modern readers (Rochester's habit of trying to verbally trap Jane or make her jealous, for ex) are put into the context of his fractured life, but are still annoying. The lurid finale, flames licking the rooftop, never gets old and Shoemaker doesn't overextend the Epilogue, giving us just enough new detail to satisfy.
Four stars plus. Recommended.
Jane Eyre is one of those classic books that I’ve had a love-hate relationship with. Jane is so independent and yet puts up with a ridiculous amount of nonsense from Mr Rochester that I could never really love her. This book offered an endearing juxtaposition of Mr Rochester’s life story and his side of happenings that I learned to love not only him, but Jane as well. The only reason it is not a five star read is that I reserve those for books I would read many times over.
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Jane Eyre is probably my favorite classic, so I was super interested going into this. However, while I felt like the author had a true passion for the iconic character of Rochester, i ultimately was not super impressed with this adaptation because I felt like it didn’t give enough “new-ness” or “otherness” to justify its creation. Some parts, like the horror of Bertha’s mental conditions and the effects it had on everyone around her, could have been explored more.
While parts of the book were enjoyable, overall it took the complicated and brooding Rochester and turned him into a stale character with no agency. While the story hits all the needed plot points in order to align with Jane Eyre, there is no way Jane would have fallen in love with the Rochester from this book.
Received this as an ARC through Netgalley. First of all, I only rated this three stars, but it's more like 3.5/4 for me. My brain is still in the book and I don't feel like I can rate it properly right now. I must say I am surprised I picked this up at all. I have tried reading "Jane Eyre" multiple times and never gotten through it. For me though, it almost felt like this, Rochester's story and the story of "Jane Eyre" through Rochester's eyes had more meat to it. I found his perceptions and his life very much more interesting than I thought I would. I also enjoyed getting his backstory. In parts of "Jane Eyre" I have gotten through, he always feels like this big mystery. I think seeing more of him and understanding his emotions more, lent to "Jane Eyre" enough to make it where I am actually considering going back and trying Jane again. Overall, interesting and I'm glad I read it.