chocolate3cake's profile picture

chocolate3cake 's review for:

Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker
4.0

I always really enjoy reading from perspectives of different characters, especially when it's done in the way that this novel has been written. Mr Rochester is an intriguing character from a brilliant story, and Shoemaker fleshes out his past in great detail, making this really enjoyable to read.

One of the things that most interested me was his relationship and marriage to Bertha, and that really didn't disappoint. We learned more about her and her background, what her family was like and why she turned out like she did.

However, I thought this did move far too quickly in a lot of places for me and was in some ways unnecessarily long - it might have worked better to end it where Jane meets Rochester in the original story, but I did like knowing and seeing all their interactions and their relationship unfold from Mr Rochester's point of view.

Seeing Jane from his eyes really puts another perspective into the story, one that's sorely needed judging by the lack of outward view of herself that we get from her narrative in Jane Eyre. I also enjoyed having more historical context added from the time - namely the slave trade abolishment and how Rochester's father can own slaves in Jamaica yet never mention them when in England. Mr Rochester's treatment of Molly was heartwarming, even if in the end the ending wasn't entirely happy.

I really enjoyed this story, as I normally do with this kind of story (based on a classical novel or previous work of fiction), and fitted really well into the original novel, which made it seem like Charlotte Bronte had written it herself.