Scan barcode
A review by missbryden
Manga Classics: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
3.0
I love Jane Eyre, so this review is on the manga, not the story.
Maybe all these are characteristics of manga that I just have to accept are not to my taste - if the form gets more people to read a classic, can that be bad? Being a history nerd, a lot of it comes down to ahistorical or mixed-historical styles.
Specifics:
Mrs. Reed and other women's (Miss Temple, Mrs. Fairfax, Celine Varens) exaggerated figures, namely out of proportion big busts and not in a historical shape (meaning not in a corset shape).
I know I've seen this style in manga or similar illustration/animation, but it bothers me more than the big eyes and small faces, and some of the modern style hair (adult Jane Eyre's buns and braids, aside from her wispy bangs, I thought was really well done), which also seem particular to this illustration style.
Mrs. Reed wearing a bonnet indoors, in her own home.
Mrs. Fairfax's (and the Misses Brocklehursts') funny little hat - more 1950s.
Celine Varens looked more 1980s than anything - though I can see how her overall loose style served to illustrate her character.
Blanche Ingram's weird hair: the idea behind the ringlets has basis in historical style, but they are overly long and loose in the manga, more like those made by a modern curling iron, and they're always long loose (which would only be appropriate for a young girl, not a grown woman) even when riding, and weirdly covered by a little lace floof. Most of the time she appears in evening dress, even when not evening. The ladies around her have more appropriate short curled hair, though their dresses are a weird mix of eras or pseudo-historical dress.
Some other oddities: Lady Ingram wearing a short veil with her evening ensemble (maybe something seen early-mid 20th century if anywhere), and Jane wearing a veil under a sailor hat when she returns from seeing the Reeds, which looks rather like a beekeeper's getup.
Jane and Rochester's wedding outfits: Rochester's shirt especially, looks like the 1970s.
At the conclusion, a growing Adele is shown an outfit I very much like, but more from the turn of the century if not the mid 1900s.
Something that doesn't come under the non-historical, and maybe to do with the manga style, and attempting to show character: Mr. Rochester is often shown pointing at Jane, but his hand very large, pointing at the reader, like it would come off the page - just seemed weird and creepy to me.
One character, for whom the illustration didn't seem to suit, especially given the finery of other characters, Miss Oliver, friend of St. John Rivers, is supposed to be a angelic model of perfection, but in the manga looks rather than plain and child-like with loose hair.
My Pinterest board of book references
Maybe all these are characteristics of manga that I just have to accept are not to my taste - if the form gets more people to read a classic, can that be bad? Being a history nerd, a lot of it comes down to ahistorical or mixed-historical styles.
Specifics:
Mrs. Reed and other women's (Miss Temple, Mrs. Fairfax, Celine Varens) exaggerated figures, namely out of proportion big busts and not in a historical shape (meaning not in a corset shape).
I know I've seen this style in manga or similar illustration/animation, but it bothers me more than the big eyes and small faces, and some of the modern style hair (adult Jane Eyre's buns and braids, aside from her wispy bangs, I thought was really well done), which also seem particular to this illustration style.
Mrs. Reed wearing a bonnet indoors, in her own home.
Mrs. Fairfax's (and the Misses Brocklehursts') funny little hat - more 1950s.
Celine Varens looked more 1980s than anything - though I can see how her overall loose style served to illustrate her character.
Blanche Ingram's weird hair: the idea behind the ringlets has basis in historical style, but they are overly long and loose in the manga, more like those made by a modern curling iron, and they're always long loose (which would only be appropriate for a young girl, not a grown woman) even when riding, and weirdly covered by a little lace floof. Most of the time she appears in evening dress, even when not evening. The ladies around her have more appropriate short curled hair, though their dresses are a weird mix of eras or pseudo-historical dress.
Spoiler
When she appears in her nightgown, she has something like a nightcap, but tied in tubes around the hair in three sections, rather than a whole cap on top of her head.Some other oddities: Lady Ingram wearing a short veil with her evening ensemble (maybe something seen early-mid 20th century if anywhere), and Jane wearing a veil under a sailor hat when she returns from seeing the Reeds, which looks rather like a beekeeper's getup.
Jane and Rochester's wedding outfits: Rochester's shirt especially, looks like the 1970s.
At the conclusion, a growing Adele is shown an outfit I very much like, but more from the turn of the century if not the mid 1900s.
Something that doesn't come under the non-historical, and maybe to do with the manga style, and attempting to show character: Mr. Rochester is often shown pointing at Jane, but his hand very large, pointing at the reader, like it would come off the page - just seemed weird and creepy to me.
One character, for whom the illustration didn't seem to suit, especially given the finery of other characters, Miss Oliver, friend of St. John Rivers, is supposed to be a angelic model of perfection, but in the manga looks rather than plain and child-like with loose hair.
My Pinterest board of book references