Jayne Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
Jane's parents died when she was a baby, leaving her in the care of an aunt who believes her little more than a burden and sends her off to a distant school. At eighteen, comfortable with who she is but discontent where she is, Jane becomes the governess to the ward of a gentleman named Mr. Rochester. As fate would have it, she is to find her first true happiness in his love until a dreadful secret is revealed and changes their lives.
Okay, to be fair and honest, I went into this book dubiously. A lot of the people I know who like this book also really seem to enjoy Jane Austen. I don't know if you remember or know of my thoughts on Austen, but they're not all that positive. In fact, I rather dislike her writing. No--that's not fair. Her writing is fine. The style is inoffensive if obnoxious. Her characters, however, in the two books I have read are about as shallow as a damp napkin, though, and that was offensive.
I'm a bad English Major. Sorry, teachers.
But at least I enjoyed a classic, right?
Yes. I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Eyre. Thoroughly. [Does that help my case?]
Since I am so far out of Lit Crit, I'm stuck rampantly ROCing my case in support for this novel. Despite it being a narrative essentially about a teenager, a single female finding her way in this life and working through her first love, it is not horribly childish as I would fully anticipate a modern novel matching those criteria. To make it worse for my particular peculiarities, Jane is narrating the story herself from the future--that is to say, this is a first person narration. She is recounting it personably, as though over dinner or in a letter and lingers in the surroundings, in descriptions and actions that keeps the reader from hearing "I" about seventeen thousand times a page. A fair few of her internal monologues are not delivered as such, either. She she's talking to herself, she's talking to herself, as though holding a [largely] one-sided conversation.
As a character, I found Jane immensely interesting. She's emotional but controlled [I suppose it's a British thing--that doesn't seem remarkably common this side of the pond], passionate but deliberate. She is polite, but unafraid to speak her mind when the need arises. And yet, despite her willingness to speak up, she does very little outside the realm of her desired appearance. The depth of her character seems realistic, most of the time, and her interactions with peers and those outside her class are respectful and speak well of her attitudes.
[Sadly, to be honest, this has been languishing in the draft stage long enough, so we're just going to go ahead and throw this up.]
Charlotte Bronte
Jane's parents died when she was a baby, leaving her in the care of an aunt who believes her little more than a burden and sends her off to a distant school. At eighteen, comfortable with who she is but discontent where she is, Jane becomes the governess to the ward of a gentleman named Mr. Rochester. As fate would have it, she is to find her first true happiness in his love until a dreadful secret is revealed and changes their lives.
Okay, to be fair and honest, I went into this book dubiously. A lot of the people I know who like this book also really seem to enjoy Jane Austen. I don't know if you remember or know of my thoughts on Austen, but they're not all that positive. In fact, I rather dislike her writing. No--that's not fair. Her writing is fine. The style is inoffensive if obnoxious. Her characters, however, in the two books I have read are about as shallow as a damp napkin, though, and that was offensive.
I'm a bad English Major. Sorry, teachers.
But at least I enjoyed a classic, right?
Yes. I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Eyre. Thoroughly. [Does that help my case?]
Since I am so far out of Lit Crit, I'm stuck rampantly ROCing my case in support for this novel. Despite it being a narrative essentially about a teenager, a single female finding her way in this life and working through her first love, it is not horribly childish as I would fully anticipate a modern novel matching those criteria. To make it worse for my particular peculiarities, Jane is narrating the story herself from the future--that is to say, this is a first person narration. She is recounting it personably, as though over dinner or in a letter and lingers in the surroundings, in descriptions and actions that keeps the reader from hearing "I" about seventeen thousand times a page. A fair few of her internal monologues are not delivered as such, either. She she's talking to herself, she's talking to herself, as though holding a [largely] one-sided conversation.
As a character, I found Jane immensely interesting. She's emotional but controlled [I suppose it's a British thing--that doesn't seem remarkably common this side of the pond], passionate but deliberate. She is polite, but unafraid to speak her mind when the need arises. And yet, despite her willingness to speak up, she does very little outside the realm of her desired appearance. The depth of her character seems realistic, most of the time, and her interactions with peers and those outside her class are respectful and speak well of her attitudes.
[Sadly, to be honest, this has been languishing in the draft stage long enough, so we're just going to go ahead and throw this up.]
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