Hello everyone, if you are just joining the ride, this is the third installment in my blog series Pages of Summer, where I am tracking and commenting on the books I'm curling up with on a break from university!
So here we go!
THE BOOK: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
THE SUMMARY: This novel might best fall under a sort of Gothic rags to riches romance. We follow an orphaned Ms. Jane Eyre, through her trials and tribulations as a dependent, her harsh schooling and ultimately her career as a governess in 19th century England. However unlike the fairy tales, Prince Charming is the dark and brooding Mr. Rochester of an estate that has fallen to some extent by the wayside. Unfortunately what sounds like a perfect rise up from gloom love story, is quickly turned on its head when our rather plain yet witty Ms. Eyre begins to find things are not as they seem at Thornfield, and what you think is just a rumor turns out to be quite the ghost story. Have no fear however, despite its twists and dark ventures there is a happy ending… in a way.
THAT’S WHAT HE/SHE SAID:
"I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously arrived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me." -Jane (Ch. 17)
"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you--especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly." -Mr. Rochester, Chapter 23, pg. 221
POINTS OF INTEREST:
Recently in the line of the Jane Austen revival I saw this title on the bookshelf “Jane Slayre” Hmm it puts our lovely governess in the line of demons, ghosts and vampire hunting, I wonder how it works out, I think I will pick it up when I have a spare day, there is one scene in the original work that makes me curious as to where the inspiration for this mash up came from.
While I have yet to view any of the films or copious miniseries for this novel, my thought on first impression would be to certainly watch the 1996 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli (Tea with Mussolini etc.) The cast seems to fit my mind’s eye, well sorta, of the characters and I always have a bit of an issue when poor casting gets in the way of a story, but perhaps I have an over active imagination hmm? I have a mix of Alan Rickman and Matthew Macfayden, oh and a splash of Pre-Code Era Clark Gable *swoons* (sorry my inner movie buff is showing!) in my mind as Mr. Rochester!!! I think the 1996 version will definitely play up the romance and DOWN on the dark, its offered in a recent release, in a boxed set with the film Emma (with Gwyneth Paltrow….) If that has anything to do with your choice, it does affect mine…
So if you are looking for accuracy I would shoot for the BBC TV-miniseries version released in 2006. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the BBC for doing this with classic novels? I will view both and let me know if you want my opinion! I hope they both please in their own way!
WHY MY HEART BEATS FOR THIS TEXT: I really gushed on Wuthering Heights, and unfortunately that gushing is still coming FULL force! My heavens I don’t even know where to start (perhaps that’s why it has taken me so long to get around to this blog post…. Sowwy). Initially I really couldn’t get over the similar dark and gloom filled as well as passionate writing styles of the Bronte sisters. But then I was like duh. They were quite close, but you can tell in the little details, Emily a little more vague in places and Charlotte, a tad more grotesque when it comes to making images of terror. Also if you don’t speak French you may want to brush up! I was rather excited that I only needed to read the conversations in French once and the meaning was all intact in my mind! Got to love old literature for assuming EVERYONE speaks French.
So here we go!
THE BOOK: Jane Eyre by Charlotte BronteTHE SUMMARY: This novel might best fall under a sort of Gothic rags to riches romance. We follow an orphaned Ms. Jane Eyre, through her trials and tribulations as a dependent, her harsh schooling and ultimately her career as a governess in 19th century England. However unlike the fairy tales, Prince Charming is the dark and brooding Mr. Rochester of an estate that has fallen to some extent by the wayside. Unfortunately what sounds like a perfect rise up from gloom love story, is quickly turned on its head when our rather plain yet witty Ms. Eyre begins to find things are not as they seem at Thornfield, and what you think is just a rumor turns out to be quite the ghost story. Have no fear however, despite its twists and dark ventures there is a happy ending… in a way.
THAT’S WHAT HE/SHE SAID:
"I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously arrived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me." -Jane (Ch. 17)
"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you--especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly." -Mr. Rochester, Chapter 23, pg. 221
POINTS OF INTEREST:
Recently in the line of the Jane Austen revival I saw this title on the bookshelf “Jane Slayre” Hmm it puts our lovely governess in the line of demons, ghosts and vampire hunting, I wonder how it works out, I think I will pick it up when I have a spare day, there is one scene in the original work that makes me curious as to where the inspiration for this mash up came from.
While I have yet to view any of the films or copious miniseries for this novel, my thought on first impression would be to certainly watch the 1996 film directed by Franco Zeffirelli (Tea with Mussolini etc.) The cast seems to fit my mind’s eye, well sorta, of the characters and I always have a bit of an issue when poor casting gets in the way of a story, but perhaps I have an over active imagination hmm? I have a mix of Alan Rickman and Matthew Macfayden, oh and a splash of Pre-Code Era Clark Gable *swoons* (sorry my inner movie buff is showing!) in my mind as Mr. Rochester!!! I think the 1996 version will definitely play up the romance and DOWN on the dark, its offered in a recent release, in a boxed set with the film Emma (with Gwyneth Paltrow….) If that has anything to do with your choice, it does affect mine…
So if you are looking for accuracy I would shoot for the BBC TV-miniseries version released in 2006. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the BBC for doing this with classic novels? I will view both and let me know if you want my opinion! I hope they both please in their own way!
WHY MY HEART BEATS FOR THIS TEXT: I really gushed on Wuthering Heights, and unfortunately that gushing is still coming FULL force! My heavens I don’t even know where to start (perhaps that’s why it has taken me so long to get around to this blog post…. Sowwy). Initially I really couldn’t get over the similar dark and gloom filled as well as passionate writing styles of the Bronte sisters. But then I was like duh. They were quite close, but you can tell in the little details, Emily a little more vague in places and Charlotte, a tad more grotesque when it comes to making images of terror. Also if you don’t speak French you may want to brush up! I was rather excited that I only needed to read the conversations in French once and the meaning was all intact in my mind! Got to love old literature for assuming EVERYONE speaks French.
However it really is the story I can’t get enough of, no wonder it’s fallen into our canon of literature. I really relish in the struggle for romance, without all the silliness and smut of modern romance novels. Its sophisticated, well articulated, well paced and pulls all the right heart strings. I shed a few tears while reading it, and I haven’t cried over a book in a looooooooooooong time. I know I can read this over and over again and find news things, I was so excited to read it all the way through I mildly ignored my boyfriend, skipped two meals and didn’t lift my pencil once to write a note of analysis in the margins… and you all know how I love to annotate. (Well maybe you don’t but take one look at my books and you will, my favorite volumes are coming apart and have so much pencil and highlighter that they glow in the dark.
WHAT AM I READING NEXT (OR RATHER NOW): The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
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