Jane Eyre (Signet Classics) - Charlotte Brontë

I am Jane Eyre, sir

It's hard to imagine a better gothic romance than "Jane Eyre" -- gloomy vast houses, mysterious secrets, and a brooding haunted man with a dark past.

In fact, Charlotte Bronte's classic novel has pretty much everything going for it -- beautiful settings, a passionate romance tempered by iron-clad morals, and a heroine whose poverty and lack of beauty only let her brains and courage shine brighter. And it's all wrapped in the misty, haunting atmosphere of a true gothic story -- madwoman in the attic and all.

Jane Eyre was an orphan, abused and neglected first by relatives, then by a boarding school run by a tyrannical, hypocritical minister. But Jane refuses to let anyone shove her down -- even when her saintly best friend dies from the wretched conditions.

But many years later, Jane moves on by applying to Thornfield Hall for a governess position, and gets the job. She soon becomes the teacher and friend to the sprightly French girl Adele, but is struck by the dark, almost haunted feeling of her new home.

Then she runs into a rather surly horseman -- who turns out to be her employer, Mr. Rochester, a cynical, embittered man who spends little time at Thornfield. They are slowly drawn together into a powerful love, despite their different social stations -- and Rochester's apparent attentions to a shallow, snotty aristocrat who wants his wealth and status.

But strange things are happening at Thornfield -- stabbings, fires, and mysterious laughter. Jane and Rochester finally confess their feelings to each other, but their wedding is interrupted when Rochester's dark past comes to light. Jane flees into the arms of long-lost family members, and is offered a new life -- but her love for Rochester is not so easily forgotten...

"Jane Eyre" is one of those books that transcends the labels of genre. Charlotte Bronte spun a haunting gothic romance around her semi-autobiographical heroine and Byronic anti-hero, filling it with brilliant writing and solid plot. It has everything all the other gothic romances of the time had... but Bronte gave it depth and intensity without resorting to melodrama.

Bronte wrote in the usual stately prose of the time, but it has a sensual, lush quality, even in the dank early chapters at Lowood. At Thornfield, the book acquires an overhanging atmosphere of foreboding, until the clouds clear near the end. And she wove some tough questions into Jane's perspective -- that of a woman's independence and strength in a man's world, of extreme religion, and of the clash between morals and passion.

And Bronte also avoided any tinges of drippy sentimentality (Mrs. Reed dies still spewing venom) while injecting some hauntingly nightmarish moments ("She sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart"). She even manages to include some funny stuff, such as Rochester disguising himself as an old gypsy woman.

The story does slow down after the abortive wedding, when Jane flees Thornfield and briefly considers marrying a repressed clergyman who wants to go die preaching in India. It's rather boring to hear the self-consciously saintly St. John prattling about himself, instead of Rochester's barbed wit. But when Jane departs again, the plot speeds up into a nice, mellow little finale.

Bronte did a brilliant job of bringing her heroine to life -- as a defiant little girl who is condemned for being "passionate," as an independent young lady, and as a woman torn between love and principle. Jane's strong personality and wits overwhelm the basic fact that she's not unusually pretty. And Rochester is a brilliantly sexy Byronic anti-hero with a prickly, mercurial wit.

Of Charlotte Bronte's few novels, "Jane Eyre" is undoubtedly the most brilliant -- passionate, dark and hauntingly eerie. Definitely a must-read.

"Dark and Twisty" As My Good Friend Would Say

I really want to tell you what happens because I thought it was so good! But of course I won't because it would spoil it for you.

I will say that I have been avoiding 'the classics' for a good long time (except for The Scarlet Letter which I actually enjoyed way back in High School). And I'm thinking maybe it's been a mistake. If only every book could be as wonderful as this one. I really loved it.

My copy of Jane Eyre has an introduction by Joyce Carol Oats and I would caution those who don't know this story; do not read the introduction! It will spoil the story. Thankfully I didn't read it until after I finished the book and I am so glad, it tells everything that happens!

Jane never forgets that she must love and respect herself first and foremost. She is clever, direct, honest and true to herself even when holding true to her principles costs her dearly.

It is a gothic story, dark and heartbreaking full of love, devotion, obsession, isolation and oppression. Bronte creates a wonderful symmetry and balance within this story, I loved it, it moved me to tears.

I could not put this book down!

I bought this book about 10 years ago, and I did not read it till last year, i could not put this book down, This book is so relevant to a woman's heart, to the human being's gemotions, What I love about Jane Is that she always kept fighting through all her trials and never let hate poison her heart, always made the best of everything. I bought the miniseries from BBC, I recommend Pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility by Jane Austen to those who love this genre.Nobody writes this way anymore!

This Particular Version

I will leave the telling of Jane Eyre to some of the other reviewers. This particular version is my favorite. This is the cloth bound version or the book with the lovely attached ribbon bookmark. This is a very lovely version of this book.

Touching

Jane Eyre / 0-451-52655-4

Unlike many of the classics, which contain a superb message under vernacular that is sometimes hard for us to read, Jane Eyre still flows easily to our ears and eyes, and the plot is gripping and suspenseful.

While Jane may seem, to our modern sensibilities, to be something of a weak heroine in her jealousy of her master's suitor, her insistence upon actual marriage in spite of the cruelty of the situtation, and her weak acceptance of her missionary suitor's almost vampiric leaching of her spirit (in spite of his own sisters' exhortations to stand up for herself, no less!), Jane is still a strong and modern female in light of the standards of her own day. Her bravery in taking up her post as governess in a strange land, her 'presumptuousness' in courting (or being courted) by her master, her daring in considering to be a missionary's wife, and her final decision to set out again in search of her lost love all point to a strength of will and character which would have made her character - at the time - to be quite 'mannish' indeed! We can admire Jane her strength and will, while marvelling happily at how far things have come, and wonder hopefully at how much farther they may yet go.