Jane Eyre / Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre. I've seen several film versions of it, but until now I'd never read the novel. Shame on me. I was motivated to read it after it appeared on my daughter's English literature syllabus this year. I didn't read it simultaneously with her class, but nearly so-- I was a month or two late. Most literature from the 1800s always frightened me off in the past (Jane Eyre was published in 1847), and I'm still not over my somewhat inexplicable Dickens-phobia (but maybe I'm coming closer to a cure). Jane Eyre is amazingly accessible and a real page-turner full of unique characters and plot-twists. Of course, I knew the secret of the madwoman in the attic, but what a treat it must have been in 1847 to read it with no spoilers. Such suspense! It really is a haunting story, full of tragedy, but one that is full of life and love as well. I think I would have to say it's definitely a girls' book and I was surprised at some of the hints at feminism at such an early time. Anyway, I'm glad to have checked it off my list. I'm now reading Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, which is a prequel to Jane Eyre and attempts to tell the story of Bertha Mason, Rochester's insane wife who came from the Caribbean.

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Wide Sargasso Sea / Jean Rhys

The mysterious figure of Bertha Mason provides much of the tension in Jane Eyre , but what does the reader really know about her? Rochester provides some details of her past, but is his account reliable? Caribbean author Jean Rhys attempted to tell the story of Rochester's insane (and perhaps misunderstood) wife in her 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea . It's a sort of prequel to Jane Eyre . I'm afraid Rochester doesn't come out looking good, though we always knew he had a bit of a wild side with his continental dalliances. Anyway, there's a lot of interesting backstory about Bertha's origins in Jamaica, her real name, the tragic circumstances of her upbringing, and how she was established at Thornfield Hall. Gosh, if Jane had only known all these details about Rochester, she might have taken St. John up on his offer of marriage. All in all, Wide Sargasso Sea is pretty credible, but I missed Charlotte Bronte's flowery language, and of course th...

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