Victorian Classic (Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte)

Member Name: Essexgirl2006

Product:	Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Date:	13/08/07 (243 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A classice romance, well written

Disadvantages: The Victorian language could be a problem if you are not used to it.

In my quest to read all the books on the BBC’s Top 100 Big Reads list I purchased this last year in Borders for £1.99 (part of the Penguin Popular Classics selection). Since buying it (and before reading it) I watched the BBC’s dramatization of it, which I enjoyed, so I hoped that knowing the ending wouldn’t ruin the book for me.

I had actually missed the first of the four TV episodes so Jane’s early years were new to me. Jane had some tough times in her childhood, orphaned as a baby she was brought up by her cruel Aunt Reed (by marriage) and seemed always spirited and feisty, which was often perceived as rebellion. Thus she was sent to a harsh, yet religious all girls boarding school, Lowood. Here she starts to make friends for the first time, although this experience is not without tragedy for her. After some years at Lowood as a pupil and teacher Jane felt the need to experience the outside world so advertises for a position as a governess, which she is successful in obtaining at Thornfield Hall, becoming the governess to a young French girl, Adele, the ward of Mr Rochester. The society and finery she sees at Thornfield is completely new to a young girl whose only previous experience had been a simple, charity funded boarding school. Jane falls in love with Mr Rochester, but this dark, brooding hero harbours a tragic secret concerning his mysterious first wife.

I found Jane somewhat naive at times, although spirited, I found it hard, initially to see what she and Rochester have in common as he is portrayed as a dark, brooding, if charismatic man, that does not seem the type for the young Jane. On the other hand Jane does demonstrate maturity beyond her years in watching and understanding Rochester’s relationship with his friend Miss Ingram. This I find quite odd, as Jane would be ignorant as to ‘matters of the heart’ as they might say, and previously would have had little opportunity to observe any romance either at first hand or between others. Bronte’s style of writing is quite typical of the period, although she tends to darker turns to her story then Jane Austen, for example (although Austen’s works were written some years earlier). Her style has become quite typical of the Victorian style with its tendencies to be passionate but slightly gothic.

Charlotte Bronte grew up in Yorkshire with her family, including her sisters and fellow authors Anne and Emily. Charlotte was the most prolific, writing four novels of which ‘Jane Eyre’ is the better known and more highly acclaimed. The book was published in 1847, under the pen name Currer Bell and Charlotte died in 1855.

Summary: Classic Victorian romance