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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Story EVER!, Jul 14 2008
Please do not listen to the reviewer who said this book has no plot. It is a story of emotions, hardship, women's rights, madness, intense love and intrigue. There are many twists and turns - and lots of conflict and pain to come to terms with. It will make you laugh out loud and cry. Maybe the previous reviewer was too young to understand and was disappointed that Jane Eyre wasn't like the plot of 'The OC' or something... If you are looking for a mature and engrossing tale, this is the one. Charlotte Bronte was the most awesome writer and her style never fails to draw in the reader from the first page.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gothic Romance Classic, Oct 3 2009
On October 16th, of 1847, "Jane Eyre: An Autobiography", edited by Currier Bell (pseudonym of Charlotte Brontė) was published. It created some controversy at the time, as many believed it was written by a man. The novel was very popular when published, but critical reaction to it varied. Today, it is clearly a classic, the development of a young woman, who does not fit into the stereotype of a nineteenth century woman. She is not submissive, and she struggles to avoid being dependent on others. The original publication was in three volumes, but this Penguin Classics edition is based on the third edition of Jane Eyre, and it is the last edition which Charlotte Brontė edited and corrected.
The story covers Jane's life from her childhood until her marriage. The childhood chapters can be split into two sections, those where Jane, an orphan, was being raised by her Uncle's family, but her uncle has passed away and her aunt does not like her, but was forced to promise to take care of her. The key parts of this section are Jane's being rejected by the closest thing she has to a family, her morality, and her independence, i.e. her refusal to conform. The second part of her childhood is when she is sent to attend a charity school, called Lowood, where the pupils have to make do with substandard food and clothing. Here Jane finds one teacher who treats her, and the other students, well, Miss Maria Temple. One of the key things in this section is the difference between religion and morality, symbolized by Mr. Brocklehurst a clergyman who is mostly responsible for the appalling conditions at Lowood, and Jane and Miss Temple on the side of morality. Also key is Jane's witnessing her friend, Helen Burns, dying from a typhus epidemic, in spite of her goodness and her submission to the standards imposed by Mr. Brocklehurst and Miss Scatcherd, a teacher as cruel as Miss Temple is kind.
The story then picks up many years later, with Jane in position as a teacher at Lowood, but looking to move on. She advertises for a position as a governess and is hired by Mrs. Fairfax. She is to take care of Adčle Varens, a girl who is being taken care of by Mr. Rochester, the master of Thornfield Manor where Mrs. Fairfax is the housekeeper. This section has a lot to do with class, as well as morality. There is the difficulty of Jane falling in love with someone of a different class. There is also the looking down on Jane as being of a lower class, by Mr. Rochester's peers. The morality questions are here to, in the comparison of the higher classes verses that of the lower class. Even Mr. Rochester's behavior is in question, in the events leading up to Jane leaving. Jane also finds out that she does have family left, and when it appears that she is to have everything, she sends a letter to her father's brother. It is this attempt to reconnect with family that causes her to lose nearly everything as it destroys what she thought she was about to have.
The next section details Jane's life after leaving Thornfield Manor. Here she loses almost everything, and is on death's door when she is on the doorstep of Moor House. The Rivers, St. John, Diana, and Mary. It is from this state of having nothing from which she recovers almost everything she could want. Here she recovers her health, she is employed again and regains much of her independence. St. John is in love with a woman, but he will not ask her because he is driven to devote his life to religion. He does find out Jane's true identity though, and this results in Jane learning she has family, and wealth that she didn't know she had. She is pressured by St. John to marry him and join him in his missionary life, but she knows that he doesn't love her. She rejects St. John, and instead goes to find her one love, Mr. Rochester. She now has wealth and family, and she learns that tragedies in Mr. Rochester's life have made what was once impossible possible.
It is a long and winding road which Jane travels in this novel. Probably best classified as a gothic romance, it deals with numerous issues and the strength of Jane's character serves as a good role model for young women, and for that matter anyone. The Penguin Classics edition is filled with supporting documentation as always. There is a wonderful introduction by Stevie Davies, along with a Chronology, suggestions for further reading, notes on the text, opinions of the press, and wonderful textual notes which enhance the reading experience and understanding of the reader.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Jane Eyre" deserves its standing as a classic in English literature, Feb 6 2009
"Jane Eyre" is one of the world's best-loved classic novels for so many reasons.
It's an exciting piece of feminist literature written at a time when feminist literature was little known and even more poorly accepted.
That it is a semi-autobiographical novel written by a staunchly, independent female author who herself was struggling to survive by her own wits and means and stand on her own two feet makes the story all the more poignant and compelling.
While it is a prime example of Gothic romance peppered with the typical fixtures of a Gothic novel - the spectral Thornfield manor that seems to attain a life of its own; the allusions to mythological characters such as ghosts and vampires; the uncanny timing of such weather phenomenon as lightning or a chilling, drenching downpour to accompany major events in the novel - it also breaks new ground in that it avoids some of the typical conventions of Victorian literature.
And, finally, it is a piece of masterful story-telling built around larger than life characters that for over 150 years has enchanted readers of all ages and thrilled watchers of numerous television and movie adaptations.
For those few of you that have yet to read this wonderful novel, the story can be summarized quickly enough. A dying father extracts a death bed promise from his sister to raise his infant daughter, Jane Eyre. The sister, a spiteful and mean spirited woman grows to hate the obligation that Jane represents and soon sends her away to a boarding school. (Did anyone else have flashbacks to Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby when they were reading this portion of the novel?) In spite of the harsh mental and physical cruelty she endures at the hands of the school's administrator and its teachers, Jane survives to become a teacher at the school. Ultimately she leaves to seek her own way in the world and secures a position as governess in the household of Edward Fairfax Rochester.
At this point, most readers will correctly guess that Jane and Mr Rochester fall in love with each other but to tell more of the story would be to spoil the effect of this magnificent novel for first time readers.
Suffice it to say that Charlotte Brontė has woven an enthralling story into the exploration of a multiplicity of themes that will occupy students of the English language novel for decades to come - the interplay of self-respect, morality, conventional mores and religion; the effects of social standing and class discrimination; gender relations in a patriarchal staunchly male-dominated society; legal issues of the day that related to marriage, inheritance and ownership; contrasting extremes of religious zealotry as displayed by Brocklehurst's hypocritical Puritanism reflected against St John Rivers' obsessive but well-intentioned determination to spread Calvinist dogma as a missionary abroad.
While many of these issues have clearly been relegated to the history of the 19th century, it's also a fact that much of the controversy that Brontė has so eloquently built into her characters' lives persist as issues into our own 21st century. Little wonder that "Jane Eyre" has such enduring power in the world of English literature!
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
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