Greetings, today on the blog, I would like to discuss Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte for a couple of reasons. First, I’ve toyed with doing this novel on the blog for a book study, and I definitely will. Second, I just bought a softcover Penguin Classics edition of the book for one dollar. Yet, I would like to conduct this post to give us some insight into its excellence.
Summary
The novel Jane Eyre tells the tale of an orphaned girl. She fights against all odds through a difficult childhood to attain the things most dear to her heart. In the novel, she is mistreated by her aunt Mrs. Reed and accosted by her cousins. She also endures a harsh school, Lowood. Though, she meets a bit of kindness in two characters, Helen Burns and Miss Temple. Later, she has a devastating wedding (and I mean devastating) after a shocking revelation comes to light. These circumstances all show her as strong-willed. It also shows her to be a strong and intelligent woman capable of great feats of emotion and integrity.
Book Blurb
From Amazon: Determined to make her heroine “as poor and plain as myself,” Charlotte Brontë made a daring choice for her 1847 novel. Jane Eyre possesses neither the great beauty nor entrancing charm that her fictional predecessors used to make their way in the world. Instead, Jane relies upon her powers of diligence and perception, conducting herself with dignity animated by passion.
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A banquet of food for thought, this many-faceted tale invites a splendid variety of interpretations. The heroine’s insistence upon emotional equality with her lover suggests a feminist viewpoint, while her solitary status invokes a consideration of the problems of growing up as a social outsider. Some regard Jane’s attempts to reconcile her need for love with her search for moral rectitude as the story’s primary message, and lovers of gothic romance find the tale’s social and religious aspects secondary to its gripping elements of mystery and horror. This classic of English literature truly features something for every reader.
Reviews
On Goodreads, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte has a 4.15 out of 5-star rating. Overall, it has 2,122,937 ratings and 67,223 reviews. Five-star commentators stated that they enjoyed the “gothic elements” and even those elements that were “unexpected” (the wedding). Moreover, they point out that Jane Eyre is an “excellent characters” who readers “rarely see.” Some of these reasons include her “upstanding and smart” attributes.
Conversely, one-star reviews highlight what is often highlighted about gothic novels–their slow and tedious nature. “… but holy GOD it is like reading 507 pages of needlepoint,” states one reviewer. Additionally, other reviewers state that it is “IN-SU-FRI-BLE” and that it is “stuffy, stiff, superficial and sophisticate.”
