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Summary: Beautiful, touching romantic story!
Review: Of all of the books that I have had to read in high school, I have never enjoyed one as much as "Jane Eyre." Charlotte Bronte has created a touching, beautiful heroine: one who finds herself and her one true love. As I read, I couldn't help but find myself rooting for Jane and Mr. Rochester...I so wanted them to be together!
Although slow to pick up and drawn out in spots, this novel is nonetheless an enjoyable read. The happy ending makes it all worthwhile--and you will find yourself rejoicing along with Jane and Edward when they finally come together, unobstructed by outside circumstances. I highly recommend this novel...you may be bored in the beginning, but give it a chance, because it will get better!
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Summary: Jane Eyre: Charlotte Bronte's Most Captivating Work
Review: Quite arguably one of the greatest British novels ever penned, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is so all-around-wonderful, it's no wonder that it's been adapted into 5+ movies.
We first meet Bronte's Jane as a child, young and abused, in the care of her aunt. We immediately take Jane under our wing, feeling more her personal protector with each turn of the page. Then, one day, Jane is a woman. Though retaining many of her childlike tendencies, Jane is determined to be independent: leaving her old boarding school victorious and free, she begins a governess position at the manor home of the elusive and mysterious Mr. Edward Rochester. It is Jane who tames Rochester's brooding and arrogant heart, reducing him to schoolboyish desperation.
So deliciously provactive is "Jane Eyre," that it is impossible not to devour it within days; my own worn-with-love copy sits next to a dog-eared "Villette."
It is sometimes speculated that Charlotte Bronte exercised her complicated mind through the written word; "Jane Eyre" is beautiful evidence of that.
As the story slows to its conclusion, you will find yourself lost: hungry for more of Jane, more of Rochester, and more of the magic that is "Eyre." Quench that thirst with more Bronte (perhaps Emily's "Wuthering Heights" or some of Anne's poetry?) or, if you're like me, a second read of the irresistible "Jane."
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Summary: An Excellent Edition of Jane Eyre
Review: The Bedford/St. Martin's edition of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre" is a wonderful edition for burgeoning scholars. Although the text of "Jane Eyre" itself lacks the volume of notes that the Penguin Classics edition or the Norton Critical edition has, it makes up for this minor defect in its wealth of critical contexts. "Jane Eyre" itself is a novel dealing with Jane's life and pursuit of love and independence in early nineteenth century England. The novel begins with Jane as a young orphan girl, living with her cruel and abusive aunt Reed and cousins, John, Eliza, and Georgiana. Often treated like an outcast, Jane must come to terms throughout the novel with her own physical inferiority and figure out how to make a life for herself with the social disadvantages of low class and gender. One theme which runs throughout the novel itself deals with Jane's relationships to strong male characters, like Reverend Brocklehurst, Mr. Rochester, and St. John Rivers. Another important motif in the novel deals with Jane's femininity - and how she positions herself as an independent woman, often in the mold of Wollstonecraftian feminism - and how she reconciles education and rationality with sentimentality and passion. Politically, anxieties and concerns with British Imperialism also manifest themselves throughout the novel. Widely read as Brontë was, the novel also positions itself in the British literary tradition, appropriating themes and practices from authors like Samuel Richardson, Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth, the gothic tradition, and so on. The Bedford/St. Martin's edition is extremely useful for students, as the second half of the book is devoted to critical methodologies, including concise essays outlining major areas of critical theory - to wit, feminism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, cultural criticism, and marxism. These essays provide broad frameworks for critical thought, and each is followed by an exemplary critical article and a wealth of bibliography for further research. While I personally would rather use the Penguin Classics or Norton Critical edition, the Bedford/St. Martin's is a suitable edition for close reading and study.
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Summary: Long,Longer, & Longest
Review: This book is truly a classic. I read it for my A.P English class over the summer. It's just very long. There are too many dead points in the novel. The novel jumps back and forth between different thoughts and actually speaking often. It has a lot of good symbolism in it however. I reccomend reading wide sargasso sea afterwards for it is a novel from Bertha's point of view!
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Summary: I cheered and cried all at the same time...
Review: To be honest, I haven't read many classics, but this is by far my favorite book ever. I was assigned to read it for school and am now completely obsessed. I have three different copies of the story, but my first copy was this cover. What makes this book endurable and able to plow through for the first one-hundred-thirty pages and then keep reading for the next three-hundred-forty-one is the characterization. You love Jane, you hate Mr. Brocklehurst, and I don't know about anybody else, but I loved Mr. Rochester, Helen Burns, and Diana and hated St. John Rivers and Mrs. Reed. All characters stir feelings of either love or hate in you. This truly is the first, and the best, soap opera in the world! I was told by some that they thought the ending lacked - ha ha! The ending couldn't have been better in my opinion. I, personally, didn't see it coming. When Jane was actually contemplating marrying St. John Rivers, I openly yelled "No! No! You can't marry him! You love Mr. Rochester whether he's married to a lunatic or not! Don't marry the moron! He's forcing you into it!" This book evoked emotions from me I've never gotten before while reading a book. It evoked emotions I never even got watching a movie. Well, maybe it did, only they were excrutiatingly amplified. It was painful to read of Jane leaving Thornfield, even more painful to watch this self-respecting woman beg for food, and yet uplifting to read of her scorning St. John's idea of love and Mrs. Fairfax's label of "beggar." All in all, whether you're assigned to read it or not, "Jane Eyre" is overly well worth its 461 pages.
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