From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

Start date: April 15, 2015

Finish date: May 15, 2015

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Feb 26, 2014 Chrissie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: great-britain, 2014-read, audible-us, victorian, classics, feminism, gothic, relationships, love

I listened to this. The narration by Wanda McCaddon was excellent. Listening to classics is often a pleasure since the stories told are most often presented chronologically; each character is introduced one by one and the story moves forward without confusion. And so was it with this one too.

This book was first published in 1847 by the eldest of the three Brontë sisters. This was a literary English family raised in a parsonage. Charlotte writes of her own time and circumstances. The language is I listened to this. The narration by Wanda McCaddon was excellent. Listening to classics is often a pleasure since the stories told are most often presented chronologically; each character is introduced one by one and the story moves forward without confusion. And so was it with this one too.

This book was first published in 1847 by the eldest of the three Brontë sisters. This was a literary English family raised in a parsonage. Charlotte writes of her own time and circumstances. The language is florid. Don't expect anything else. Perhaps listening to it is easier than reading it? Even listening to it gave me trouble; every time the door was "unclosed" I jumped.

There are clearly Gothic tones to the novel - fires and storms and blood and horror and who is that creature up in the attic? Heavy symbolism. What does that dream mean? What does that sundering of the mighty horse-chestnut tree signify? Our curiosity is aroused. What will happen? But I was not scared..... I think I was supposed to be.

Others have found this book to be character driven. I instead saw it as plot driven. For me each character is a fixture. Each one has a specific personality and they contrast with each other, but there is little internal conflict within the person. There was more internal struggle within Rochester than in Jane, and that is why I liked him more and could empathize with him. I think people are constantly unsure of where they stand and what they should do; I prefer to see inner turmoil within each character, not between characters.

And God and religion is a given. There is no discussion of WHETHER God exists.

This is a book written to pull on your heartstrings. There are orphans and horrible boarding schools and poverty and total destitution, yes even for the good and worthy God-loving people. For me this felt like a fairy tale for adults. The events are unbelievably coincidental. I had to laugh. Was I supposed to be feeling pity? I couldn't, not for Jane. She is too strong a woman; she doesn't need my pity. Rochester is the one I came to feel for, but the events were just too coincidental, too melodramatic and too simplified. So I close the book and think, what was Chalotte Brontë saying? (view spoiler) Huh, I knew that......

Again, don't trust MY review. Everybody but me loves it. ...more

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Sep 03, 2007 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-more-than-once

Using the Librevox recording (with Elizabeth Klett, my favorite narrator) as my what-I'm-knitting-to. Will probably dub this shawl as my Jane shawl. ...more

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