Jane Eyre (Signet Classics) Mass Market Paperback – 1 April 2008

Jane Eyre was one of the books I read for my A-Level English. I imagined a wishy washy romantic novel that I would find the next month reading very boring. The lesson of "dont judge a book by its cover" was well learnt by me having read this! Jane Eyre is a wonderfully dark tale of the life of a young woman who suffered a terrible childhood, and her adult life that was shaped by that childhood. Jane Eyre is a brilliantly drawn character who feels like a living breathing person you can most definatly believe in. Mr Rochester is an equally well drawn, enigmatic character with some wonderfully dark secrets. He bears similarities to Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, though is more secretive and a more brooding personality.The story itself is intricatly woven throughout that book and paced very well. The suspense created keeps you wanting to read on, and indeed reluctant to put the book down. The descriptions of Jane's childhood are moving, and really set the context of the love story to come brilliantly. This is far more than a romantic tale of a couple falling in love. It gives you a view into how society at the time viewed relationships between the classes, and the love affair is fraught to say the least. Love conquers all, but it is not the walk in the park that too many authors portray it to be.This book really deserves the description of a classic. Brilliant writing, wonderful characters and a suprising story with twists galore combine to make what must be one of the greatest books of all time. The fact that it is an older book should not put off readers. The language used is still beautiful and very understandable even if you have never read a classic before. Whats more, the subject matter still seems wholly relevant today. Much as I love Pride and Prejudice for example, to me it is really a book of its time. Jane Eyre somehow seems more relevant in the 21st century, especially with its darker view on life and love. However, it is not a "heavy" read in the way some classics such as War and Peace are. This book is highly entertaining and I would happily recommend it to anyone.

This my favourite book for oh so many reasons.It's a bit long and rambling in places for modern readers, but you have to remember a Victorian writer wouldn't have had an editor in the way modern writers do, to trim and tighten things up, so we are reading what might be closer to an earlier draft by modern standards. I love the lyrical nature of Charlotte Bronte's language, but even I skim some of the wordier parts, long rambling descriptions in places, and there are many religious references that go over the head of modern readers (refer to the notes in a printed copy if you really want to understand it all). Having said this, even with this skimming in places, it's a really good book with wonderful prose that tackles a number of social issues of the time.Many people concentrate on the romance between Jane and Rochester, but there's so much more.We see the kind of life an orphan (especially a girl) might have expected in pre social security Victorian Britain, even one born into a relatively comfortable family. There is a strong critical commentary on the conditions in some charity boarding schools (including Charlotte Bronte's own school at Cowan Bridge, a clergymen's daughters school). But Jane will not be broken, she's a feisty little girl and grows into a strong self assured young woman.There's quite a feminist feel to many parts of the book, Charlotte Bronte was well educated herself, but she obviously felt the injustice of the unequal status, treatment and expectations of women at the time.Jane wants to be respected and loved fer her intelligence and mind more than looks (she is no beauty) and she wants to be regarded as an equal in these respects by her prospective partner in life and this is one of the reasons she falls in love with Rochester because that is how he treats her.Rochester seems like a monster in some respects by modern standards, but the book needs to be read with the historical context in mind. Divorce was very difficult to obtain at the time and living together (In sin) in much more religious times was socially unacceptable. Therefore many people found themselves trapped in marriages so bigamy was much more common than now (it's not really necessary now). It was a very bad crime, but none the less understandable in some circumstances. Also, understanding of mental health was almost non existent at the time and anyone who strayed from the social norms of behaviour would be written off as mad and be likely to end up in one of the horrendous asylums so prevalent at the time. It was actually considered the kinder option to employ a full time carer and keep the relative at home in a remote wing of a large house. Rochester had 3 other options than the one he took. He could have left Bertha behind in the West Indies, or sent her to an asylum and forgotten about her, knowing she'd probably die from infection fairly quickly in the squalor and filth, or he could have sent her to a damp house in the forest with Grace Poole and again let the conditions kill her with infection. All of these would have kept her at a greater distance and reduced the risk of anyone finding out about Bertha. However, he takes the arguably more moral option of keeping her close, in drier warmer conditions with a constant companion. A recently discovered case (2013) in India of a relative locked up in a house due to mental health issues and reaction to it shows that cultural norms vary widely, so although I don't condone Rochester's behaviour, I do believe the situation needs to be viewed through Victorian eyes as much as is possible today.There is also a section that deals with the cold Christian religious fanaticism of St John Rivers with his heart as cold as stone, despite his Grecian good looks, which poses the question, should Jane marry for high morals (and possibly a very good looking husband), or would she be better off with a flawed, damaged and less than handsome husband with passion and a basically good heart full of repentance. The latter also being someone ready to accept Jane's intelligence and treat her as an equal partner in their relationship.It needs to be remembered that some of the negative reaction to the book on publication (It was considered quite shocking) probably wasn't for the same reasons we find parts of it shocking. It was Jane standing up for herself as a female that caused concern among men. God forbid that women would want an equal voice alongside men.All in all my absolute most favourite book of all time.Oh and by the way, the romance is also moving as Jane gradually becomes unable to prevent herself from falling for Rochester, so enjoy that part also. "-and, alas! never had I loved him so well".

I read quite a few classics as a young adult, but this one had somehow slipped through the net. I'm glad I've rediscovered it and plan to read some of the other Bronte novels on the strength of Jane Eyre. I was also inspired to watch the 1943 movie with Orson Welles, which loosely follows the story. (You can find the full movie on YouTube!)The only thing that puzzled me about the Kindle edition of this book was the fact that it is stated to have only 332 pages. It felt a lot longer than that (more like 500+ pages, if I want to be honest). Either the physical book is printed with a tiny typeset to fit on 332 pages, or perhaps they made a mistake with the Kindle pagination, I'm not sure. (Or I'm just a slow reader with a large typeset on my Kindle? - that's also a possibility!) I kept turning the Kindle pages without making any noticeable visual progress through the book (10 kindle pages=1 book page, or something like that) which I've found a bit frustrating. (Or am I just being shallow wanting to see my progress?)I enjoyed the story a lot, though I found it a bit slow-going at places. It's well worth reading if you like old classics.