Jane Eyre - Good Old Reads

Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre — Charlotte Brontë (Portrait: Evert A. Duyckinck)

Everything that could be written has been written about the classic English literature of the last several centuries. But I’m still left to wonder how a member of the Old Guy Demographic like me—who has thrived on the works of Tom Clancy, W.E.B. Griffin, and Clive Cussler—can be so enamored with works like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

High Point: Brontë’s prose is beautiful, and the vocabulary is rich. Building expressive word pictures and often addressing the reader directly, she draws you in to be immersed and invested in her story.

Low Point: None

Author: Charlotte Brontë

Publication Date: 1847

Genre: Fiction

The vision before the wedding - Jane Eyre — Illustration by F.H. Townsend from an 1897 edition

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Clancy, Cussler, and Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre, of course, is the story of a young girl attempting to find her way as she grows into womanhood somewhere in the north of England. Headstrong and independent, she commits herself fully to her endeavors, ferociously claws back from setbacks, and focuses on making herself and those around her successful. She would have been a superstar in the 21^st century.

The story is told from Jane’s first-person perspective, enabling the reader to experience her deep thoughts and reactions to events around her. Brontë’s prose is beautiful, and the vocabulary is rich. Building expressive word pictures and often addressing the reader directly, she draws you in to be immersed and invested in her story.

I sometimes found myself silently advising her with thoughts like, “You can’t marry St. John. Don’t be deceived by his arguments.” In case you’re one of the few who has not read the book, I’ll leave it to you to determine if she heeded my advice.

I am amazed that a 180-year-old novel about a young woman coming of age can be so appealing. My next read may very well be something from the works of Ian Fleming or C.S. Forester. But I will soon be returning to Jane Austen or one of the Brontë sisters—something that will be as rich and enjoyable as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre and the gypsy — Illustration by F.H. Townsend from an 1897 edition

Quotes

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.

Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.