by Charlotte Brontë

“Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their facilities, and a field for heir efforts, as much as their brothers do…”
-Page 150

Title: Jane Eyre
Author: Charlotte Brontë
Publisher: 
Book: standalone
Genre: Classic
Found: Classic
Rating: 4 Voodoos

Fiery love, shocking twists of fate, and tragic mysteries put a lonely governess in jeopardy in JANE EYRE

Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.

But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?

-Goodreads

Oh boy do I HATE the things people do in the name of religion!!!!
The poor girls in that school! Vowing to keep them “pure” and “un-vain” as if it wasn’t the men deciding and dictating how they should look and dress in the first place. WHAT a reaction to curly hair!!
And attempting to force a marriage because you claim “God wants you to. You must follow his path and marry me even if you don’t want to.” – yet, doesn’t that go against what a marriage is meant to be? A sacred union?!

But moving on. In contrast some of the writing was a lot more “feminist” than I was expecting from a book written in 1847, which just goes to show you just how long we’ve been at this fight…
Jane’s general attitude was that of being perfectly capable and it was lovely to follow her around as she navigated those around her. I liked Jane a lot and thought she dealt with things quite well, though I felt really sorry for heras an extraordinary amount of crap came her way!.
There weren’t that many other characters to like. Certainly not her aunt and definitely not her cousin St John, though I do sort of like Rochester but he WAS a bit of a scoundrel.

If you don’t know the storyline, HERE BE SPOILERS:
What I don’t understand is why couldn’t he have filed for divorce? They were married under false pretences and she kept trying to kill him after all…

I had this as an audio book which really helped with the long drifts of description.  hope they make all the classics into audio books read by well articulated people…This one was read by Thandie Newton. I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would, though I did quite like the film. I was expecting it to be harder work – though I guess I was not the one actually reading it!
I did spend the whole time thinking her cousins name was something like Sojohn though….

Now, bring on the retellings!!