pickle Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Jane Eyre has long been one of my favourite novels I have never read Wide Sargasso Sea not sure I really want to either I can't quite get my head round it. I never felt Rochester was a silly character though a deeply flawed and troubled one yes his relationship and dialogue with Jane I have always loved though, of them all St John was the one I least understood and disliked the most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I started The Wide Sargasso Sea some years ago. I didn't finish, and frankly didn't get that far into it. Perhaps I didn't give the book a fair shake. Dunno. I generally don't care for riffs on other books, classics at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I read Wide Sargasso Sea right after Jane Eyre and hated it. It didn't feel like the same characters at all. Even if I ignore its relationship to JE, I still really disliked it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Interesting, I read Wide Sargasso Sea (a good few years) before I read Jane Eyre and I thought it was a great book, in fact, I think it was one of my books of the year back then. I wonder if I would have had the same reaction if I'd read Jane Eyre first? I'll never know ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruth Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 I have Wide Sargasso Sea on my tbr shelf - I bought it after I read and loved Jane Eyre, and was after all stuff JE related (incidentally, I loved The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - you don't have to have read JE to enjoy it, but it probably does help). I will approach Wide Sargasso Sea with some trepidation!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 I have Wide Sargasso Sea on my tbr shelf - I bought it after I read and loved Jane Eyre, and was after all stuff JE related I will approach Wide Sargasso Sea with some trepidation!! As you have already read Jane Eyre it can do you no harm Ruth! Although reading it before (as I did) does seem to affect how people view Rochester. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lohengramm Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Even though parts of it were rather dry, I love this book. I plan to re-read it very soon, I'll probably purchase a hardback. The dialogue between Eyre and Rochester amused me. I do need to read Wuthering Heights at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkle Posted June 13, 2012 Share Posted June 13, 2012 I read this book years ago after several failed attempts and I'm glad I did. It's such an understated read and once I was into it I was gripped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
risingdawn Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 I'm doing this for my essay as I absolutely loved the book. It's so romantic and traditionally Gothic. I was just wondering, does anyone know exactly where the character of Jane is described in terms of her personality? I'm trying to figure it out for my essay and can't really look online as I would have to reference it. I can't remember whereabouts it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cumberbabe Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 (edited) I do love Jane Eyre, but does anyone else, upon re-reading it, skip the bit where she runs away from Thornfield? Also, everything with St. John is boring af. Rising Dawn - from what I can remember (I've only read the book once and that was last year), isnt Jane Eyre written in first person? Therefore, there would be no description of her character? I know that the Brocklehurst character (who takes her to that school) basically equates her to the devil, but apart from that, I think there is very little on her actual character. I just know that she is repeatedly described as plain. Edited March 5, 2013 by Cumberbabe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peahen Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 I do advise those that are having difficulty with Wuthering Heights to perservere. I love both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. The latter, it did take me a few times to get into the story as of the frames - just remember in the first few chapters you are reading frames Wuthering Heights is essentially - the man who comes to the Heights, years after the main action of the book, who then hears the story from a first hand witness, the maid Nellie Dean. At the start the dialogue of Joseph - the manservant, is a little difficult but that soons allieviates. Jane Eyre is the book that I hand up as my first book of falling in love with, in that i had to ration a book for first time so i would not come to end so quickly. However Wuthering Heights is far superior in comparison. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjhale Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 Yeah I went and read Jame Eyre first. In the last year or two I've finished Persuasion (very satisfying), P&P (even more satisfying), Tess (excruciating), Wuthering Heights (not much less excruciating). and I just finished Villettte, (rivals P&P--though I'm not likely to ever settle for that ending--and it helps that I do speak a little French, n'est-ce pas?), but the one that started it all off is still unbeaten... Jane Eyre. Reading Emma now, only because I have a copy, but I can only hope it can really climb beyond the implications of it's shallow beginnings... Oh Charlotte and Jane--you both had to die so young, didn't you! Yes I'm a guy that likes 'Romance', but these are all I've read along this line--nothing more modern, except I'm a romantic comedy movie attic. (Love Actually is one of my favorites!) And no I don't follow every word of especially Charlotte--can't sometimes, kind of like Shakespeare, who is now to me below Charlotte and Jane--and I have lots of experience with William. To me Charlotte is queen, Jane, a princess, and Shakespeare her younger brother prince. Because the reality is that I have not been moved by any other like Charlotte and Jane have moved me. But don't want to read S&S really--seen all the movie/TV versions of all Jane's and Charlotte's work--and I fear it falls short of both of Charlotte's longer works. And Mansfield Park, well, I'm older so I like a more mature main character I guess. But of course I'll eventually read them both--where else do I have to go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjhale Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 Oops--actually misspelled Jane Eyre and Villette... sorry Charlotte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjhale Posted October 5, 2013 Share Posted October 5, 2013 I relent. I just passed ch. 40 of Emma and OH!. Such graciousness. Exquisite graciousness on Emma's part at the end of that chapter. Emma is Jane (Eyre) with money from birth. She is truely virtuous. So is Mr. Knightley for that matter. Both wholely admirable, all things considered. Both worthy custodians of all that they survey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 I really don't understand why women readers of Jane Eyre seem to go googly over Rochester. I mean, he has his wife locked away in the attic the whole time he is trying to bigamously marry the heroine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 I relent. I just passed ch. 40 of Emma and OH!. Such graciousness. Exquisite graciousness on Emma's part at the end of that chapter. Emma is Jane (Eyre) with money from birth. She is truely virtuous. So is Mr. Knightley for that matter. Both wholely admirable, all things considered. Both worthy custodians of all that they survey. mrjhale, I didn't like Emma at first but she did grow on me as she changed during the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie H Posted October 7, 2013 Share Posted October 7, 2013 I really don't understand why women readers of Jane Eyre seem to go googly over Rochester. I mean, Oooo, this a thorny, but meaty, subject for me. I read JE when I was in my late teens, after so many (then early teen aged) female friends said that it was such a wonderful romantic story. I was really startled (and disturbed) when I read it, for the same reasons that you mentioned in your spoiler. I had this discussion recently within LibraryThing. When I voiced my opinion that I thought that the Jane/Rochester relationship wasn't a good relationship role model for young female readers, almost all others (female) disagreed with me. All said that they absolutely loved it when they were young, and were happy to recommend it again. I ,then and now, don't understand why girls find the Jane/Rochester relationship as being a wonderfully romantic story. Maybe I have a too serious attitude to life in fiction? I really don't know.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontalba Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 (edited) I really don't understand why women readers of Jane Eyre seem to go googly over Rochester. I mean, he has his wife locked away in the attic the whole time he is trying to bigamously marry the heroine! Aye, thorny it is, as Marie says. However. Part of the attraction, aside from the obvious physical one, is many women have this inclination to "save" someone. Jane sensed the deep melancholy in Rochester. And. Remember the reason he kept her in the attic was she had been quite mad for years. Dangerous to both herself and others. The only other recourse was for him to commit her to someplace like Bedlam that would have been much worse for her. And, she'd been foisted off onto him in the first place by both his father, and her family. So, all in all, while I don't agree with your use of the term "googly" I do acknowledge that many, if not most women are attracted to that sort of intense, melancholic man. Mostly when they are young, and don't know any better. Edited October 8, 2013 by pontalba Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodkafan Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Ah thanks pontalba and Marie H for the feedback. Glad you saw it the same way Marie! I thought I was a lone voice crying in the wilderness about this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie H Posted October 8, 2013 Share Posted October 8, 2013 Aye, thorny it is, as Marie says. However. Part of the attraction, aside from the obvious physical one, is many women have this inclination to "save" someone. Jane sensed the deep melancholy in Rochester. And. Remember the reason I'm really glad that you feel that way too pontalba Also, you put it much more succinctly than I did. Ah thanks pontalba and Marie H for the feedback. Glad you saw it the same way Marie! I thought I was a lone voice crying in the wilderness about this... Well, at least we are not completely alone with this opinion vodkafan, but sadly I still feel that we are a small minority. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardengirl Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 Thought I would put 'my pennyworth' [my say] in at this point! I didn't like Jane Eyre, and I have read it three times at different ages to see if it was an age thing.I was bored, more than anything, and found Jane very wet as a character.However, books do divide people, It's extremely well written. I loved Wuthering Heights even though Cathy was a mad selfish character.I used to play on Haworth moors when I was a child, very near the farm used for Wuthering Heights [the farm was actually called Top Withens.]Once, in Winter [it always had snow, it was a very high up place] I fell half way down the steep Haworth High St.but being a child and in snow, I was ok just a case of hurt pride!It's certainly a bleak place there on the moors, but Haworth itself [i took my children there to visit 20 years ago] is a tourist trap!You could very likely get a cappucino there nowadays in Brontes-To- Go [only joking!]The Black Bull pub was still there then [the pub where Branwell Bronte drank himself to an early death.] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjhale Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 I really don't understand why women readers of Jane Eyre seem to go googly over Rochester. I mean, he has his wife locked away in the attic the whole time he is trying to bigamously marry the heroine! Substance alone is rare, let alone how beneficent, is it not? and to go all googly over it wherever found, with any hope of continued mutual interaction of it is likely more than enough grounds for eternal marital bliss. Am I wrong? And I don't think the 'wife' you refer to is protrayed in any way as reconcilable to such a role. Wasn't it the greed of her family to try to ultimate gain Rochester's wealth that initial impeded him, and wasn't it clear that he would have taken care of her as best as anyone in the world could have whatever the case. Maybe I'm not understanding something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjhale Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 I haven't read Wuthering Heights but i do want to give it a go. My only problem now is that i loved Jane Eyre so much i dont know what im going to read next as nothing else seems to compare if that makes sense! Im also sad i have finished reading it as i just want to know what happens next, Charlotte Bronte wrote the characters so well you feel like you really know them. I may give Pride and Prejudice a go but i keep re reading the romantic parts of Jane Eyre they are so lovely! Sad arn't i! Na-huh. Just how I felt--without the rereading. Tried Tess. (Thomas Hardy); that was a mistake--too painful for me. So was Wuthering Heights. The 'hopeful ending' wasn't enough for me. P&P was very satisfying though--almost as good as J. E. Far into Emma now--wasn't expecting as much but it's much better than I thought it would be--satisfying enough. Persuasion was also very good for me. Will have to try S&S next. And loved Villette (also Charlotte Bronte)--it's up there with J.E. and P&P. Helps to know a little French though or get a version that gives you the translations--has lots of French. Sorry for the late reply--new member. Wish someone had been able to steer me away from Tess and Wuthering Heights, probably the best call for those of us who "loved Jane Erye so much". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjhale Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 I am currently half way through Jane Eyre, and I am hating every moment of this book. The story is very boring and dry. The characters have no energy or life and Jane Eyre is a dull lead character. It seems that all the charaters are painted to be wicked so Jane Eyre can shine like Cinderella, when Jane herself is just as stuck-up as the rest of the characters representing the upper class. Hmm. She stands up to her stuck-up upper class family as a child; lays with her contagiously sick, outcast friend--she herself an outcast--while banished to boarding school; educates herself; employs herself productively; and when she finally finds she is really rich, she gives 3/4 of her money away to those who helped her when she was down. Sure, I see exactly where you're coming from. You didn't understand the book at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrjhale Posted October 9, 2013 Share Posted October 9, 2013 BTW, how do you activate the spoiler alert function? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.