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...
