Featured books

Featured Websites

.: Reader Views Kids

Provides book reviews, by kids, for kids

.: Inside Scoop Live

Provides live author interviews for podcast

.: Authors Access

Provides interviews with experts in the publishing industry

.: Midwest Book Review

Provides post-publication reviews

.: Reader Views

Provides book reviews and author publicity

.: LR Communication Design

Provides professional website design and development

.: Blogging Authors

Provides a place where writers and readers meet

.: Review The Book

Provides 5 books reviews on 10 different sites

.: Best Sellers World

Provides book reviews and author features

.: Feathered Quill Book Reviews

Provides book reviews and author features

reviews

Jane Eyre (Readable Classics)

Charlotte Bronte and Wayne Josephson
Readable Classics (2009)
ISBN 9780615324449
Reviewed by Enid Grabiner for RebecccasReads (12/09)

I was quite skeptical about reading a reworking of Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre.”  I read it as a student many times and it never ceased to engage my imagination.   As a literary purist, I cannot imagine a serious student of English literature choosing to substitute this version. It would fail to present the true sense of the vernacular and diminish the scholarly analysis of the original.  It does, however, offer a casual reader who is interested in, or a student who is being introduced to, a much more easily readable version of the classic.  It maintains the core of the story with enough of the flavor of the language and description of the settings without distilling the essence of the novel.  By condensing and slightly updating the writing, it makes the experience mush less frustrating for the reader, but still beautifully maintains the style and integrity of the book.

 Enough being said about the purpose of the reworking of the original, there is much to be said about the content which is left unchanged. “Jane Eyre” is a wonderful, melodramatic mid-nineteenth century drama that touches on so many themes of the period.   It is a Gothic romance that gives the reader a glimpse into the religious, social and class mores of The Victorian Age, lending itself to be a wealth of fodder for comparison of times then and now. 

Jane, the orphaned daughter of a parson, is forced to attend a charity boarding school.  She becomes a teacher and then a governess.  This mirrors Charlotte Bronte’s own childhood experience, giving the author firsthand knowledge of which she writes.  She knows very well that loss of family security places her at the mercy of her uncontrollable circumstances.  She knows of the impact of cruelty and the power of wishful thinking, both repetitive themes.

Although what must have seemed extremely radical thinking at that time, Charlotte Bronte, through the narration of Jane, suggests that a woman can be as equally intelligent and financially independent as a man.  Romantically she yearns for Mr. Rochester, her pupil’s guardian, but will not defer to him.  When he tries to marry her, she finds she cannot compromise her ideals. Conventionally in that time a wife would have lost her sense of self in a marriage and become controlled by her husband, but Jane remains

 

 

 

 

strong about maintaining her own identity. Later, when she is wooed by another, Clergyman St John Rivers, she again finds she cannot become submissive and obedient, even if he tries to justify it for charity’s sake.

This major theme of female independence pervades through the novel, but the reader is also treated to shades of the Gothic with ghostly images, premonitions and hidden secrets.  Copious symbolism and abundant fairy tales images also permeate and enrich the story.  Never to have read this book would be a tragedy, but this easily understandable edition creates for a path for those who might have otherwise found its length and language an intimidating obstacle.


.: Blog
.: FTC Disclosure