30 Books Before I'm 30: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

"Ill or well, she would always be plain. The grace and harmony of beauty are quite wanting in those features."

I am surprised that I never previously read Jane Eyre because it, at first, seems like a book I would love; the main character is a plain-looking (and, yes, it is mentioned quite often how unremarkable Jane is), loves reading, and eschews marrying young (she held out until the ripe-old-age of 20). Jane is brought up in unfortunate circumstances-- an orphan, adopted by her evil aunt, forced to live with her equally evil cousins, and sent off to a boarding school where the girls are starved until they die from a tuberculosis epidemic. Then Jane, using a healthy helping of spit and gumption, makes her place in the world by hiring on as a governess for the ward (illegitimate daughter) of a (surprise, surprise) dashingly unhandsome (but disgustingly rich and noble) middle-aged gentleman who (spoiler alert) immediately falls in love with her, despite that she is 18, ugly, and his employee.

This review is going to be big on spoilers because, quite frankly, I don't think you should bother reading this book. Also, I have to complain about the ending. So stop reading this now if you want to be shocked and awed when you read Jane Eyre on your own

What I Liked: This book was easy to read, though the Kindle still makes me antsy. It took me about two weeks to finish, but I didn't read every day or for very long. I liked that Jane was (somewhat) realistic. I would have loved this book in middle school or high school, back when I thought novels about love at first sight weren't irresponsible. I liked that Bronte referred to her audience as "dear reader." At first it bothered me, but then it kind of made me feel like a confidant. I liked that Bronte was able to define her characters, set up the love story, then separate the lovers. I liked that the bad guys (and gals) were bad and the good guys were good. I never felt bad, for instance, about Mr. Rochester's wife (though Bronte had to go to huge lengths to make him sympathetic after he tried to commit bigamy) or St. John the Jerk. 

What I Didn't Like: It bothered me how much of an emphasis there was put on Jane's plainness, though it was nice that Mr. Rochester was described as similarly ugly. I got the impression that Jane wasn't expected to do any better than Mr. Rochester. It bothered me that Mr. Rochester was such a cad and yet was supposed to be this excellent catch. He had a child out of wedlock that he claimed wasn't his, he locked up his wife in the attic rather than seek proper mental health care (did they have sanitariums in those days?), tried to marry Jane even though he was already married (to a woman living UNDER THE SAME ROOF!), and refused to pay Jane a proper wage when she was going to travel see her dying aunt (yes, I know that this was supposed to be "romantic" because he was trying to ensure she came back, but I also found it creepy). Bronte had to redeem him by: having his current wife be a homicidal maniac who later commits suicide by jumping from the roof of the house as it burns from a fire she set, having him lose sight in both eyes after they were destroyed/infected during the same fire, having him lose his hand, and describing him as near-suicidal with depression following Jane's departure.

So, after she was treated so poorly by Mr. Rochester, Jane comes back to find him crippled and depressed, so she gets to BE HIS CONSTANT NURSEMAID! She gets to take such good care of him, in fact, that she doesn't even have time to take care of Adele, his illegitimate child (so she gets sent to boarding school at age 8-- though not to the crummy place Mr. Rochester originally sent her to where they starved her and were generally mean).

I know, I know. Different time, different place. How dare I impose by 21st century values on a book published 163 years ago, etc. I get it.  There was a time I would have swooned over this book, but it definitely isn't now.

Words I Learned From Reading this Book: (One of the best features of the Kindle is that it has a built-in dictionary, so I have made note of the words I had to look up)  captious (fault-finding, difficult to please), opprobrium (the disgrace or reproach incurred by conduct considered shameful), vassalage (dependence, subjection, or servitude), resurgam (Latin for "I shall rise again"), inditing (to compose or write, as with a poem), genii (plural of genius), contumacy (stubborn perverseness or rebelliousness), contumelious (humiliatingly insulting), girandoles (an ornate bracket for a candelabra, sometimes with a reflecting mirror at the back of the shelf), diablerie (reckless mischief, devilry), deglutition (to swallow down), philter (a magic potion for any purpose, most commonly a love potion), pertinaciously (holding firmly to an opinion or course of action), seraglio (the woman's apartments in a harem), suttee (a Hindu practice whereby a widow throws herself on the funeral pyre of her husband, now abolished by law), dudgeon (the feeling of offense or anger), and, my favorite, spoony (foolishly or sentimentally amorous). 

How many of those words did you know? Because even the spell-check recognized only about half of those as actual words.

This Book Would be Best if Read: In 1847. 

I Would Recommend this Book to: Overly sentimental grandmas and teenage girls who like to read rather than date. Also, perhaps, young, Mormon housewives with some time on their hands.

If you Like this Book, you May also Enjoy: Anything by Jane Austen, possibly Wuthering Heights (though I have yet to read it).

Up Next: Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society by Janath Russell Canon, Jill Mulvay Derr, and Maureen Ursenback Beecher.

6 Down, 24 to go!

P.S. I did most of my reading of this book while Josh was playing "Red Dead Redemption." I thought his look of determination in the above picture was funny.