Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Publisher: Top Five Books (2014)

545 pages, eBook (Purchased Myself for $0.99)

Book Rating: 5 Stars

Content Ratings:

Violence: Mild-Moderate-Brutal

Swearing: Clean-Light-Filthy

Sexual Content: White-Pink-Red

Summary:

Jane Eyre is an orphan, dependent on her aunt’s fulfilling a promise given to her husband on his deathbed that she would raise his niece as her own, but her aunt resents her presence and she is soon shipped off to boarding school where she endures hardships of another kind, and upon graduation takes a governess position in an isolated manor house with mysterious occupants and an intense master, Mr. Rochester.

My Thoughts:

The story of Jane Eyre is part coming-of-age story and part gothic romance. Jane struggles through so many hardships in her young life, and she just keep plodding along. The contrast between Jane’s two suitors, Mr. Rochester and St. John Rivers, and Jane’s two cousins, John Reed and St. John Rivers, was something that really captured my attention and it was fun to make the comparisons as I went along. I’ve read this story at least four times, and I had always questioned Jane’s decision to leave Thornfield, feeling the noble action unjustified, but this time through, I truly understood her reasoning, and consequently the story as a whole a lot better. Mr. Rochester's behavior had always baffled me as well, especially as concerns Miss Ingram, but I think I got that worked out this time around as well. Mr. Rochester is a bit of a dark character; brooding, enjoys playing cruel games with people, and he's prone to insecurity at times, but he's just the sort of tortured man that you have to love. The book ends with St. John and his fate, and it was interesting to compare how his ambitions and motivations compared to Jane’s, and his fate perhaps provided a glimpse of what may have become of Jane had she made different decisions. Great story, with such a complex and thought-provoking construction!

Edition Notes:

This Top Five Classics Illustrated Edition was nicely arranged for easy maneuverability within the text, included annotations at the end of each chapter for translations of any passages within the text written in French or German, and includes a biography of the author at the end of the text for those with an interest. This edition also includes the illustrations of M.V. Wheelhouse and Edmund Dulac. Great value for the price, and the best ebook edition of Jane Eyre that I’ve found!

Cover Art Favorites:

Quotes:

“The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I was conscious that a moment’s mutiny had already rendered me liable to strange penalties, and, like any other rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go all lengths.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don’t repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I felt an inexpressible relief, a soothing conviction of protection and security, when I knew that there was a stranger in the room—“-Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—such dread as children only can feel.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I begged her to fetch Gulliver’s Travels from the library. This book I had again and again perused with delight. I considered it a narrative of facts, and discovered in it a vein of interest deeper than what I found in fairy tales: for as to the elves, having sought them in vain among foxglove leaves and bells, under mushrooms and beneath the ground-ivy mantling old wall-nooks, I had at length made up my mind to the sad truth, that they were all gone out of England to some savage country where the woods were wilder and thicker, and the population more scant.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—glancing round occasionally to make sure that nothing worse than myself haunted the shadowy room.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Breakfast was over, and none had breakfasted.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—that wind would then have saddened my heart; this obscure chaos would have disturbed my peace! as it was, I derived from both a strange excitement, and reckless and feverish, I wished the wind to howl more wildly, the gloom to deepen to darkness, and the confusion to rise to clamour.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“It is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—it is weak and silly to say you cannot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—it agitated me to pain sometimes.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—you have rather the look of another world.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—you have secured the shadow of your thought.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“His changes of mood did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with their alternation; the ebb and flow depended on causes quite disconnected with me.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“‘Yes, there is your ‘boite’ at last: take it into a corner, you genuine daughter of Paris, and amuse yourself with disembowelling it—And mind—don’t bother me with any details of the anatomical process, or any notice of the condition of the entrails: let your operation be conducted in silence: tiens-toi tranquil, enfant; comprends-tu?’” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—he looked preciously grim—” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I mentally shake hands with you for your answer—“-Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“A woman who could betray me for such a rival was not worth contending for.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—just one of your tricks: not to send for a carriage, and come clattering over street and road like a common mortal, but to steal into the vicinage of your home along with twilight, just as if you were a dream or a shade.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“It is always the way of events in this life—no sooner have you got settled in a pleasant resting-place, than a voice calls out to you to rise and move on, for the hour of repose is expired.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—don’t struggle so, like a wild frantic bird that is rending its own plumage in its desperation.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“You strange, you almost unearthly thing!” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Come to me—come to me entirely now—Make my happiness—I will make yours.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“You, sir, are the most phantom-like of all.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I lay faint, longing to be dead.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Friends always forget those whom fortune forsakes.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“—for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“And why cannot I reconcile myself to the prospect of death? Why do I struggle to retain a valueless life?” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“If he were insane, however, his was a very cool and collected insanity.” -Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Movie Adaptations: 

Jane Eyre (2011)

Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell

Movie Rating: PG-13

My Rating: 5 Stars

Adaption: Verbatim-Tweaked-Veiled

Eye Candy: Plain-Pretty-Sultry

Jane Eyre (TV Mini-Series 2006)

Ruth Wilson, Toby Stephens, Lorraine Ashbourne

Movie Rating: NR

Jane Eyre (TV Movie 1997)

Samantha Morton, Ciaran Hinds, Gemma Jones

Movie Rating: NR

My Rating: 4 Stars

Jane Eyre (1996)

Charlotte Gainsbourg, William Hurt, Anna Paquin

Movie Rating: PG