Book Review: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

   I hope that as you read this you won't judge me too harshly for waiting until my mid-twenties to read this book. Truth be told, I also feel I should have read it earlier, but I was busy reading other things during my teens *cough* Harry potter *cough*. I also suffer from having a very large back-log of books I've been meaning to read. My wallet's current situation doesn't help either. Reading is an expensive hobby but we love it all the same.


   This book took a bit of patience at the start and I kept on getting distracted, but when the story picked-up boy did it go! The main protagonist is named 'Jane Eyre' (surprise!) and the book is about her life. Her growing-up in basically an abusive household, going on to boarding school and eventually finding work as a governess (read 'private tutor'). This is where she meets Mr. Rochester who I spent at least 5 chapters trying to figure out if I should root for or not. Was he tall dark and handsome? Yes, except for the handsome bit. So you don't have to worry about too many cliches there. Did they fall for each other? Of course! But just when I thought I knew where things were going, there was plot twist after plot twist. Seriously guys, I stopped trying to figure things out and just settled-in for the ride.


   At some point Jane ends-up being proposed to by a soon-to-be missionary who tries to bully her into marrying him by quoting scripture, specifically the book of Revelations. I may have lost the ability to roll my eyes ever again due to the amount of eye-rolling that went on at this point. But my beef with Christians who misuse scripture is a topic for another day. The only thing that got me through was me saying over and over 'please Lord let it not end like this!' (Take heart, it doesn't). And I'll leave things at that to avoid giving away too many spoilers.


   I liked the prose. There was incredible attention paid to detail when describing places and people to the extent that you can properly visualize them in your minds eye without having to fill-in the gaps by yourself. They just don't write them like that anymore. This book was written in the 1840s and I'm generally fascinated by old literature, more so anything Victorian. There's something about a book having survived nearly 200 years and still being relevant.


So yes, I'd recommend this book to everyone.

Ciao...

Photocredits: Goodreads.com