As part of CBR Bingo (plus I always wanted to read it a second time), my choice for the square “Classics” was Jane Eyre. A lot of my friends love this book, which made me want to read it critically to understand what it was about this that makes it so popular. I tried hard to like it, but could only like parts of it. Right from the lead character (a 10 year old girl), to her family (created by the author to be as […]
Makes me not want to read any more Brontë.
I am sorry to say I did not enjoy this at all. I’m very sure this was well-written, a masterpiece of the English language, etc, etc. But not for me. And there were all these reviews! From people saying it was better than Jane Eyre! What! I don’t get it. At all. George Eliot, were you smoking something when you read this? Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for it, but Lucy Snowe < Jane Eyre. I mean, I didn’t even need to have […]
“I am not an angel,’ I asserted; ‘and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.” (BINGO 5!)
For many, Jane Eyre is part of the reading undertaken during their education. For some it is read in high school, for others college, but for me it never joined the reading lists of my various courses. In fact, until several years ago when I read Agnes Grey I had read nothing at all by any of the Brontes. It is however fully in the milieu of a reader’s culture; I understood it enough to get the jokes in Texts from Jane Eyre and Hark! […]
Blackout! One case where I prefer the literary criticism to the actual novel
Bingo Square: This Old Thing I read Jane Eyre in high school for fun when I was trying to read classics because I thought I needed to better myself. I can’t say that was a very successful venture, since I didn’t end up liking that many of them without a teacher’s guidance to point out some of the deeper meaning (although I loved East of Eden and Anna Karenina). Jane Eyre was definitely one I didn’t enjoy that much because it was long and boring. […]