Sweet Jane

Slowly over the course of the year I've ticked of one or two canonical works that I'd never previously read, generally of the pre-20th century variety. The kind that people with degrees in English Lit have probably all read and some people assume that everyone, particularly someone such as mysef who reads a lot, must at some point in their life have read. Or at least know the story of.

Having finished reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, a book I feel definitely fits into that previosuly described category, I was discussing what I thought of it with my housemate. I really enjoyed it and one of the things I said was that it probably had such an impact because I had no idea about the story, indeed knew next to nothing about it beyond the names Jane Eyre (well, duh) and Mr Rochester. She was surprised, but having never read it, nor seen any version of it, I also wasn't sure how much even some classic works like that have really leaked into popular culture in terms of people actually knowing the plot. Certainly the odd reference can be made, but I do think it's very different to those of films and TV programmes, where even people unfamiliar with the work will probably get the link.

But anyway, I did go into blind, as it were, and I did like it a lot. It was a really gripping, engaging read and I was perhaps surprised by this and certainly surprised by some of the things that happened. I didn't know anything about the gothic horror elements and I liked those and I liked the life story narration, 'all that David Copperfield crap', to borrow a phrase.

And at the heart of it, a love story and I can certainly be a sucker for those. What was nice about it was that things were not perfect, the characters were not perfect and were never portrayed as such. Indeed, the author went out of her way to emphasise that neither of the couple were particularly physically attractive, but that they just had that spark, that certain something that worked. A tick in a box against a great work is now something I can do, but unlike some where that's about all I can say about it (George Eliot, you may get a second chance, but you'll have to work hard for it), this one was definitely far more rewarding than that.

Book number: 86
Title: Jane Eyre
Author: Charlotte Brontë
Category: Pre-20th century literature