In this realistic fiction book, we are told the story of Jane Eyre's life. She is the narrator and tells us how she grew up and where she ended up. Jane's parents died when she was very young. After they died, she was forced to live with her Aunt and Uncle. Her uncle loved her very much, and when he grew sick, he had his wife promise to love her the same. She did not like Jane, and made her life miserable until she sent Jane to a boarding school. This school was strict and awful, until new owners took it over. When this happened, she enjoyed the school, and even became a teacher there. After she was tired of that, she became a governess for a house. The owner of the house, Mr. R. was very kind, and Jane and he eventually fell in love. When they were about to get married, Jane found out that Mr. R had been married before and she had gone mad, but was still alive. This made Jane want to leave, and she did. She left and found a nice family to house her. The family ended up being related to her, and when their uncle died, he had left money for her, which she then split between the others. After that, she wanted to go see Mr. R, so she went back to his house, and found out that in his wife's madness, she burned the house down, and died by falling off the roof. This left Mr. R widowed. So she found out where he had been living and went to see him. They confessed that they had both still loved each other, and she got married to him. ( )

The genre of this book is realistic fiction. Jane Eyre is a lonely orphan who believes that she will never find love. She goes to work and reside in Thornfield Hall as a governess, but strange occurrences keep happening, like fires and screams in the night. Nevertheless, she falls in love with the rich master of the house, Edward Rochester, and they are arranged to be married. On the day of their wedding, a strange man calls it off, and claims that Mr. Rochester was already married. It is then that Jane discovers that Edward has a mad woman as a wife who had been locked up in the house. Jane then runs away and stays with a wonderful family and finds a job as a school teacher in the village. Soon, she finds out that the family is actually her cousins, and that her uncle recently passed away and left her a mighty fortune. Now rich, with nice relatives, Jane resolves to go back to Edward. Traveling back to Thornfield Hall, she sees that it has burned down, and a neighbor informs her that the mad woman did it, killing herself in the process, and tells her where Edward now resides. She goes to him, and finds him in blindness, but marries him, and finds happiness therein. ( )

In this adaption of the classic historical fiction novel by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre begins as a little girl living secluded in her her aunt's house. When she is sent away to attend an all girls school called Lowood, the last words she said to her aunt were hateful ones, but she did not regret it. The school she was at began as a terrible place where many girls died by the beginning of summer... However, once it changed owners, the school became a place where Jane flourished and learned an incredible amount. The time came for her to move on and she found a position at a home where she was accepted by the housekeeper and loved by her little charge. When she finally does meet the homeowner of Thornfield, the two become infatuated with one another in the span of several months - they begin spending time together and holding meaningful conversations. Throughout her wonderful time at Thornfield, she hears strange laughter through the evening and occasionally right outside her door; on one occasion, she awoke to the laughter outside of her door and when she went out, discovered that Mr. Rochester's bed was on fire! Jane managed to save him from the flames, but it wasn't until Mr. Rochester declared his love for her that the two became inseparable. The day of their wedding, an objection was made by Mr. Rochester's brother-in-law stating that his wife was still alive! When the claim was proved true, Jane stayed in Thornfield for a small amount of time before she fled. She found a town where a family was willing to take her in and after a small time went by, they found a job for her at the local school. Through the course of several months, it was discovered that she was related to the family that had taken her in and that when their uncle died, he left all his money to Jane. A few days later, an urgent message came from Thornfield Hall, begging Jane Eyre to come back. When she arrived, she found Thornfield burned to the ground and completely empty. When she was able to locate Mr. Rochester, she found that his wife had passed away and the two were able to get married. After two years they had a baby and lived happily from there on out. ( )

Intermediate; Maybe Middle
Genre: Realistic Fiction- This story could have been real with the people and Jane moving around and such. The things that happened in this story were very realistic and could have happened, but this is fiction because the people and events were all made up.
Setting: Integral. This story had to take place in old time England. Just with the social statuses and the cultural and social things that went on in this book. It wouldn't be the same without this setting.

One of the challenges I signed up for -- the 2009 Mini Challenges -- had this listed as one of the 12 "to do" items.

Read a classic (defined as anything published before 1970). Tell us why it fits the category of being a classic. Write a review or tell the group about the book.

I found a bunch of classic books that I hadn't read and asked you, dear Readers, to choose which one I should read. The overwhelming winner was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. So now, here are my thoughts!

An Overview of the Story (With Major Editorializing)
In case I'm not the last person in the world to read this book, I thought I'd give you a brief overview of the very dramatic story of Jane Eyre. As I was reading, I thought "This is like the classic template for every romance novel in the world!" The template, of course, is as follows:

* Man and the woman seemingly hate each other on first sight
* Man and woman realize they love each other but don't admit it openly
* Man and woman play coy with each other
* Man and woman finally reveal their love
* Circumstances intervene to make their love seem doomed forever
* Fate brings them together.

But Jane Eyre is much more than the romance between Jane and Mr. Rochester. This book is also:

* the classic tale of an orphan raised by cruel relatives finding her way in the world
* a mystery story (just who is up on that third floor?)
* not afraid to dabble in the supernatural ("Jane! Jane!" "Is that you, Mr. Rochester? Where are you? I'm coming!")
* filled with amazing coincidences ("Wow! I just staggered to the first house I found to die on their doorstep...and it turns out to be my long lost relatives!")

Don't get me wrong, I loved the story. You definitely want to find out what is going to befall Jane next. But the thing that saves the story for me is Jane herself. I just loved her. I loved that she is true to herself and her principles through the entire story. Even when her heart is telling her one thing and fate offers her an "easy way" to be with Mr. Rochester, Jane chooses the hard road so she can be true to herself and her values. And I was so glad she didn't back down when St. John Rivers got it into his head that she had to marry him. "Good for you, Jane," I thought. "You tell him."

In many ways, Jane Eyre is a very modern woman. She has a good sense of herself and is quite the conversationalist. You see why Mr. Rochester is drawn to her. I enjoyed the teasing interplay between Jane and Mr. Rochester. I imagine that when this book was published in the 1800s, Jane was probably a very scandalous character indeed! (I'm totally conjecturing this. One of the disadvantages of reading a classic on your own without any historical context is that I'm not totally familiar with the society in which Jane lived -- but she seemed so modern and strong to me!)

Thoughts While Reading the Book
I will be totally honest with you. When I first started reading the book, I thought "I hate how this is written. It is so much work to read writing like this." I realize I've become a lazy modern reader -- I like reading books that are written how I think and talk. Jane Eyre is not written in this way. The characters speak in these amazingly long, florid and involved sentences that invoke all kinds of things from religion, myths and classic stories. But, just like when I attend a Shakespeare play or watch a subtitled movie, after a bit you don't notice it as much. You begin to get into the speech patterns of the characters. In fact, along the way, I started to get quite entertained by reimagining how certain passages would be written in a modern novel. Some examples for you.

******
Jane Berating Herself for Falling in Love with Mr. Rochester:

“You,” I said, “a favourite with Mr. Rochester? You gifted with the power of pleasing him? You of importance to him in any way? Go! your folly sickens me. And you have derived pleasure from occasional tokens of preference—equivocal tokens shown by a gentleman of family and a man of the world to a dependent and a novice. How dared you? Poor stupid dupe!—Could not even self-interest make you wiser? You repeated to yourself this morning the brief scene of last night?—Cover your face and be ashamed! He said something in praise of your eyes, did he? Blind puppy! Open their bleared lids and look on your own accursed senselessness! It does good to no woman to be flattered by her superior, who cannot possibly intend to marry her; and it is madness in all women to let a secret love kindle within them, which, if unreturned and unknown, must devour the life that feeds it; and, if discovered and responded to, must lead, ignis-fatus-like, into miry wilds whence there is no extrication.

(Ok ... do you totally see what I'm talking about with the writing?)

How This Might Read in a Modern Book:

"God, you are an idiot! How can you think he would love you? He's rich. You're poor. He's your boss. You're the lowly nanny. So he said he liked your eyes? Big deal! Get over it. It's not like he is going to marry you!"

******
Jane Telling St. John Rivers How She Feels About Him:

Nothing speaks or stirs in me while you talk. I am sensible of no light kindling—no life quickening—no voice counselling or cheering. Oh, I wish I could make you see how much my mind is at this moment like a rayless dungeon, with one shrinking fear fettered in its depths—the fear of being persuaded by you to attempt what I cannot accomplish!”

How This Might Read in a Modern Book:

"I'm just not that into you. Can't you get that?"

******
Mr. Rochester Talking To Jane:

“Your answer requires a commentary,” he said; “it is not clear.”

How This Might Read in a Modern Book:

"What?"

My Final Opinion
I'm glad I read this book. I feel better having read it, and I actually did enjoy it. I really loved the character of Jane, and I feel that I "stretched" myself as a reader. I'll be honest: It is not my favorite book of all time or anything like that, but I was pleasantly surprised how much I wanted to know what happened. I'll give Charlotte Bronte that: she can tell a good story! I see why this book is a classic, and I think readers will continue to enjoy it for years to come. Thanks for choosing this classic for me to read! ( )