Carol’s Comments
September 2016
Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s
Comments. Of all my favorite books, I love Jane Eyre by Charlotte
Bronte the most. I first read it at age 12 when I bought the Penguin Classics
paperback edition from the Scholastic Book Club in seventh grade. Bronte’s
classic was so unforgettable and moving that I’ve read it many times throughout
my life. In fact, it fueled my love for Gothic themes in fiction and films ever
since.
So when I learned from the New York Times Book Review
that Charlotte Bronte (born April 21, 1816) would be celebrating her 200th
birthday this year, I decided to commemorate it by dedicating a blog to her by
focusing on several recent books inspired by her and her literary masterpiece.
When I started to explore my choices, I remembered that I already read some
excellent re-imaginings of Jane Eyre such as Wide
Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and Margot Livesey’s The Fight of Gemma Hardy in
2012.
The first book I chose was The Madwoman Upstairs by first time novelist Catherine
Lowell. Set in 2013 Oxford, England, Lowell’s story centers on Samantha
Whipple, a 20 year old American college student and last remaining Bronte
family descendent.
After Samantha’s eccentric Bronte scholar father Tristan
Whipple dies in a fire, she learns from a British National Bank representative
that her father stated in his handwritten will that her true inheritance was a
long lost artifact called the Warnings of Experience. Very confused by this
revelation, Samantha enlists the help of her handsome professor James Orville
to unravel the mystery of her real inheritance through encrypted clues her
father leaves for her in the Bronte sisters’ novels and significant places
around Oxford University, particularly at the Old College. While trying to
discover facts about her strange inheritance, she unearths some long buried
family secrets which mainly concern her father and his obsession with his
Bronte ancestors.
Lowell’s cleverly written novel, almost bordering on
historical biography helps the reader learn a lot about the Bronte sisters unconventional
lives and their motivations and meaning
for writing their respective novels: Anne Bronte’s Agnes Grey and The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and of
course Jane Eyre. I especially enjoyed The Madwoman Upstairs because
it takes place in academia, a totally unexpected quirky setting for a
fast-paced adventure story. Ultimately, this utterly captivating book filled
with many unexpected plot twists will thoroughly delight anyone who adores
gothic fiction with a modern edge.
After finishing The Madwoman Upstairs, the novel
piqued my interest in the Bronte family even more. So I then selected the new biography Charlotte
Bronte: A Fiery Heart by Claire Harman. This comprehensive biography
which reads like a historical novel actually chronicles the lives of the entire
Bronte clan beginning with Charlotte’s father Patrick Bronte (born in 1777) who
sadly outlived his wife Maria and all his
six children. He died in 1861 at age 84.
After their two older sisters Maria and Elizabeth
both died young of tuberculosis in 1825, the remaining four siblings Charlotte,
her brother Branwell and younger sisters Emily and Anne were literary
prodigies. For example, as children they already designed intricate fantasy
worlds in their juvenile stories; Charlotte and Branwell creating Angria while
Emily and Anne rivaling their older brother and sister with their alternate
imaginary kingdom Gondal.
Harman’s well researched biography gives the reader
insight into Charlotte Bronte’s life and how her various stints as governess
especially her employment in 1842 as tutor for Constantin Heger’s three
daughters in Brussels greatly influenced Jane Eyre’s narrative and character development
. For instance, Heger later became the model for Edward Rochester as well as
inspiration for other male protagonists in Bronte’s lesser known novels like Villette.
Published in 1847, Jane Eyre is the first novel to use a first person child narrator.
Harman's enlightening biography could be easily
transformed into a feature film or a Masterpiece Classic miniseries. I
highly recommend it.
I’m not particularly attracted to reading short
stories. They always seem to end too abruptly. I much prefer novels because I
can immerse myself in them for hours. However, after I read a positive review
in the New York Times about Reader. I Married Him: Stories Inspired by
Jane Eyre, many of the
fanciful tales described by the reviewer intrigued me so much I decided to be
adventurous and sample a few of them.
Edited by Tracy Chevalier, the collection includes
21 provocative stories by today’s most innovative women authors like Emma
Donoghue, author of the bestselling novel Room. After reading every story, I thought the more contemporary ones which
focused on various concepts and phrases from the original novel were
lackluster, a bit superficial and strangely disconnected.
My favorite stories re-imagined Jane Eyre through
different perspectives. Here are four that fascinated me the most:
First, in Grace Poole Her Testimony by Helen
Dunmore, Bertha Mason’s caretaker has a very different opinion about the new
governess living at Thornfield Hall. Next Salley Vickers’ Reader, She Married Me,
hauntingly recounts Bronte’s classic through Edward Rochester’s viewpoint. He
tragically reveals the real reason why his wife Bertha went insane. This story
reminded me a lot of Wide Sargasso Sea. Then Frances Prose’s The Mirror describes what
happens to Jane and Rochester after they wed. Set in the present day and
including many of the original book’s characters, this retelling offers a very
surreal parallel universe perspective of what could have happened at Thornfield
Hall without a madwoman in the attic.
Finally, in The Orphan Exchange, Audrey
Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveller’s Wife,sets Bronte’s masterpiece in a
dystopian future where young Jane lives at the Orphan Exchange after her parents are killed in war.
Niffenegger especially focuses on Jane’s beloved friend Helen by imagining a
completely different destiny for her with Jane.
Reader,
I Married Him also features a short biographical
sketch about Charlotte Bronte along with a biographical note section on all 21
contributors who discuss what elements in Jane Eyre influenced them the most.
After much trepidation and uncertainty, I finally
decided to pick Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye as my next book. I avoided reading
the novel for months mainly due to its macabre and rather ghoulish theme.
However, every time I browsed the New Fiction shelves, several copies were
always there tantalizing me. Finally, I just couldn’t resist! Ironically when I did request it, the book was
only available at the River Park Branch. So I guess I was destined to review it
for this blog.
Set in Victorian England, Jane Steele begins her
confessional autobiography by recalling her first murder at age 9 when she
accidently (on purpose) kills her lecherous cousin Edwin Barbary when he attempts to
molest her. Soon afterward, her beloved mother Anne Laure-Steele dies of a laudanum
overdose. Then Jane’s hardships really begin.
Soon afterward, her wicked Aunt Patience Barbary
forces her to leave Highgate House, her father Jonathan Steele’s family estate
and attend the infamous Lowan Bridge School.
During her seven years there, Jane survives by becoming an expert liar. She
and the other students endure the cruelties of Headmaster Vesalius Munt
especially dreading his daily Reckonings.
Fortunately, Jane becomes best friends with Becky
Clarke and would do anything to protect her. When Jane turns 16, Munt punishes
her young friend for breaking a minor rule by withholding food from her for
weeks. Jane desperately pleads with Munt for mercy. When Munt gives Jane the abominable
choice of entering an insane asylum so Becky will live or staying at Lowan
Bridge School and watch her friend slowly starve to death, she murders the
sadistic headmaster by stabbing him in the neck with a letter opener.
Obsessed with Charlotte Bronte’s new novel Jane
Eyre, Miss Steele senses a
strange connection between Eyre’s personal struggles and her own tumultuous life.
She even models her own grisly memoir after the title heroine’s engaging autobiography.
For instance, Author Lyndsay Faye adds appropriate quotes from Bronte’s
original story at the top of each chapter in her re-imagined novel to illustrate
similarities in the two protagonists’ narratives.
After Jane escapes to London, the plot fast-forwards
to 1851. Now 24 years old and a four time murderess, Jane makes a living by writing
lurid tales called “Last Confessions” of newly executed criminals in London’s
notorious East End.
One day, she sees an advertisement for a governess
to tutor a nine year old girl at Highgate House. She quickly applies for the
position after creating false references sent to a mysterious post office box.
She readily accepts the position under the alias Jane Stone.
When Jane arrives at Highgate House, she meets the
enigmatic butler Mr. Sardar Singh, Charles Thornfield, the estate’s new owner
and his young ward. Jane secretly plans to regain her inheritance even if she
must murder Thornfield to do so. Complications ensue when Jane falls in love
with Thornfield soon after she recovers from leg injuries suffered in an
accident.
Like Edward Rochester, Charles Thornfield has many
hidden mysteries from his past. The details are more convoluted but still
thrilling. As they both grow closer, Thornfield reveals several deep secrets
from his life in Lahore as a military doctor during the Sikh wars.
When Jane commits another murder in self - defense
that inadvertently saves Thornfield’s life, she abruptly leaves Highgate House to
discover if she can still inherit her father’s estate. While doing so, she
uncovers some incredibly shocking family secrets of her own.
Although many reviews sensationalize Jane Steele as
a “serial killer” governess, I view her more as an intrepid and resourceful anti-heroine.
Reminiscent of Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White, Edgar Allan Poe’s
creepy atmospheric mysteries and a sprinkle of Charles Dickens, Jane
Steele, Lyndsay Faye’s
spectacular tribute to Gothic fiction is the perfect novel for Halloween.
When I finished Jane Steele, I didn’t want to leave
Charlotte Bronte and her brilliant literary masterpiece quite yet. After
indulging in the Downton Abbey marathon on PBS over the Labor Day weekend, I
decided to watch several film adaptations of Jane Eyre.
Since I already reviewed the definitive 1944 film
version starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine for this blog four year ago, I
first selected the newest adaptation released in 2011. Starring Michael
Fassbender as Rochester and Mia Wasikowska as the title heroine, Moira Buffini’s
screenplay tells the story mostly in flashback. Although this technique gave
the movie a very lush art house film look, the scenes depicting Jane’s miserable
childhood living with her cruel aunt and her years at Lowood School seem somewhat
incomplete and choppy. Most characters feel rather underdeveloped and
peripheral. If I didn’t already know the plotline, the film would be very
confusing. More importantly, there is absolutely no sexual chemistry or passion
between the lead actors at all. The movie’s only memorable performance is
Michael Fassbender’s- mainly due to his enormous sex appeal.
Utterly disappointed in my first film choice, I then
watched the 1983 eleven part BBC miniseries starring Timothy Dalton as Edward
Rochester and Zelah Clarke as Jane Eyre. With its videotape format, this very
faithful adaptation by Alexander Baron reminded me of the original Poldark
series starring Robin Ellis broadcast on Masterpiece Theatre in the 1970s. This
version splendidly captures the romance and fervor found in Charlotte Bronte’s
original story. I would rate it second only to the 1944 feature film classic.
Coincidentally, Timothy Dalton also portrayed Heathcliff in the 1970 remake of
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights co-starring Anna Calder-Marshall.
All the books and movies reviewed in this blog can
be found at most local public libraries. My readers in St. Joseph County,
Indiana can visit the St Joseph County Public Library’s web site at
libraryforlife.org for additional information.
A quick note to my loyal readers: I will be taking a
brief hiatus from my blog for a few months so I can binge watch all seven
seasons of Gilmore Girls before the new four part follow-up series debuts
on Netflix November 25 as well as attending the Dressing Downton costume
exhibit at The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana this Fall. Thanks for reading!
See you all again in 2017!
