Carol's Comments September 2016

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 200^th 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!