With our hectic lives and all of the new books that we are trying to keep on top of, we can often forget about the classics, those books that we loved to re-visit or the books that we just haven’t got to quite yet. Every week, we pick a classic book of the week that is a favourite of ours in the office. This week we take a look at the wonderful Jane Eyre.
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
First published in 1847 under the pen of Currer Bell although written by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre was certainly one of the most important novels released in modern literature. Often listed in the top reads of all time, no one knows how many copies of Jane Eyre have been sold in its 159 years but suspect that it runs into the millions. However, although Jane Eyre is now seen as one of the classics of our times, when it was released it was viewed as very controversial and even revolutionary.
The book revolves around Jane Eyre, an orphan girl who is sent to a boarding school where she qualifies as a governess. Jane finds work at Thornfield with the young Adele Verns, a young French girl who is the ward of Edward Rochester. On first meeting Rochester, Jane finds him a very cold man who doesn't have much interest in spending time with Jane or Adele but over the course of their time together, Jane and Rochester grow close and fall in love.
When Rochester proposes, Jane thinks that she is about to lead the perfect life until she discovers that Rochester has been married before but not only that, the woman in question has been living in the attic. Jane, hurt and ashamed, abandons Thornfield and Rochester but soon discovers that she has to return to the man that she loves.
Jane Eyre is an absolute masterpiece, a book that certainly shook Victorian traditions to its core. Although Jane is tied to Rochester and agrees to become his bride, she is still fiercely independent with her own mind. She loves him but she refuses to put his needs before her own, she will not suffer the shame of staying at Thornfield after her grim discovery. The woman in the attic is often seen as the metaphor for women's repressed sexuality at the time, often to be feared.
However, Jane Eyre is at its heart a love story and although Rochester does screw up he does love Jane deeply. The book also focuses on God, religion, social and gender issues. In fact, there isn't much that Bronte doesn't challenge throughout the novel.
This is a masterpiece, a book well worth reading over and over again.
