Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre - Page 2 - Writers Forum

Olly Buckle · 08-13-2008, 06:51 PM

Those first chapters gained her some notoriety at the time because scandals over the running of schools were in the news and she had had a favourite sister who had died in similar circumstances. However, although the book may have influenced public opinion in the debate she was not an initiator of debate on injustice in the way that Dickens was.
Jane Austen is so toweringly superior in her insight and wit I find it hard to understand why anyone bothers with this, it struck me as the "chick lit." of its day.

sweet_caroline · 09-11-2008, 08:26 PM

I first read jane eyre when I was 13, this book became another world for me, one that I lived in for weeks, and I swear i get memories of junior high mixed up with scenes from that book. since jr. high i've read it about a hundred and twenty times I'm sure.

KangTheMad · 09-17-2008, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roxane

Yes Jane Eyre is amazing (though I agree about the first couple of chapters)! I love Wuthering heights too. Walkio, obviously the language reads more slowly than todays literature, but I think there is so much beauty, style and class over it too.

Another classic must read, though it isn't originally in English is "La dame aux camélias" (Alexandre Dumas), otherwise I can think of "An ideal Husband" (Oscar Wild), and "Persuasion " (Jane Austen).

Jane austin? Never really liked her...*looks around, realises no other guy has read JA*

Vendredi-is-Friday · 09-24-2008, 03:37 PM

Hello.

Jane Eyre is a favorite of mine, and perhaps the first book of classical literature that I have ever read with any zeal.

Since I have first read her work I have read other authors from her general time period, and regardless of gender or setting or location, I have yet to read someone who uses such a bountiful sort of language.

It is almost as if her style makes her words feel beyond the English language.

Mike C · 09-26-2008, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

Jane Austen is so toweringly superior in her insight and wit I find it hard to understand why anyone bothers with this, it struck me as the "chick lit." of its day.

Whoa there boy!

Austen wrote about an idealised two dimensional world where the poor only existed within her own context - you were poor if you had to downsize slightly and let a couple of the servants go. The working classes only appear in her books when they're serving tea. The greatest hardship that she could imagine was marrying someone less than wealthy.

Certainly she's witty and insightful, but she lived and wrote in a bubble. The Brontes were grounded more in the real world.