Jane Eyre (Vintage Classics)
by Charlotte Bronte
List Price:
Our Price: $3.74
You Save: $4.21 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.03 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Charlotte BronteEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-04-07
ISBN: 030745519X
Number of pages: 624
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Jane Eyre (Vintage Classics)
Book Review: Spotty
Summary: 3 Stars
Jane Eyre is a young woman, grown from a rash girl in a harsh life and boarding school, working as a governess to a French girl. This is Brontė's romance novel, though it is somewhat vague to call it that, for there is much more involved than just a petty romance. Through some sticky language, and some boring sections-whole chapters, even-Brontė relays the life of Jane Eyre through Jane's own eyes tastefully and with flexible, rich language, stringing the reader along.
We begin with Jane Eyre's childhood. Through some difficult wording, we find that Jane lives with her Reed cousins and aunt. Her Aunt Reed sees her as a vile child compared to her own vile children, who she sees with a golden halo above their heads. Jane is often tortured physically by Reed's children, while taking the brunt of anger and blame from her aunt. We are brought through the agonizing years of her childhood, making her a rash young girl with dreams of a new life, which comes in the form of a boarding school that she is to be sent to. With such a rush of feeling, she spills out her heart to her aunt about how she really feels, but at such the young and tender age of 10, begins to discover truths about the world that normal 10 year old children do, such as what vengeance and anger could bring about. As Brontė describes the feelings and compares them to some rather unrelated things, "Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic as wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after flavor, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned," I gained a sense of familiarity, for of course, when I pursue revenge, it's often a cold and empty attempt, leaving me cold and empty as she describes.
The boarding school is anything but lovely, but Jane often refers to it as better than her previous surroundings; of course, as I, the audience, felt, it was. She begins to accept the discipline and conform rather well to the strict rulings of Mr. Brocklehurst, and, lonely at first, finds someone that she can relate to - Helen Burns, who also often gets lost in her own fantasy world as Jane does. The next chapters are really just an explanation of time in the boarding school, and though rather boring, explained her transition from a brash young girl into something more disciplined. The only truly interesting thing I found in this piece of the book was how Brontė utilizes the technique of the `drop' sentence. To explain it, she builds and builds up to a heavy-impact event, and then uses one sentence to release the suspense, in a rather harsh way, making the impact of the shock all the stronger. In the end of her explanation of Jane's childhood, she uses this here: ""...my face against Helen Burns' shoulder, my arms round her neck. I was asleep and Helen was - dead." Of course, one thinks that there would be much more of a draw out here to Helen, her best friend, dying, but really, it was just a dropped ball, and I found myself shocked. Even so, there was a good five chapters of useless plot that I found to be quite tiresome.
As Jane herself transitions to the next chapters, she explains the things that happened the eight years after that that she stayed in the hall, and how things improved, she improved, etc. This seemed to be one of the least confusing parts of the book, since it was straightforward and not so tangled up in language. Either way, she decides that she needs a change from the boarding school that she now taught at, and advertises herself, quickly replied to for a young girl. She immediately accepts and takes her journey to Thornfield. She is to teach a little girl named Adèle in a large manor in which the master never seems to be around. There is an in depth, albeit easy to skip over, description of the lavish home that she now resides in, and Jane quickly falls into the routine. Before Mr. Rochester, the owner or Thornfield and a main character, shows up, I enjoy the passage (and the many after them) when Jane falls into her own fantasy world and fails to realize that something is happening, like this, "...Bessie's Gytrash,-a lion-like creature with long hair and a huge head... with strange pretercanine eyes, in my face, as I half expected it would... The man...broke the spell all at once." They often occur, but they're so shrouded in incomprehensible old language, usually, that I can't catch them until I realize that I haven't understood a thing I've read, and read it over again. Once Mr. Rochester shows up, the actually romance novel-esque story begins, the true heart of Brontė's novel. The two begin to seduce and fall in love with one another, though not right away like in a woman's fantasy, but over time as if it did in reality. There are many events after this, but I've said enough already!
Jane Eyre is an entertaining, albeit sometimes confusing and boring, read. This is more of a novel for a person with an in-depth knowledge of the English language (and perhaps a little French) and that's looking for a satisfying read. Brontė places foreshadowing and certain events with elegance and not without reasoning, for those small events begin to fall into place for what comes in the end, but are something the reader may skip over, for they're shrouded behind a tangled language and wordy sentences.
Summary of Jane Eyre (Vintage Classics)
Charlotte Brontė's most beloved novel describes the passionate love between the courageous orphan Jane Eyre and the brilliant, brooding, and domineering Rochester. The loneliness and cruelty of Jane's childhood strengthens her natural independence and spirit, which prove invaluable when she takes a position as a governess at Thornfield Hall. But after she falls in love with her sardonic employer, her discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a heart-wrenching choice. Ever since its publication in 1847, Jane Eyre has enthralled every kind of reader, from the most critical and cultivated to the youngest and most unabashedly romantic. It lives as one of the great triumphs of storytelling and as a moving and unforgettable portrayal of a woman's quest for self-respect.Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.81
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $12.70
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar Books and other products
Selected Poems And Four Plays of William Butler Yeatsby William Butler Yeats
Scribner; Published: 1996-09-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.72
Price in other shops:
Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)by George Eliot
Penguin Group USA; Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.20
Price in other shops:
Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Penguin Classics)by Thomas Hardy
Addison Wesley; Published: 2009-12-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.72
Price in other shops:
Northanger Abbeyby Jane Austen
CreateSpace; Published: 2010-08-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)by Charles Dickens
Penguin Classics; Published: 2002-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.94
Price in other shops:
Wide Sargasso Sea (Norton Critical Editions)by Jean Rhys
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1998-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Sense and Sensibility (Oxford World's Classics)by Jane Austen
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops:
Wide Sargasso Sea: A Novelby Jean Rhys
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1992-08-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Wuthering Heights (Dover Thrift Editions)by Emily Brontė
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 1996-09-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.71
Price in other shops:
Pride and Prejudice (Dover Thrift Editions)by Jane Austen
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 1995-04-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.45
Price in other shops: