Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌘🌑

Published: February 04, 2003 (First published Oct. 16, 1847)

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Format: Paperback

Pages: 532

 

 

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“He made me love him without looking at me.”

Synopsis:

Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.

But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?

Thoughts:

Jane Eyre is one of those popular classics that has been widely recommended if you are new to reading classics. However, I am unsure as to how I feel about it. It was a long book, more than 500 pages and yet I feel like nothing of importance was really happening in the book. Moreover, the romance was questionable at best.

What I like about this book is there is a whole story arc of Jane Eyre’s life starting at 10 years old. In a way, it makes the reader understand Jane’s actions and appreciate the moral that she holds onto even after all those ill-fated events in her life. But it felt dragging and some parts felt unnecessary. I like Jane in the second part of this book, but the first and the last part, not so much. But I enjoyed her story nonetheless.

Mr. Rochester on the other hand, I did not like. It’s funny how the broody guy that the main character fell in love with was rooted far longer than I thought. It reminds me of Jace and Will from the Shadowhunter books. And the thing with these characters is they are teenagers; as for Mr. Rochester, he is a gentleman. I think that’s one of the reasons why I don’t like him. He was problematic in a lot of sense and I hate it when he uses jealousy to know the answer that he is looking for.

To be honest, when I read the synopsis of the book before diving into it, I was hoping that the mystery that Mr. Rochester is hiding is more scandalous or borderline horror-mystery after some things happen in the book. I was not really surprised by the reveal and I really like Jane for acting according to what she thinks is rational rather than listening to her emotions.

As for the other love interest, it was weird in a lot of ways. It felt forced and it did not make sense. I also felt like it ruined the genuine family-like relationship between the two characters. Plus, it gets frustrating as the other character becomes insistent.

Furthermore, I did not like the ending. I dislike how the things that we know from the beginning was reversed at the end of the story. Like how Jane was quite fair according to the people in the hotel (or wherever it is that Jane stayed) instead of the repetitive monologue that she is plain and not as pretty as the other girls. And Jane will be independent and not marry but she did marry. Also, there is a magical realism that came out of the blue that I roll my eyes the moment we get an explanation from the other end of that shenanigans.

Although I ranted quite a bit, this book is quite okay, But I will not be rereading this because it’s too long and I did not like Mr. Rochester.

 

That is all for this review.

Until next time!

Maria❤