Two published reviews

The Guardian reviews Emma Tennant's latest approach to the Jane Eyre universe, The French Dancer's Bastard, that we presented some time ago:

Emma Tennant has carved a highly productive niche for herself as an extender of classics, having written sequels to Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Wuthering Heights and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Now comes her reworking of Jane Eyre, which focuses on Adèle, Mr Rochester's French ward. Jean Rhys got there first, of course, nabbing the mad Mrs Rochester for Wide Sargasso Sea, but Tennant puts plenty of flesh on the bones of eight-year-old Adèle, brought to Thornfield Hall after her mother abandons her. Much is made of the sophisticated and sensual Parisian milieu in which the child spent her first years, but Adèle's overwrought narration has too little of the child about it to be convincing. Weaving her psychologically ambitious tale into the loose threads of Brontë's original, Tennant creates a zigzagging drama in which Jane Eyre herself barely features. Yet the disjointed sentences, with their maddening parentheses, are like the endless secret stairways of the hall- it's never certain where they will end up and you are more than likely to get lost on the way. Lovers of Gothic, though, might enjoy the breathless twists and turns. (Jane Housham)

Nylon Magazine in its November issue reviews the recent edition of Jane Eyre illustrated by Dame Darcy (check our own review here). It can be read on economics... blog:

(...)Re-titled The Illustrated Jane Eyre and published by The Penguin Group, the drawings are a result of comic book artist’s, Dame Darcy’s hard work and legendary style. (...) She is best known for her scratchy, gothic illustrations despite the fact that she also has her own band and couture clothing line. Her artistic interpretation of the book is indisputably her own style, but somehow manages to capture the elegance and poetic quality that the original Jane Eyre was originally intended to have.

I think re-vamping the classics is a tastefully modern and edgy idea. Adding a certain “zing” to the book, the illustrations are not only beautiful on their own, but add an extra attraction and appeal to the younger set displeased at the prospect of t reading the novel for school. It’s a nice juxtaposition of the new and old and really is a celebration of a magnificent classic. Though changing some aspects, adding new illustrations only changes the face of the book and preserves the subject and writing. I think it enhances and compliments the text as a whole. (Andrea Cusick)

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Sequels, Comics