Jane Eyre's Page 99

"Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you" or so it says Ford Madox Ford. On The Page 99 Test, Jane Eyre is subjected to this test.

Richard Dunn is Professor of English at the University of Washington, with a particular interest in Victorian literature, particularly the Brontës and Dickens. He is the editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Jane Eyre (3rd edition, 2001). ( Read page 99) (...)

This passage's opposing images of dark and gloomy interior and expansive, moon and star-lit external world present one of the novel's many linkings of Jane's human nature with the larger natural world. Though here she is recalled to earth by the striking of a clock, her story will continue to present moments when heartfelt imaginative views inspire her very pictorial writing. For example, early in her life at Thornfield, Rochester critiques powerful and unconventional scenes Jane had drawn earlier as student and teacher. Ultimately, in her famous account of receiving a call from the far-distant Rochester, she describes it as a night-scene and characterizes it as "the work of nature. She was roused, and did -- no miracle -- but her best." (Read more)

The Houston Chronicle insists on the Brontëite nature of writer Kiran Desai:

As a kid she read voraciously — "the house was full of books," she said. She published her first story at age 9. At 12 she read the Brontë sisters and remembers telling herself, if writers can deploy language with such power, I want to be a writer. (Johnny Hanson)

Finally we mention a couple more of Brontë-related things today. The Distant Dream talks about Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey and on Patria's site you can find some pictures of his trip to Haworth.

Categories: Agnes Grey, Brontëites,Haworth, Jane Eyre