“How did a generation of women grow up wanting to marry Edward Rochester?”

A.J. Kiesling writes for Crosswalk.com:

I once read a magazine article with the opener: “How did a generation of women grow up wanting to marry Edward Rochester?” The protagonist of Charlotte Bronte’s classic Jane Eyre is dark, brooding, intelligent, quick-witted yet cynical. Still, for all his negative qualities (Jane herself describes him as “not handsome”) Rochester manages to captivate not only Jane but thousands of female readers who have read the novel during the nearly two centuries since Bronte penned it. The same could be said for Jane Austen’s elusive Mr. Darcy. Brooding, arrogant, disagreeable… Yet one key attribute sets both men apart—and, I suspect, keeps the women who read about them yearning to encounter just such a man in real life: Deep inside, both Darcy and Rochester are deeply passionate souls, and in the course of their respective stories, they step up to the plate and let their romantic feelings for the girl be known. They arrive at a point in time where the ardor of their affections forces them to “declare themselves” to the girl or woman of their choosing. In short, they pursue.

A couple of blogs write about the great book that Jane Eyre indubitably is: Nadine's attempt to read 1001 books before she dies and A Frivolous Thought (although this one has a picture of Becoming Jane to illustrate the post... ahem). Wuthering Expectations looks into the question of Jane Eyre and fairies.

Thus, with this evidence and a lot more of it in this blog's archives we bring this from The California Aggie:

Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë. Just kidding. If you see someone reading this book, slap it out of their hands and tell them to get a job. (K.C. Cody)

Our alternative version would be:

If you see K.C. Cody, smack him/her with your well-thumbed copy of Jane Eyre and tell her/him to learn a thing or two about literature before making sweeping statements.

Finally, Crónicas del Pájaro que Da Cuerda reviews - in Spanish - Una novela real by Minae Mizumura.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre