A sadly neglected classic

The Dubuque Telegraph Herald talks about the best way to introduce reading to children:

Purists will chastise me, but for kids old enough to read alone, I love those tacky little paperback sets, Great Illustrated Classics, which with their abridged versions of masterpieces from Poe to Bronte to Dumas go down like malted milk balls. I can still see my kids, languishing in their bunkbeds with "The Three Musketeers" or "The Phantom of the Opera." They tell me that watered down as they are, those books still bear the fingerprints of the masters, and stood them in good stead later because they already knew the plots of the classics. Administer with caution; two of my three kids ended up English majors, the family curse. (Rebecca Christian)

Textual Healing recommends Villette:

In my mind, Villette is a sadly neglected classic. Everyone is familiar with Jane Eyre, but this (to my mind) much more complex work remains largely ignored. I did a quick and very unscientific survey of my more literary-minded friends, and none of them had even read this one, though we’d all read Jane Eyre. (K)

Fly High! has mixed feelings reading Shirley:

SHIRLEY is not her best book, I mean, it is less compulsively readable than JANE EYRE. It is, anyway, the one in which she expresses more of her character: her conviction that women might be as well qualified as men to practise a profession (which sets her apart from most of her own contemporaries); her contempt for the market of marriage; her experience as a governess; her longing for a better past. (Maria Grazia)

Costume Drama Reviews posts about Jane Eyre 1997. An interesting and meticulous review:

It isn’t the best adaptation of Jane Eyre – but I do think it’s worth seeing for Morton and Hinds, and that their best scenes together are truly powerful stuff. (Judy)

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Shirley, Villette