"Jane has the power to seize even the most unlikely imaginations"

Lucy Mangan chooses Jane Eyre for her perfect children library in The Guardian and defends her choice in a very interesting way:

I know. I know. It's a classic. It's Jane-freaking-Eyre. It's 395 pages of polysyllabic words arranged in sinewy, serpentine sentences that burst out of a tiny woman in a tiny Yorkshire parsonage and changed the literary landscape. What the heck's it doing here on a children's bookshelf?
Well, there are a few reasons. The first is that I was recently reading a book of writers' reminiscences about their favourite formative books (The Pleasure of Reading, edited by Antonia Fraser) and Jane Eyre was mentioned disproportionately often. And all who did talked about how real and vivid the early part of Jane's story was to them. You don't need to be a Victorian orphan, it seems, to identify with the horrors of Jane's bullying by the vile Reed children, the terror of overnight incarceration in the Red Room in which her uncle died and then the privations of the charity school Lowood, her misery leavened only by the nascent friendship with Helen Burns.
Few of the readers remember the later parts of the book as passionately – you probably need a smattering of life experience before the thwarted love of Jane and Rochester can tug as hard at your heartstrings – but it seemed to suggest that it is adult assumptions about what children are willing to try that keeps the book out of their hands rather than any innate unsuitability.
Second, I saw that the children's book publisher Usborne has a "retold" (ie not just heavily abridged but rewritten) version of this and several other classics. I cannot quite decide how I feel about this. On the one hand, I understand that Jane Eyre will only ever be to the taste of a minority of minors and that the rest should be given the chance to sample at least the rippingly good yarn that drives it. On the other, a re-told version of Jane Eyre is not Jane Eyre. And my suspicion is that once you know the story of a classic, a good deal of the impetus ever to pick up the original in later years is gone.
Finally, and most persuasively, I remembered that it is one of my sister's favourite books. And she doesn't read. She can build a car from scratch or rewire your house blindfolded, but reading she does not do. Has never seen the point of it. She refers generally to books as "firewood". Except, except for Jane Eyre. She read it when she was 12 and it has never left her. She can't tell me why, and when I suggested the reasons outlined by others above she tried to reach down the phone and hit me for being such an arts graduate. But she is copper-bottomed proof of the fact that Jane has the power to seize even the most unlikely imaginations.

If some days ago Bailey Shoemaker Richards reviewed the Wuthering Heights chapter of Edward Mendelsson's The Things That Matter, today it's Jane Eyre's turn:

Growth, the third stage of life as explained by Edward Mendelson in The Things That Matter, is expressed in the book Jane Eyre. “Wuthering Heights,” Mendelson tells readers, “is the more finely crafted book, but Jane Eyre is the greater one.” Following Jane’s story from her difficult childhood to her complicated adulthood, readers are told that the real growth Jane experiences is “not how to act, but how to believe.”
Additionally, the growth readers need to experience in life parallel Jane’s: everyone has to learn for themselves “in which you can decide whether something that is not immediately obvious is nonetheless true, and … the ways in which you decide how to act on the truths you have chosen.” Where childhood is a time of intense unity and passion, growth becomes a time of seeking equality, whether it is of this world or on a spiritual level –for Jane, equality of souls is a nonissue; what concerns her is equality and happiness in the here and now. Mendelson analyzes the use of symbols and natural and spiritual deities that affect the path of Jane’s story and her growth.
The analysis of symbols in Jane Eyre seems to make the story heavily weighted in her favor, as does the lack of learning that Jane does in a gothic novel nevertheless devoted to education. However, Mendelson expresses over and over again that the true search in Jane Eyre is not Jane’s search for knowledge, but for equality. From a childhood tormented by her relatives and Mr. Brocklehurst to a romantic relationship with Mr. Rochester that was flawed by his status as an idol in her eyes, Jane is constantly seeking a state of earthly equality, and it takes until the end of the novel for her to find it.
The process of growth is a difficult one, but Mendelson –and Charlotte Bronte –knew that every individual must learn how and why to do it on their own. In addition to the analysis of the story, Mendelson also examines the feminist undertones of the book, the social criticism Bronte inserted so seamlessly into Jane’s story and the neglected but eerie parallel relationship between Jane and Bertha Mason. (Cleveland Literary Examiner)

Lagniappe announces the meeting of the Gulf Coast Chapter of Romance Writers of America like this:

If you fancy yourself an emerging modern Bronte (Emily or Charlotte, take your pick), then you don’t want to miss the meeting of the Gulf Coast Chapter of Romance Writers of America on Sat., Aug. 1, 10:45 a.m. in the banquet room of the Ryan’s Restaurant (4439 Rangeline Rd.) in Tillman’s Corner. You have to bring your own bodice to rip, though. For more info, call 251-554-2875. (Kevin Lee)

The Times talks about the new generation of young women playwrights and mentions the Brontës via Virginia Woolf:

Woolf concluded in 1928 that despite the Austens, Eliots and Brontës on her shelf, much work had yet to be done. It was only, Woolf argued, when women were completely oblivious to their gender that they would be free to write with untramelled originality. When that day arrived, she predicted, Shakespeare’s sisters would at last begin to speak. Judging by the bold, brilliant and gender-blind women featured here, that day has come. (Lucy Powell)

National Review reviews Cristina Nehring's A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century.

In order to be titillated by the erotic effects of “power differentials” — think Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester — Nehring suggests an affair with a professor (if you are a student), or the pursuit of a challenging man, that is, a “bad boy” who in all likelihood will be utterly wrong for you — but that is the point: Things like compatibility and shared interests don’t make the sparks fly. (Katherine Connell)

The Wakefield Express discusses book clubs and arrives to the following very sensible conclusion:

I just think there’s room in this world to like both Wuthering Heights and Bridget Jones.

Público talks about the new film project of Spanish director Pablo Berger, a very particular version of Snow white:

Su Blancanieves que empezará a rodarse en enero de 2010 será "un melodrama gótico", advierte, "más cercano a Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brönte (sic), que a la candidez de la versión animada del cuento que los hermanos Grimm rescataron. (Sara Brito) (Google translation)

Midi Libre announces that for next year's edition of the Montpellier's Festival a production of Philippe Hersant's Les Hauts de Hurlevent:

Quelques projets pour la 25 e édition : L'Etranger de Vincent d'Indy « en hommage à Hortefeux », La Magicienne d'Halévy « en hommage à Carla Bruni », Les Hauts de Hurlevent de Philippe Hersant, « en hommage à Martine Aubry » ! (Cut and paste to Google translation)

L'Express reviews Miel et vin by Myriam Chirousse:

Myriam Chirousse, qui doit certainement raffoler des Hauts de Hurlevent, prouve à chaque page de son flamboyant coup d'essai qu'elle n'a peur de rien et sait parfaitement utiliser les codes du feuilleton. (Alexandre Fillon) (Google translation)

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter has an article on Anne Enright's new novel Yesterday's Weather:

Utöver sex och döden skulle jag också vilja säga att Anne Enrights noveller handlar om Bertha Mason, den galna kvinnan på vinden: alla delegerade och utlokaliserade känslors skönlitterära moder. (Malin Ullgren) (Google translation)

Hattiesburg American finds a Brontëite who is also fan of Jane Eyre's novels (sic), more Brontëites in L'Est-Éclair, has also Beyond Assumptions reviews Wide Sargasso Sea, The James Family has visited Haddon Hall, Bending Bookshelf has read Jane Eyre but doesn't seem particularly thrilled. Exactly the opposite of Figuring it all out who is re-reading it. Dallowayward posts icons of Jane Eyre 2006. Arukiyomi has read and loved Villette. Classic Poetry Aloud has posted Charlotte Brontë's Life and profissão:leitor reviews Wuthering Heights in Portuguese.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Villette, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights