Nineteenth-century Jane

The Mobile Press-Register reviews April Lindner's Jane:

Can there be a more quintessentially 19th-century novel than Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” (1847)? From its moody atmospherics — foggy moors, somber Thornfield Hall, mysterious cries in the night — to its unforgettable characters — plain, sensible Jane, the brooding Mr. Rochester and the proverbial madwoman in the attic — it positively vibrates with its Victorian sensibilities. So much so that I would have never imagined this story reset in a 21st-century context. Yet this is exactly what April Lindner has successfully done with her new novel, “Jane” (Poppy, $17.99), a compelling effort that should be a real hit with young women desperate for a heroine who isn’t shopping-obsessed, boy-obsessed or, like Miley Cyrus in a recent TMZ video, playing the fool after a bong hit.[...]
“Jane” passes the believability test with flying colors. There are occasional whiffs of the 19th century in its pages, but these are muted and do not derail what is overall an impressive performance. In her author’s note, Lindner writes that “if ‘Jane’ sends a few readers back to ‘Jane Eyre’ to see what all the fuss is about, so much the better.” I suspect it will, but in the meantime “Jane” is an entertaining read in its own right.
(Lawrence F. Specker)

Meanwhile, NewsChannel5 considers Cary Fukunaga's forthcoming take on Jane Eyre as a film 'for the girls' to go and see with their 'BFF':

Movies to See With Your BFF
If you want to see a sappy love story, invite your best friend -- never a boy (unless you're trying to repel him). Alice in Wonderland's Mia Wasikowska is starring in two upcoming romances: Restless, a film about a terminally ill girl's crush on a quirky boy who likes to hang out at funerals, and the classic Jane Eyre, which is based on Charlotte Brontë's novel.

Silly doesn't even begin to describe it, does it?

On a more serious note, The New Republic discusses 'Why editing 'Huckleberry Finn' is an affront to literature and its readers'.

Old books, the ones we call classics, are often fascinating and offensive in the same measure, for the same reasons. [...]
We discover that our most cherished authors do not follow our own codes of civility, and their writing is scarred with racism, sexism, and the like. [...]
Despite its narrow views on evangelical Christianity, I keep coming back to Jane Eyre. (Hillary Kelly)

Worse than that, to our modern eyes, is the treatment of Bertha. A treatment which Charlotte Brontë regretted afterwards and which famously pushed Jean Rhys to write Wide Sargasso Sea. But no one has ever thought of rewriting Jane Eyre in order to make it more politically correct - thank goodness. Hopefully no one will in the future either.

The Times has an article on teenage weightlifter Zoe Smith. Apparently she

will tell you that her phenomenal strength is just a bit “weird” and that she is just as happy at school studying Jane Eyre. (David Norton

NakedSushi gives a 5 out of 5 to Jane Eyre and A Musing Reviews gives the same rating to April Lindner's Jane. A Room of One's Own is looking forward to reading Agnes Grey.

Categories: Books, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV