Rebecca and Jane in the year of #MeToo

We mostly disagree with John Sutherland when, in celebration of the 80th anniversary of the publication of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, he wonders whether this classic novel will 'stand up in the year of #MeToo'. From his article in The Times:

Generically Rebecca belongs in the line of romance fiction that took off with Jane Eyre. Maximilian de Winter is Edward Rochester reborn. Jane Eyre’s husband is also a first-wife killer, the evidence of Charlotte Brontë’s novel strongly suggests. He pushed, we may suspect, Bertha off the burning roof of Thornfield, which, like Manderley, is burnt to the ground as a final act of woman’s vengeance. [...]
It’s magnificent — and tantalisingly enigmatic. Who has perpetrated this act of arson? We are driven to suppose it is the woman who has haunted Manderley throughout. If Thornfield was burnt down by the madwoman in the attic, Manderley is burnt down by the corpse in the cabin. Je Reviens. But who really believes in ghosts? 

We know that John Sutherland loves a literary enigma, but we are pretty sure that Rochester didn't push Bertha to her death. Had he treated her properly before that? Not at all, but if he had wanted to get rid of her, he could have done so before and much more easily than up on the roof during a fire that's burning Thornfield to the ground.

Similarly, though, this columnist from The Troubadour Online describes reading Jane Eyre as exploring

 the recesses of an abused woman’s conscience. (Allegra Thatcher)

A columnist from Metro discusses World Book Day and the fact that it means that kids have to go to school dressed up as their favourite characters.

You see, I was quite a weird child. When other people dressed up as Hermione Granger or a member of the Sleepover Club, I insisted that I wanted to be Jane Eyre. Which meant an entire day tripping over the floor length skirt my sleep deprived mother had spent the weekend making, and answering the question ‘who are you meant to be?’ [...]
Children are way more image conscious than adults realise, and having to dress up as your favourite book often means picking a character who wears great clothes, who won’t stand out among your friends, rather than choosing one you actually love. As someone who made the fatal mistake of dressing up like characters I really liked, and then feeling stupid all day, I know exactly how that feels. (Rebecca Reid)

Another fan of Jane Eyre on Eagle Herald Extra:

These six bags were the books I could not live without: poetry books of Rumi, a vast Hemingway collection, dog-eared books full of life lessons and Post-it notes (I never write in books or fold the pages) and antiquated editions of Great Expectations and Jane Eyre. These would not be donated, but would make the trip across country to our new home in the Pacific Northwest. (Cassandra Sturos)

Anika entre libros reviews both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights in Spanish. The Bubble has an essay on the links between Jane Eyre and Heart of Darkness.