Jane Eyre? What?

Okay, so I know we all kind of signed off on Jane Eyre, but I really was reading it. I finished it a few weeks ago, and I just have to say that this book loves me back. Meaning, I feel like the more love I put into reading it, the more love it gives to me. That sounds so weird and kind of creepy.

Let me explain in a more appropriate way.

I read Jane Eyre in high school...and when I say I read it, I watched the BBC version and briefly glanced over the Cliffs Notes. And didn't pass my test. What a good way to stick it to my English teacher, right? And to be honest, I thought the book was weird and stupid and totally turned me off to British 1850's lit.

I read Jane Eyre in college (on my own accord) and loved it so much that I read it in three days and wanted to start over again when I finished.

I read Jane Eyre as an English major who hasn't read a classic for a shamefully long period of time. I wanted to remember why I read classics and to stop feeling like such a moron...so I post-it noted, I underlined,  I copied passages. And there was just something there this time that moved me. The themes of loyalty, forebearance, independence and knowing oneself were (are) stewing in my mind.

I love this, by Helen Burns: "Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it. It is weak and sill to say you cannot bear what is your fate to be required to bear." Stop griping about your lot in life...I needed this, right Jac?

And this, talking about Mr. Rivers:  "There would be recesses in my mind, which would only be mine, to which he never came." I just read another book where the main character entertains the idea of a relationship with someone who is too simpleminded for her, and I thought of this. What a sad day it would be to be "stuck" with someone who didn't "get" you.

And of course, how could I leave out Mr. Rochester (who, by the way, HAS to be better looking than the old BBC version of the movie...the new movie cast worked much, MUCH better for me): "He made me love him without looking at me." Oh my...

That is all. Just wanted to put this out there if anyone really did read Jane Eyre. And the new movie was fantastic.