Book
I love the story of "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. I don't have one of those little 'dot dot' things to go over the last 'e' of her name, but you know it should be there.
I started reading it again last week, even though it is really hard for me to read in a house that is a wreck,... and also, strangely enough, indoors; I read much better outside. I prefer it. But I started to read it and I really like this particular copy:
JaneEyre
It's cloth bound, with old fashioned looking, thin, light and tan paper, with garamond font. It might be what it could have been like reading it in it's original publication, which is probably why they created it this way. There is a lovely introduction, bibliography, and also, a chronology of Charlotte's life. There is also a preface with acknowledgments written by "Currer Bell" which is the psuedonym that the book was originally published under. As you know, back then many women wrote under the name of a man in order for their works to be taken seriously as publishable.
I found this quote online in an article about Charlotte's use of the name Currer Bell, an excerpt of the book as said by the main character, Jane:
""I tell you I must go!" I retorted, roused to something like passion. "Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton?... Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you-and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, or even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal -- as we are."
What a firecracker. She really needed to believe that though before she knew it. I don't think she knew it until she left Mr. Rochester and found her own life, independent of him. Then when she returned to him she was able to give herself wholely to him, as a true equal. It's so interesting that we can be the most in genuine service to those we love when we find with confidence that we are the master of our own life.
But it's one of my favorite stories, and one I think about often. (Also, "Wuthering Heights" by her sister Emily, and the book "Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton. Loads of tragedy and romance in all of them).
I started reading it again last week, even though it is really hard for me to read in a house that is a wreck,... and also, strangely enough, indoors; I read much better outside. I prefer it. But I started to read it and I really like this particular copy:
JaneEyre
It's cloth bound, with old fashioned looking, thin, light and tan paper, with garamond font. It might be what it could have been like reading it in it's original publication, which is probably why they created it this way. There is a lovely introduction, bibliography, and also, a chronology of Charlotte's life. There is also a preface with acknowledgments written by "Currer Bell" which is the psuedonym that the book was originally published under. As you know, back then many women wrote under the name of a man in order for their works to be taken seriously as publishable.
I found this quote online in an article about Charlotte's use of the name Currer Bell, an excerpt of the book as said by the main character, Jane:
""I tell you I must go!" I retorted, roused to something like passion. "Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton?... Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! I have as much soul as you-and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, or even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal -- as we are."
What a firecracker. She really needed to believe that though before she knew it. I don't think she knew it until she left Mr. Rochester and found her own life, independent of him. Then when she returned to him she was able to give herself wholely to him, as a true equal. It's so interesting that we can be the most in genuine service to those we love when we find with confidence that we are the master of our own life.
But it's one of my favorite stories, and one I think about often. (Also, "Wuthering Heights" by her sister Emily, and the book "Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton. Loads of tragedy and romance in all of them).
posted by SPOA | 12:48 PM
5 Comments:
I never read those. But I did read Dickens. This was when I broke my leg skiing, when I was 13 years old. I always loved books; my dad had lots of them, and even before I could read I used to page through them for hours, just looking at the pictures.
As soon as I could read, I went through them again, but it turned out to be a disappointing experience. My father didn’t share my interest in cowboys and indians and it showed in his collection. Most of the books dealt with stuff that I didn’t even understand.
But now that I was stuck inside during the coldest winter of the century with my leg in a cast, I decided to give it another try. I started with the history of the Roman empire, because it had interesting pictures. I’d also seen Ben Hur and read a comic book about Julius Caesar that I really liked. It had 14 volumes and I only got bored after the 9th, when the Christians arrived. Then I moved on to the collected works of Charles Dickens.
The first book I picked was David Copperfield – I don’t know why, but I still feel that it’s the best of them all, also because it’s autobiographical for some part (DC = CD, clear enough). And I just loved it. There’s a part in the beginning, when the little boy Copperfield travels to London in a stage coach, and I remember thinking: “This is so cool! The guy who wrote this has been in a stage coach himself, he knows what it’s really like. This book is different from any other book that I’ve ever read.” It made a big impression and Dickens is still one of my favorite writers, although I haven’t read him in years.
Anyway, your return to this place is a bit like a homecoming. It’s not much of a present, but as it happens, I have these little dot-dot things on my keyboard. So here it is:
Brontë
Thank you :)
That is an interesting idea of the man who wrote DC knew what being in a stagecoach was like! That's so true!
I suddenly realized that books can be time machines.
Not now; then, at the time. It was a revelation.
it's true too, you were right.
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