Help, please... if you have NOT read Jane Eyre.

[mer]

...Or, if you remember what you thought it was about before you read it.

Those of you who have not read Jane Eyre, nor seen the movie, could you summarize in the comments for me what you think the book is about... with specifics regarding plot... and what your occupation is? And how/what other Victorian literature you have read instead?

I realize this is a weird request, but it's research for a book. I promise.


When I asked my husband the question, he said, "It's about women. And there's yammering. Because they can't marry who they want to marry." He's a computer guy. I couldn't even guess what Victorian literature he's read, but I'd suspect it's like one work of Dickens forced on him in school.

Comments

[redmomoko.livejournal.com]

What about having seen part of several Jane Eyre movies?

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Give it a shot!

[redmomoko.livejournal.com]

Plain Jane comes to work as governess to brooding handsome guy. Falls for broody guy, agrees to marry said guy and finds out at the altar that he's already married to a crazy woman who lives in his attic. Is mortally embarrassed in front of whole town at wedding and leaves. Crazy lady burns house down and kills herself which leaves broody guy free to marry Jane.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

You've pretty much got it, except for Is mortally embarrassed in front of whole town at wedding and leaves. There's no town, because broody guy was trying to marry her on the sly, and she doesn't care what other people think, it's the moral choice that matters.

Otherwise, yeah, that's the plot.

[redmomoko.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. I think the wedding scene in my memory is from one of the movies... I have this memory of her waiting at the altar for Rochester and him never showing up and somehow is informed that he's already married...

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Huh. I wonder what version that is... The scene is supposed to go that they're at the altar together, someone comes up and says there's an impediment to the marriage, and Rochester totally pulls a Humperdink and is like "Skip to the end!" but the priest is all, "Dude. There's an impediment." And they all troop up to the attic (in the movies it's the attic, in the book, it's just upstairs) and there's a crazy woman romping around, and Rochester goes, "Take my wife... please!"

(Or something like that.)

[redmomoko.livejournal.com]

The Barchester books by Trollope and 2 of his other works- I really like Trollope. Some Wilkie Collins and several of the Lupin stories by LeBlanc and of course Sherlock Holmes. Also Jerome K. Jerome (a long time fave) and Max Beerbohm's "Zulieka Dobson" but I think that's officially 20th century. Read but didn't really like "Indiana" by George Sand. Tried to read "Varney the Vampire" out of historical interest but couldn't. Also read "Frankenstein" by Shelley. Umm.... also Poe and I was going to say Lord Dunsany but he's actually later than I thought....

[redmomoko.livejournal.com]

All read on my own account except "Indiana" which was for Great Books by Women Authors- that class that *didn't* read any Austin or Bronte but instead read "Indiana" and "Beloved" and 2 Wolfe pieces and the Princess de Cleves- all of which were *terrible*. Sor Juanna and Hildegard von Bingen were both awesome, though.