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

[skripka.livejournal.com]

I... didn't read much victorian lit. Does Hardy count? Not that I enjoyed it. Ugh. Boring and ...ugh. Bronte--Wuthering Heights is the only one I managed to get through. Didn't read the Little Women books either. Walden--I got through that, but do Americans count?

(my God. I'm horribly under-read, aren't I?)

Frankly, I preferred the poetry of the era. Oh, and Lewis Carrol. I read and researched the Alice books like crazy.

As far as Jane Eyre, specifically, everything I know about the book comes from Jasper Fforde. :)

Jane is an orphan who becomes a nanny to the daughter of R~; he's gruff and mean and prone to attacks from his crazy wife in the attic. Of course, Jane doesn't know about that until she and R~ are in love and almost married, at which point she runs off, nearly to India with a minister of some sort. The crazy wife tries to burn R~ and destroys the mansion, but then Jane comes back and they live happily ever after.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Hardy counts. I can't stand him either, though.

Sure, Americans count, I guess... :)

Not bad on the plot points, either, though, I'm sure Mr. Fforde helped.