A review by jasonfurman
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

5.0

I liked but did not love Jane Eyre the first time I read it. This time I loved it. In some ways I was better prepared--both in my expectations (this is not a finely observed Jane Austen novel nor filled with characters and plot and incident like Charles Dickens) and my background (having read a Charlotte Brontë biography recently and having read other Brontë books). In some ways I got into the more over-the-top and heavy handed gothic imagery, foreshadowing, coincidences and even one possibly supernatural intercession in the book. But mostly it is hard not to like Jane Eyre herself, even if the novel has the Victorian premise that notwithstanding her seeming independence and strength she really is not complete until she is a wife.