Jane Eyre Group Read (For the Procrastinators) Week One

Yes, this began when a couple of us realized, quite shamefully, that we had not read this one yet. It's never to late, right? I will keep this Group Read simple and have broken it into 2 separate weeks, for spoiler sake. For the 1st week, we will read up to Chapter 20. (please read at your own pace) This officially begins December 1st.

Sounds good, Mark.

Posted on the group page...

Present and accounted for.

Hey Mark Here I am!! Starring the thread!

Me, Too I am Here.

So Mark, do we have to read 20 chapters by Dec 1st? Or start reading Jane Eyre on Dec 1st?

We are starting on or about the 1st and then reading the first 20 chapters, but of course this is just a general guideline. Read at your own pace.

I'm glad to see a few of us aboard. Spread the word.

I'm with you, but not sure that I will get the book finished, and sadly it won't qualify for my off-the-shelf challenge as I have to get this one from the library.

I read a chapter last night, just to get a sense of what it was like. It was fairly quick, though the book is pretty long.

I might have to reread this book with everyone. It's one of my favorites, and being made to read it multiple times for school only made it more beloved (I was 12 the first time I picked it up, because it was next to Jane Austen on the bookstore shelves, and I got confused about what I was told I just "had to" read by older P&P-loving friends).

But maybe having read it multiple times means I can't talk about it. Hmmm. That said, one of the opening chapters - I forget if it's the very first or more like the sixth - has one of the scariest scenes I have ever read. I mean, not just scary like zombies coming out of the woodwork or whatever, but a real sinister, psychological frightening thing, yet with no blood or violence (it's a very Gothic sort of thing, since the book is in the Gothic tradition). I think that I read it when I was 12 made it even more terrifying to me, and so it has stuck with me, though it's perhaps tame for other readers.

*starred* Not sure if I'll have time to participate (must source a copy still!), but I'd like to make an attempt to at least try. :}

I've read it several times in the past, but not recently. It's a great book.

I won't be reading with you, but I thought I would let you know ... Focus Features is putting out a film version of Jane Eyre. It should be in theatres in March 2011.
http://www.focusfeatures.com/jane_eyre

I'll be listening to this on audio I will have to find where to stop for chapter 20.

Been a while since I read this. I'll join in too.

Keri- Thanks for sharing your Jane Eyre history and glad to have you along!

Wookie- Thanks for stopping by and even if you don't read it, leave a comment or 2.

Jennifer- The film looks interesting. Is there a definitive version out there?

Susie- I don't know how the audio is broke down, but they mention new chapters, right? If not, go for the half-way point.

Abra- Glad you can join us! Love the name, BTW!!

msf59- Hopefully they say the chapters I got the BBC audiobook from audible this weekend on their $4.95 sale!

Susie, if the narrator doesn't mention the chapter switches, just say so and I'll leave a private message with something nonspoilery from the end of chapter 19, if you like.

Well, as for not reading along, I seem to have read the first chapter already at lunch today. (Well, lookee there. A bookshop next to the restaurant I have lunch at...)

Starting a bit early, I hope no one minds.

As regards adaptations, I did enjoy a recent BBC adaptation http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780362/ - with Ruth Wilson (she was Queenie in the recent adaptation of Small Island as well) and Toby Stevens. For a couple of rather handsome actors, they scrubbed down well for the parts.

There is also an 1943 production with Orson Welles and Joan Fontain - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036969/ - I remember liking it well enough when I saw it many years ago, but I can't remember it well enough to be confident in my opinion now.

This is the version that I have seen with Samantha Morton. It was pretty good. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119404/
There is also a BBC version with Timothy Dalton http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085037/, but I am not certain if I have seen that one.
The one coming out in March looks really good.

My favorite adaptation is Orson Welles I am however curious about the new one.
Thanks Keri I can peak at a hardcopy I have to see where the chapter ends too.

I wasn't very fond of the 2006 BBC version. It changed too little while changing too much, at least from the way I interpreted things. I really like the old old versions of adaptations that got chopped to pieces and completely rewritten in parts, so that it doesn't have that weird uncanny feeling - I think I might like the Orson Welles one if I saw it.

22> That makes things easy, then! :) I guess it's probably available via Gutenberg, too, since it's so old, anyway.

I'm home from the library with my copy. I took a peek and am excited to see that it's written in 1st person narrative.

Thanks for the film version suggestions! I'll have to check out a couple, once I'm finished.

Wookie & Jenny- Glad you can join us and I don't mind if you start early. I plan on jumping on it tomorrow!

Susie- You can call me Mark or Marky-Mark or.... We try to be chummy on these Group Reads!

Thank-you Mark if you're going to watch a film adaptation go for the Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine version I have it on DVD and its one of my favorites . I know I read Jane Eyre way back in highschool but that has been too many years to mention, but I watch that version of the movie everytime its on and finally bought it last year and still watch it everytime its on TCM!
So I want to read it again to see the difference between the two since I am so familiar with the film.

Oh, I'm glad the Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine adaptation is getting good buzz! I was a bit worried that maybe it wasn't good, and I just hadn't realised it when I was much younger. :) I'll have to track down a copy after I finish reading the book.

I read the first couple of chapters last night Marky-Mark. I keep thinking of the movie version with Margaret O'Brien and wasn't it Elizabeth Taylor who played Jane's Eyre's childhood friend?

Nevermind. . . .that was the same version you guys were speaking of up above me. . .lol.

Maybe I'll jump in--if nobody minds a sholofsky-come-lately. The Brontes have always been a hole in my education--never read them. I second everyone's high praise of the Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine version with, yes, Elizabeth Taylor and Margaret O'Brien, and Aldous Huxley and John Houseman sharing screenplay credit; Welles makes a great Rochester, more sympathetic than usual. And, for those without a copy, it's definitely on Gutenberg, where I'm starting my read, since I can't get to my personal copy right now.

This was a favorite book of mine when I was younger . . . maybe this is a good time for a re-read . . .

I would love to re-read this with you but I'm overcommitted at the moment. I'll be following here though...

The first 10 chapters of Jane Eyre always dragged for me. (I think it is partly because JE's childhood is so miserable.) After that, I loved the book! I would love to see if I react the same way now that I'm older.

60 pages in and it grabbed me from page 1; a surprisingly fast read too.

Same reaction: Jane captures your sympathies at once and Bronte's writing style is surprisingly clean and swift for the time period. Should be a great read, however familiar I am with the story.

This is a reread for me. My copy is really old and the print is quite small. But it is great to be back reading it.

I feel sorry for Jane :(!

Yeah, Jane's childhood is pretty awful. It makes me glad for her that she actually has a personality and doesn't just settle for what comes her way (well, she resists it and does tiny rebellions, I guess), unlike the main character in another novel I'm reading. Mostly, though, if I feel sorry for Jane, it's a little ways in when that other person comes along and is all Consumptive Pollyanna. When I reread the book, I skip those chapters, because I can't stand her. It was even worse in the recent BBC adaption - I hated that character so much.

Located my copy today in my bookshelves (1945 hardback), so plan to do a quick read-through. For those of you, and you know who you are, who get caught up in the story and quickly finish the whole thing (which is fine--the schedule is more for discussion to avoid spoilers for the slower readers than for reading itself), may I recommend you move on to The Eyre Affair immediately, where an alternative history has the ending of Jane Eyre is dire peril! Clever, fun, and wickedly humorous. We're having a group discussion here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/101944

(1945 hardback)

Odd, I just noticed that my copy has no date! The only date at all is the one at the end of the included Author's Preface to the second edition, which is 1847, but I know this printing is not that old. It's a hardback with a blue cloth cover, printed by The Blakiston Company in Philadelphia. Other than the title, author, and publisher, the only other info included is "printed and bound in the United States of America" on the back of the Title Page.

It was my Mom's copy, and I know it is older than me.

Once again, I've been neglecting my G.R.! Bad Mark! Although, I have not been neglecting the book. I'm at Chapter 19, which is closing in on the half-way point. This has been a terrific read so far. Her story-telling keeps you turning the pages but you also need to take it slow to savor those words and keep that dictionary handy too, there are a few whoppers in here.
I like Bronte's descriptions of people and I like the way she handles Jane's inner-thoughts, a wrestling match at times, which is a pleasure to behold.
I see that Bronte has written several other books, but I have not heard of any of them before. Has anyone else read them and are they any good?
Roni- I read The Eyre Affair about a year ago. It was a lot of fun but I should re-visit it now that I finally read the source material.

Here's Week Two: right here
It starts from Chapter 21.

39> I've read Vilette by Charlotte B and it's very similar to Jane Eyre, but longer and...I don't know, a bit less happy for the heroine? I recall it as being really depressing for poor Lucy Snow, but I'm not sure. The ending is amazing, though, as Charlotte B seems to have wanted to go in one direction, her editor balked, and so she gave him the finger and made it go that direction anyway, while technically doing the way he wanted.

Where Jane is preoccupied with Rochester, Lucy distances herself more, though they're both mostly observers of their worlds. Also, while Jane takes control of her life to the extent that she can, Lucy goes even farther at that.

What I loved about Jane in the early chapters was how in contol of her emotions she was. The scene where she lashed out at Mrs. Reed was so amazing. And then later at Lowood, she completely held her tongue when the director humiliated her.

Yes, but only because Helen supported her--it was a near thing!

My copy has a preface to the second edition by "Currer Bell" that was very interesting, especially in her dedication to Thackeray--does everyone's book have that?

#43 My Modern Library edition does contain the Currer Bell preface, a note to the third edition and an intro by someone called William Peden. In my reading so far I am pleasantly surprised to find such a feminist spirit in Jane, and to find there were women with the courage to rebel against all the institutions of the time that practiced gender submission. The second pleasant discovery is that Jane is not bitter in her rebellion; while she may not be as fatalistically accepting as Helen Burns, she does face her obstacles with some equanimity, and turns the greater portion of her energies to overcoming rather than simply condemning them.

>42 GCPLreader:- That is what I liked about Jane's childhood part too was that she "has control" of her life at least the parts that she can control.

As I said before I have seen the 1948 version of the movie many times and thought the movie made the school even harsher than the book did and in the movie there was no reform. As I am listening to it I am picturing Joan Fontaine as Jane I can't help myself.

I love how Jane was treated by Mrs.Fairfax when she first got the Thornton Hall it was the first time she had been treated as an equal by anyone ad I think it made her even stronger.

I am on chapter 12 where she just met Mr.Rochester on the trail.

Speaking of Jane "having control" or being treated as an equal: note how when Jane meets Rochester, she has the upper hand. :D

And then as you continue on, you can keep that in mind as you see how the balance in the relationship goes.

I loved the part with the fortune teller that Rochester was playing with her then when he told her who he was I still think Jane left with the upperhand!