Top 5 Topics You Won’t See in My Jane Eyre Book Review

(So I’ll Do It Briefly Here)

1.  Trending: Let’s Turn the Classics into Erotica

Damn you Fifty Shades of Gray! I have nothing against erotica, but I don’t agree with messing with our beloved classics. The publishers insist they are only adding some naughty bits and not altering the author’s original content. The Victorians were actually shagging in all those brocade and velvet bedrooms y’know, they crow at us. Don’t publishers realize that it is the pure I-can’t-live-without-you romance that keeps us coming back for more?

2.  Twilight

Did you know that one of Stephenie Meyer’s inspirations for the Twilight book series was Jane Eyre? Of course you do! You can’t search Jane Eyre without seeing references to Bella Swan. Both books are phenomenons in their own special way, but I don’t quite understand the comparisons between Jane and Bella. Jane has a fiery mind and tongue. Bella is mousy and awkward. One loves an old fuddy duddy, the other a vampire. Maybe someone can make things clearer to me.

3.  Jane Austen

This is my first Charlotte Brontë book, so I will not be comparing her writing to Jane Austen just yet. Unfortunately, when I typed Jane Eyre, the oracle returned an extraordinary number of articles where the topic was “Will Brontëmania usurp Austenlicious?”, with “smackdown” thrown in somewhere. So I did read other people’s comparisons of Brontë vs. Austen. Poor Charlotte. It seems she will never get away from that other Jane … and uh, Bella.

4.  Feminism

I don’t believe I’m educated well enough in this area to make an informed comment. Without doubt Jane Eyre is an independent and uncompromising female character, and Charlotte Bronte was incredibly ballsy and courageous to publish a story that focused on questioning the role of women in society. Jane Eyre showed emphatically that women have an amazing inner world of feelings, thoughts and ideas. Nineteenth century Victorian society must have peed their pants when the book was published. Bravo!

5.  Movie Adaptations

Holy cow! According to The Enthusiast’s Guide to Jane Eyre Adaptations there are 51 adaptations of Jane Eyre. I don’t know what else could prove how captivated we are with this story. It’s been very tempting, but I will wait until I finish the book before I see at least 1 of these 51 adaptations. Can you make a recommendation?

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