Jane Eyre glee

[dangermousie]

I have been rereading Jane Eyre. It’s a book that I adore and I think I always will. I have first read it in Russian translation when I was seven or eight, comfortably curled in my grandmother’s chair (I learned to read at six and jane Eyre was shortly thereafter. It’s inextricably bound with joys of reading for me). I have reread it many times in the over 20 years since then, and I always find something new and fresh and moving in it.

I suppose I have always been a ‘Charlotte Bronte girl’ over an ‘Austen’ one, if we had to pick (the choice would be harder if Mrs. Gaskell was thrown into the mix. North and South is one of my favorite books, and so is Wives and Daughters. Sylvia’s Lovers is devastating and Mary Barton a really fun read). Austen is someone I used to like a lot, but as years go on, I like her less and less: clever but with no emotional depth, nothing truly there (except Persuasion, which is brilliant). I like Anne Bronte very well, but do not find her extremely memorable, and Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ is an overwrought book about people who need medication and jail time. But I love everything I have ever read by Charlotte: Vilette (another book I read in childhood), Shirley (my second CB favorite, where I get sidetracked by the greedy curates and the relationship between Robert and Caroline which I adore. The novel approaches Gaskell or Dickens in its dealings with manufacture and economics. Actually it reminds me a lot of North & South. Robert is rather Mr. Thornton-like). Even The Professor, my least liked of the bunch, is fun.

But all of them pale in comparison with Jane Eyre, on the list of my desert island books.

And, luckily, this is one of my favorite books where there is an adaptation I adore. I find all the 90s-2000s adaptations ranging from mildly dreadful to wholly dreadful (though I haven’t seen the Toby Stephens one). But the 1983 adaptation with Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke is one of my favorite things in the world.

Zelah Clarke is exactly the way I picture Jane: tiny, and mousy, and so indomitable. And Dalton is perfect as Rochester, in part because I never thought him handsome (and certainly not by any classical Victorian standard) but he exudes masulinity and is every inch the passionate, bitter, and intelligent Rochester.

I first saw that adaptation in third grade. They were showing the dubbed version in the USSR and our teacher would let us watch episodes if we (we were in a ‘gifted’ class) would finish our work early.

I’ve rewatched it many times since, and love it as much as ever.

I found a MV of it:

Comments

[pathstotread.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen that adaptation, but you must see the Toby Stephens/Ruth Wilson version. It is lovely.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

I always thought Timothy Dalton was too classically handsome, even if he's not my type. And Zelah Clarke looks to old, I literally scoffed at the 'I'm old enough to be your father' line.

That said I did enjoy that adaptation. It definitely puts the Orson Welles film to shame (they couldn't have quoted from the actual book?).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I loved Zelah Clarke (such an interesting first name btw) because she was the only Jane I've seen who wasn't pretty. She isn't supposed be be, at all, but they always stickpretty women and try to uglify them. I mean, in the Orson Welles movie (which I do like, but it's not really JE) they had Joan 'bloody gorgeous' Fontaine.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I don't think Zelah's particularly ugly herself. And Jane's supposed to be plain and not particularly strong, and all the actresses look far too healthy to die from the Indian climate (good for them).

I know! Joan Fontaine, false quotes from the book (I think this hurt the most) and the Rivers storyline was eviscerated.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Zelah I thought was very plain. Not hideous, but then Jane isn't supposed to be Quasimodo. But yes re: healthiness. Ugh, I hate St John Rivers.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I'll give it a chance, then. I am very picky about my JE adaptations because most of them stray too far from the book for my tastes.

[akosikae.livejournal.com]

"I must part with you for my whole life. I must begin a new existence amongst strange faces and strange scenes."

:)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Eeeeee!

Seriously, love that book so.

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

i remember watching that version and liking the newer version a little bit more... and i love charlotte and emily bronte, but jane eyre is special in my heart since this was the first novel that my grandmother said was appropriate for me at the age of 11.......

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That's such a neat story about your grandmother.

I am definitely checking out the 2006 version then.

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

thanks my grandmother was great about teaching me and letting me read...