Jane Eyre

Last week I saw the preview for the new movie Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska (from Johnny Depp's 2010 Alice in Wonderland).  It sparked my interest enough to stop by the library and grab the most recent Penguin Classic edition of Charlotte Bronte's novel.  The new Penguin cover not only caught my eye but the eyes of my children and strangers alike (more than one person stopped to ask "what book is that?").    Little did I know I would be so absorbed in the story!   I feel a kinship with Jane Eyre as one who is small in stature but large in the intensity of emotional response to life.  Sometimes we little people need to make up for always looking up at the world.  The mystery, the dreams, the haunted manor, the dark mysterious man with secrets who captures her heart all keep me riveted.  A love inspired by not mere outward beauty- but by those inner gifts of mind, intellect, heart, and spirit- rules the pages of this novel.  The language is powerful, mysterious, emotional, and in a 19 c. sort of way...sexy.  But wait, before you dismiss Jane Eyre as mere female brain candy with a big vocabulary (ie. a quaint version of the Twilight series) consider the internal struggles of conscience the characters face as they wrestle demons without and within.   I am tempted here to wax on about how the Transcendentalist or the Romantic/Gothic movement in literature affect Jane's development of character, but I'll spare you.  There are plenty of articles and reviews to be found if those things interest you.

I wonder if the movie will be able to capture the depth of the characters, the Gothic darkness of the story and the landscape, or the passion of the romance.   In this case I'd recommend... "READ THE BOOK FIRST."