Only my favorite book! Perhaps because I could relate so much to Jane: quiet, demure, but with a fire inside of me. When I was younger I could never understand Jane's attraction to Rochester; upon reading this again as an older adult, I get it. I re-read this every few years and keep finding hidden gems inside of it. ( )

I picked up Jane Eyre wanting to love it - I'd recently reread Pride and Prejudice when a friend suggested that if I appreciated P&P, that I'd care for Jane even more. Perhaps my expectation of love was the reason that I ultimately didn't.

At times, I found it difficult to identify with Jane's character - too impotent to stand up for herself at times when such may have improved her situation, too discordant at times when it would have been prudent to say nothing. However, as Jane's character matured throughout the novel, I found this less of an issue.

The greatest problem I have with the novel is the central Jane/Rochester relationship - while others describe the two as equally flawed, a description with which I do not disagree - I can not help but feel Mr Rochester is one of the most selfish heroes of literature. Others may argue that there is an interdependence between the two, and to some degree I can see this - Mr Rochester needs and Jane needs to feel needed, but for me, therein lies the problem. Jane wants to be with Mr Rochester to make Mr Rochester happy, while Mr Rochester wants to be with Jane to make himself happy. This, in addition to the fact that he clearly lied to her for his benefit not hers.

Despite this, Jane Eyre is still a reasonable read, but I just did not find the love of the novel I was looking for. ( )

Only a year on from my first reading, and yet it feels like a lifetime in turmoil and heartache. I saw Jane and Rochester as "codependent", a little; I saw them as each other's support; I saw them as flawed and human and needy and illuminated by each other. Now, I feel like I understand so much more intimately what is going on between them, what is going on inside each of them, and it's almost too much to bear. I truly think Jane Eyre must be the greatest, and surely the first, depiction of a certain kind of broken relationship--two people crippling one another to the point where neither can run away, so they'll be safe, so they'll never be abandoned. We're all born to hurt, and to hurt others, but some of us never learn to put up an inhuman shell and get on with it, like Mrs. Reed, like St. John Rivers. Some of us just cling to each other with our broken wings. ( )

prachtige aanbeveling door Naeme Tahir bij De wereld draait door op 09-03-2010: vergelijk rangenverschil met migranten

Jane Eyre is a Cinderella story; a love story; a Victorian romance. What it isn’t is a knock-about comedy.

Which is a pity, if you ask me as as it has a mad woman in the attic, the leading man dressing up as a gypsy woman telling fortunes and a wedding interrupted at the “Does anyone know of any just impediment” bit. So it has the opportunity for some real laughs but it doesn’t take them. So it’s as I say it’s a shame as it’s a long book and a few, intentional, laughs would have helped.

It took me ages to read it and I skimmed a bit. Which is the obvious indicator that I didn’t enjoy it. But I am not sure why. It’s well written and its got a real story. The characters are interesting and well drawn. So why didn’t I enjoy it?

It must be me (not you). I have too short an attention span. A twenty-first century ADHD victim. But that’s bollix. I can and have read long books.

So it must ne the lack of laughs. ( )