Mr. Rochester

3.5 stars

I’m a Jane Eyre fan. Of course I am. Classic, moody, romantic – what’s not to like? Well, with all the film and television adaptions of the story, I confess to yawning through most of little Jane’s trials and tribulations at the Lowood School in favor of the far-more interesting gothic tale of mysterious mansion with its secrets and moody master.

So I was drawn to this book. Of course I was. Sarah Shoemaker concentrates on young Edward’s life and education, pieced together from bits and bobs in Brontë’s original. She blends her historian / researcher’s experience with a keen understanding of the psychology of a lonely and abandoned child, and wraps it all up with a strong period style in the writing.

Roughly show more two-thirds of the book are all that, only bringing in Jane much later. That works in this book because, as in the original, Jane is by far the more interesting character. Shoemaker’s Edward Fairfax Rochester is smart and curious, but painfully naïve and overly optimistic, even in the face of one betrayal after another.

We always knew that gruff, barking exterior was a mask, but he’s really rather stupidly naïve and quite irritatingly desperate for love. Okay, I can see how that works – and Shoemaker does a credible job of creating a highly detailed backstory to support that. But despite his attractive intelligence, he’s more than a bit annoying.

[Sidebar: I can go on for a while if I start to compare the pluses and minuses of all the various screen versions of Rochester. None are perfectly balanced: too gruff, too gentle, too brooding, too emo… but I digress.]

Reviewers here comment they don't like the obvious research in the first part of the book (how the mill works, details of the schoolroom) but I enjoyed those bits. Shoemaker’s quite impressive in this facet of her novel. Others comment that the book falls apart once Jane comes into the story, but again, I feel Shoemaker made good choices not to dwell on what Brontë covered in detail - and from Jane’s point of view. Here, we get Rochester’s version of the iconic scenes and the author doesn’t fall into the trap of including his observations of something he wouldn’t have witnessed or known about.

I enjoyed the book. It’s a nice companion to the original Jane Eyre. show less

I spent my summer with Mr. Edward Rochester, and it was lovely. I received an eBook copy from the publisher through NetGalley, though I listened to most of it on audio from the library. (Wonderful narration by Simon Shepherd!)

MR. ROCHESTER is an engrossing tale about Jane Eyre’s Gothic hero, a re-imagining from his point of view, but mostly about his life leading up to Jane. The writing is gorgeous, and I feel like it is complementary to the original.

Edward is sent away to school at a young age, away from Thornfield Hall, the home he dearly loves. His father then sends him to Jamaica to take over the family’s business holdings there, where he meets Bertha Mason, his first wife. The story of Bertha’s life and madness, and the show more effect it had on Edward was fascinating. Eventually he returns to England where he meets Jane, and from there we hear his side of their love story.

This is a well-written piece of historical fiction, and I greatly enjoyed the author’s vision of Mr. Rochester, and seeing how his turbulent past shaped the man he became. show less

For fans of Jane Eyre may have wondered what is Rochester's background and how did he end up with a psychotic wife locked up in his attic, author Sarah Shoemaker provides a plausible and thought-provoking, if somewhat problematic, backstory in this companion novel.

The narrative started strong, and the writing is excellent. It was fun and engaging, and Rochester seemed like a sincere, good-hearted and generally likeable guy thrust via deceit into circumstances not of his choosing. My regard for him was sympathetic until his behavior toward Jane evolved suddenly into something uncomfortable and manipulative. He was literally gaslighting her. Moreover, I was not convinced of either's love for the other with what little interaction was show more presented in the text. Rochester's affections for Jane seem to come abruptly out of nowhere — he concluded they are perfectly suited for one another when they were but barely acquainted, which had me considering that Edward too may have been afflicted with a touch of crazy. It's been several decades since I read Jane Eyre, so perhaps there is a similar lack of buildup and the same criticism would apply. There are a number of red flags when viewed through a 21st-century lens. The one thing Rochester and Jane did have in common was a lifelong lack of a loving family and both were cruelly starved for affection. Readers would normally be rooting for this kind of connection, but their relationship as presented didn't quite sit right with me. show less

I hate Mr. Rochester -- as in the version from Jane Eyre. I've never understood how some readers find him charming, dreamy, whatever. He's an ass. He's a 40-year-old man who keeps his crazy wife in the attic (sure, sure, because of reasons), toys with the emotions of poor teenage Jane (not to mention Blanche Ingram), then tries to marry her without telling her that he's already married. I hate that Jane actually goes back to him. Ew.

Ms. Shoemaker's version of Rochester (Call me Edward!) starts off much more promising. His father seems to have no emotions at all -- basically ignoring little Edward and issuing missives via letter. His brother is an egotistical ass who delights in torturing Edward whenever possible. At age eight, Edward show more is sent off to live with an eccentric scholar who privately educates boys in a very progressive way. This is probably the best thing that ever happens to him. He has friends, who are better than his actual brother. Then, in his teens, through another letter, he is ordered into an apprenticeship with a mill owner in another town. There again, he finds some happiness, as the childless mill owner and his wife are very kind people, but there are tragedies, and his father calls for him. After some formal education, he is shipped off to Jamaica to marry Bertha Antoinette Mason, and things go downhill quickly, then his father and brother die, and he's able to return to his beloved Thornfield, but with a burden with a capital B in tow.

I really liked Book 1, all of Edward's formative years, and found myself rooting for the poor kid. Book 2, the Jamaica years, was also very interesting -- Edward finds himself betrayed over and over again. (This differs from [b:Wide Sargasso Sea|25622780|Wide Sargasso Sea|Jean Rhys|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1453021061s/25622780.jpg|142647] a lot -- taking place between the end of the slave trade and the end of actual slavery in Jamaica. Also, Jonas and Richard are Bertha's blood relatives.) Even the beginning of Book 3, when Edward first brings Bertha back to Thornfield, with all the adjustments it takes to get her set up, brought new material.

After Jane enters the story, things got a little less interesting. There were a few new additions ( Bertha's secret baby! that helped, but at that point Ms. Shoemaker was stuck with Bronte's original Rochester, and, as they say, "You can't polish a turd."

Excellent novel with lots of historical material that I really enjoyed. I just still don't like Rochester. show less

I'm a long-time fan of "Jane Eyre" and believe myself to be critical of modern remake and spin-off tales...but this one was beautifully executed. The author captured the tone of Charlotte Bronte's writing well, it felt natural and appropriate, and did a marvelous job of taking up all the little details from "Jane Eyre" and spinning it into a convincing tale--at least, she convinced me :)

Rochester's mercurial temper and abrupt behaviors to Jane make more sense now (some not fully, but one makes allowances for a favorite hero :p). I felt full sympathy for his predicament by the time he met Jane.

All in all, I think Ms Shoemaker did a brilliant job, making me fall in love with the whole "Jane Eyre" universe again. I didn't want it to end so show more have now started re-reading "Jane Eyre" to savor it all :) show less

Thoroughly enjoyable Jane Eyre fan fiction. It is the Jane Eyre story from Mr. Rochester's point of view. Just like Jane Eyre, the book is written as a memoir in the first person, and starts from Edward's earliest memories of feeling lonely as a child. We learn about his education, his time in Jamaica, how he came to be married to a madwoman, and how he ended up with a ward who needed a governess. Naturally, the most fun part of the book is when he retells the events from Jane Eyre. We see his emotional manipulations of Jane from his perspective. It meshes perfectly with what happens in Bronte's book. _Mr. Rochester_ adds a lot of depth to _Jane Eyre_ and makes Edward a very sympathetic character.

I enjoyed this book. I thought Ms. Shoemaker wrote well, and maintained a writing voice complementary to that found in Jane Eyre. She developed the character of Edward Rochester very well, and told his story from childhood. I did find the machinations of Edward's father too Machiavellian to be believable -- maybe a bit more on Rochester Senior's motivations might have helped. And, I still don't understand what Jane saw in Edward??? Still an enjoyable way to add depth to my beloved Jane Eyre.