Jane Eyre one step beyond...
For those of you who haven't read them yet, I like to recommend two books that were inspired by "Jane Eyre."
The first is a science fiction novel by Sharon Shinn entitled "Jenna Starborn." The author took Bronte's plot and transported it into the furture & onto another world. I didn't realize this when I first bought the book, but as I read it I was thinking hey! This is suspeciously like "Jane Eyre"!!! Here is a synopsis:
"The product of the planet Baldus's gen-tanks, Jenna Starborn is used to a life of pain and privation. After being educated at a technical school that focuses on the growth of the mind to the exclusion of all else, Jenna accepts a job as a nuclear reactor maintenance technician at remote Thorrastone Park, owned by the wealthy Everett Ravenbeck. She becomes indispensable to the household and to Everett. Despite their difference in stations Jenna is only a half-citizen they fall in love. After a long, difficult courtship made longer because of the perversity of the two principals, the two plan to marry. But at the wedding, Jenna receives a terrible shock: Everett has another wife. Unable to live with him as his wife without being married, Jenna flees to a remote planet, where she falls in with a family that provides help and aid to travelers. She's on the verge of deciding whether to marry another and go with him to colonize a new planet when she hears Everett's voice, impossibly calling from afar. Reader, need we say what happens next?"
The other book is by Jasper Fforde and entitled "The Eyre Affair." This is a fantasy novel about an alternate world in which the lines between fiction and reality are blurred. Here is a synopsis:
"Great Britain in 1985 is close to being a police state. The Crimean War has dragged on for more than 130 years and Wales is self-governing. The only recognizable thing about this England is her citizens' enduring love of literature. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontė's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career."
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
I really enjoyed The Eyre Affair. I knew that a certain sardonic gentleman *cough* appears in it, and the whole while I was waiting for him to turn up. I think I got giddy, in fact, when Thursday finds his dinner jacket. I think my favourite line was when Thursday tells her partner that not only has she met Mr. Rochester, but she has his coat at home!
I've read nearly all of the other books in the series. He gets another mention in the second book (when a fan of his stammers out: "was he really drop-dead-gorgeous to die for?" He also turns up again in The Well of Lost Plots. By the way- it is strange that the American synopsis is different from ours (We get the British versions here in Canada).
I had never heard of that other book before. It sounds terrible, or terribly funny- I can't decide. Although, I have been interested in seeing how the story would play out in a more modern context. I'll definately have to check it out!
The only adaptations of JE that I've read are: Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, and Adele by... someone named Tennant I think. Both were dreadful- but Adele was perfectly horrid and I found that I couldn't even finish it. It made no sense (for example, Adele was apparently 5 years old at her conception. See? Mr. Rochester now kills the vicomte instead of wounding him... only... the vicomte is still alive apparently. Ow. Just thinking about it hurts!). I want to read H: The Return to Wuthering Heights eventually. I've heard it's spectacularly bad/funny. (Mr. Rochester is renamed 'Mr. Are' and he's Heathcliff's father- even if Mr. Rochester would have been younger than Heathcliff... Oh well. )
Re: Jane Eyre one step beyond...
Does 'Jenna Starborn', have any especial merits of it's own? I mean, does it say anything extra, or bring up any new ideas about 'Jane Eyre'?
Re: Jane Eyre one step beyond...
Yes! My library has two copies of 'Jenna Starborn'. As soon as I've finished my term papers and exams, I'll be picking it up (if I can wait so long- one thing about being an English major is that you want to read everything so long as it is not required reading ).
Re: Jane Eyre one step beyond...
Thisbeciel: No, I can't say that "Jenna Starborn" brings new insights or ideas. But it is interesting to see the plot from a science fiction angle.
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
Re: Oooohhh! I Read 'The Eyre Affair'
I just finished reading it today, and I thought it was delightful! When I was first trying to decide whether or not to buy it, I opened it up at random to read a tiny snippet and see if I would like it. Fortunately I opened it up to the part where Hobbes goes in and says "I want Jane Eyre" and Grace Poole says "So does Mr. Rochester..." I began rocking with silent laughter and bought it. I am so glad I did. I think I'll have to read it over again though, cause I hurried over the beginning, impatient for something connected with JE to happen.
I really love how Mr. Rochester is characterized throughout, I was afraid that the author would not do him justice. And Thursday Next was a cool character, I will have to get my hands on the other novels. Actually since Mr. Rochester is going to have a mention in those I will definitely read it.
When I called the bookstore to see if they had 'The Eyre Affair' in stock, I had this delightful conversation with a clerk:
Me: Ja- I mean, 'The Eyre Affair', by Jasper Fforde.
Clerk: Air Affair...
Me: Oh- 'Eyre' spelt-
Clerk: I know! A-I-R
Me: No, 'Eyre' as in Jane Eyre... E-Y-R-E?
Clerk: *grumble*
Me:...Oh, and that's Fforde, with two Fs...
Clerk: *humph*
Me:... And an E.
Clerk: Oh?
Me: Yes, I think it's Welsh.
Clerk: ...Yeh... heh. We have one copy left.
Another great Jane Eyre inspired novel
British novelist Jean Rhys 1960s novel "Wide Sargasso Sea" is probably the best novel ever written as a "spin off" of a classic. It was published in the early 1960s I believe and it's about the life of Antoinette Bertha Mason, Rochester's first wife.
A movie was made of it about 12 years ago that was interesting, not nearly as good as the book though.
It's a masterpiece in its own right and still in print. If you haven't read it I HIGHLY recommend it.
Here is a synopsis:
The Eyre Affair et al...
Although, I have been interested in seeing how the story would play out in a more modern context. I'll definately have to check it out!
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