Book Review Saturday (Edition 10)

I'm pretty sure I'm the only female over the age of twenty who has not read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. I'm not sure why because I very much enjoyed this classic! At times I found it a little tedious -- especially when the vocabulary was simply over my head. Sometimes I wonder if I am just not well read, or if a lot of words go in one ear and out the other as far as my comprehension of larger less oft used words. I was seriously considering reading with the dictionary beside me.

 On the other hand, I love concise descriptions. The clearer the description the more I get involved in the world of the particular novel I am reading. I was bad, I dog eared one of my favorite descriptions in Brontë's novel -- and it's a library book yet too! Shhhh! This is a description of a young lady that Jane meets much later in the novel.

"Anything more exquisite than her appearance, in her purple habit with her Amazon's cap of black velvet placed gracefully above the long curls that kissed her cheek and floated to her shoulders, can scarcely be imagined: and it was thus she would enter the rustic building, and glide through the dazzled ranks of the village children."

The passage almost makes me salivate for want of my own purple riding habit and black velvet cap!

I digress. Obviously I like Bront­ë's book for more than just the story line, but I'm pretty sure that it's the story that makes her novel so well loved. The story is in a word -- interesting. I love that Brontë writes from the first person as the character of Jane Eyre. Jane in an amazing person. Although she doesn't look particularly strong in the physical sense, she has a spirit that makes me want to cheer for her. What a beautiful, intelligent, wise, and insightful young woman!

I'm not going to give away any of the details of the book except to say that it is a case of boy meets girl and the ending is happy, but it's how the ending comes about that so makes it worth the read.

If you haven't read it yet, I strongly suggest you do.