Jane Eyre is about...love

Jane Eyre Paperback Cover by Vintage Classics

I said in an earlier post that one of the best compliments I could give the new film adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre is that it made me want to read it again. So of course, I have been rereading the novel in the past few weeks.
Now, first of all I have to remind my readers that I am not an English major, nor do I profess to be an expert in English lit. I do however have a passion for 19th century English literature.  I also have a passion for seeing said novels well adapted for the screen. And by well adapted, I suppose I mean that I love it when the film transports me to the 19th century and makes me feel what the characters are feeling.

Can you feel the love between Jane and Mr. Rochester?

So, I'll tell you what I've been pondering this week. One of the things I loved about this new Jane Eyre film (other than the glorious scenery and cinematography) is the fact that it really made me think about love.

Jane and the hateful Mr. Brocklehurst

When it shows Jane as a little girl in Mrs. Reed's house in Gateshead, you really feel the lack of love in this little girl's life. When she goes to Lowood School, she feels the first real love she has ever felt from her wonderful friend and school mate, Helen. Heart achingly beautiful...

Thornfield Hall aka Haddon Hall

Of course, by the time she arrives at Thornfield Hall to be a governess to Mr. Rochester's ward Adele, she is looking for a home, a purpose and above all, the love which she now knows is out there somewhere for her. Of course, as we all know, she encounters a few obstacles to that love. After having her true love snatched from her, she is later offered something which was distinctly NOT love by St. John (Sinjun) Rivers. I just love the way she pushes the handsome and persuasive St. John away. She will work her fingers to the bone for him, but she will not marry without love.

Enough of love will follow????!!!!!

"I scorn your idea of love," I could not help saying, as I rose up and stood before him, leaning my back against the rock.  "I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer:  yes, St. John, and I scorn you when you offer it."

Rock on Jane!!!!!

Do you see where I am going here? I have to come back to the book to find the words that match up with those amazing images from the film. For me, I cannot have just the book. I cannot have just the film. I need both to be happy and satisfied.

This is what it is to be loved for one's self-
imperfections and all!

So what I have been doing over the past week or so is to reread my favourite parts of the book. This is a bad habit of mine, on a subsequent read, to skip over the parts that I did not enjoy even if they are critical to the plot. I love to read the juicy bits again and again. They meld in my mind with the visuals and music from the film and become one happy thought indeed.

Reader, she married him. And if you would like to read just the juicy bits, I have posted the 3 best chapters as pages on my blog.

First, we have the famous Chapter 27. This is where Jane has found out Mr. Rochester's secret and he is endeavouring to tell her how much she means to him and how he plans to keep her with him always. Sigh...

And then we have the lovely last two chapters. Chapter 37 & 38 describe her return to him and what happened afterward.  If you felt a bit ripped off at the ending of Jane Eyre 2011 and found yourself yearning for Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson from the 2006 miniseries like I did, you may want to read those last two chapters again. Charlotte Bronte will give you what Cary Fukunaga would not. Sigh...


P.S. The entire novel Jane Eyre is online if you need a little love today! Jane Eyre at online-literature.com

Jane Eyre-Absolutely gorgeous!

Jane Eyre Poster-Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell, Judi Dench

I had fairly high hopes for this new Jane Eyre film from what I had already read online, but I must say it was still a lovely surprise.  I took The Squire out for his birthday for dinner and a movie. He knew I really wanted to see this one, even though it was his birthday, so we drove into Toronto to see it (about 80 miles). Although I'm sure anyone in England would think we were mad to travel that far for a film, it was well worth it!

Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre

First of all, the theatre we saw it in had what is called UltraAVX. This apparently stands for ultra audio visual experience. Large screen, digital picture, surround sound, comfy rocker seats and reserved seating. What a way to see a film like this. Try to see this film in a movie theatre, even if it isn't UltraAVX, as the feeling of really being in Victorian England has never struck me as it did with Jane Eyre. It just won't be the same at home on a DVD, although it will still be amazing.

Michael Fassbender as Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester

This film adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel obviously had to be uber condensed, as it is only 115 minutes long. It rarely feels rushed, however. It opens with Jane running away from Thornfield (sort of the middle of the story), runs until the Rivers family have nursed her back to health and then flashes back to her childhood with the loathsome Reed family. It continues to the dank Lowood School and follows her to Thornfield Hall and her Mr. Rochester (and then back to the Rivers' and beyond). So it rather goes middle-beginning-middle-end, and this works really well to get you involved in the story quickly. I was blinking back tears within minutes of the film starting, which is usually an end-of-film kind of thing. Actually, I was alternately crying and laughing (yes there are a few wonderful funny bits) through the whole film.

Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax and Mia Wasikowska as Jane

The photography of Haddon Hall and the moors is breathtaking and really makes this an emotional film. I would have to say that the visuals and the emotion or "heart" in this version are what really struck me. There is wonderful acting in all the parts, including the most heart-breaking Helen and young Jane pair, and the best Adelle ever (constantly chattering in perfect French). The only real Yorkshire accents unfortunately were on the amazing little girls playing Helen and young Jane, which rather underscored for me how in and out the adult actors were with theirs. Sorry, but I notice these things. Kudos also to Judi Dench who is perfection as Mrs. Fairfax and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot all grown up with whiskers) is very compelling as Jane's "other man", St. John (Sinjun).

Mr. Rochester and Jane in love...

It was only at the very end that I was pining for Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson. If you grafted on the ending of the 2006 miniseries, and captured a bit of their chemistry too, this version would be hard to beat. But there will never be perfect adaptations of our favourite novels, will there? Lots to love in this one, so enjoy. And I think one of the best compliments I could give this film is that it makes me really want to reread the novel.  And isn't that really what it's all about?



I am feeling rather naughty today, so I am going to add this hilarious "fake" commercial which was uploaded onto Youtube a while ago. It is hilarious but it is rather loud, so turn the sound down if you're not alone!

Jane Eyre 2006

This is the most recent adaptation of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and, most would agree, the best.  The book has actually been adapted for film no less than 22 times, the first being in 1910 (a century ago as a silent film!), and the latest version, a film destined for the movie theater will be released in 2011, so stay tuned.  My sister will be interested to note that in that latest, as yet unreleased version, Judi Dench plays the housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax, Mia Wasikowska as Jane (the lead in Alice in Wonderland from this year), and Sally Hawkins, from Persuasion 2007, as the evil aunt Mrs. Reed and Michael Fassbender from Inglorious Basterds as Mr. Rochester.

But now back to this 2006 version, which is a miniseries length. I happen to really love this dramatization of Jane Eyre.  The leads (Toby Stephens as Mr. Rochester and Ruth Wilson as Jane Eyre) are slightly more attractive than they are described in the book, but they are both a little unusual looking by Hollywood standards and so they work very well.

I have a fondness for this book (my favorite Bronte sister book) and also for the main filming site which was at Haddon Hall in Bakewell, Derbyshire.  The Squire (my husband) and I stayed in Bakewell for 3 days last summer and spent a lovely afternoon at Haddon Hall (pictured above in The Squire's photo).

The history of Haddon Hall is interesting, in that it was a secondary residence of the family of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, and it lay dormant from 1700 until the 1920's when it was restored to a habitable state by the 9th Duke of Rutland, John Manners.  It has parts that are virtually unchanged from medieval times and so has been used for filming other favorites such as the latest Pride and Prejudice and The Princess Bride.  Also not surprisingly, The Other Boleyn Girl and Elizabeth used Haddon Hall as a location.

Back to the adaptation of Jane Eyre, this mini-series works well because it's greater length allows the story to develop without being rushed.  There is truly too much story to be squashed into a 2 hour film (so good luck to the current Judi Dench production).  The script by my new favorite script writer Sandy Welch manages to get most of the book's essence distilled into this production, although it is always best to read or re-read the book to get all of the best bits, especially if the mini-series has only whetted your appetite for Charlotte Bronte.

Toby Stephens, who is the son of the incredible Dame Maggie Smith, really fits the bill as Mr. Rochester.  He often plays bad guys, as in the Bond flick Die Another Day where he played Gustav Graves, so in this he is comfortable with the multiple layered personality of this character.  He has the females swooning, and the chemistry between him and Ruth Wilson is rarely found and well appreciated.  The development of the friendship between Jane and Mr. Rochester, which blossoms into something more passionate, is deftly handled.  The repressed feelings of both leads are conveyed without words, which are not needed here to show us the emotion felt between them.  It will have you both swooning and sobbing in parts.

Ruth Wilson was barely out of film school when she filmed this, which makes her sensitive portrayal of Jane all the more remarkable.  She has more recently been doing contemporary drama such as the UK crime drama Luther, and she is rumored to be playing Jaqueline Kennedy in Flying Into Love, a "re-imagining of JFK's assassination" as seen through Jackie's eyes.  You can see from her unusual looks how she would be good for that role. In any case, her Jane Eyre is luminous, showing huge emotion with no dialogue whatsoever, at times.  One look conveys all she is feeling. Even if this is the only thing she ever did, she would be remembered as a wonderful actress.


There has been some criticism of the screenplay, in that it uses less of Charlotte Bronte's original language than some viewers would like, and there is no doubt that it has a more modern feel than it might have, for a four hour miniseries.  However, Sandy Welch tends to like a more modern feel to her screenplays, as we saw in the latest Emma, which I think draws in a much younger audience than it might otherwise.  And that is not a bad thing.  I think it will entice many a teenager to read Jane Eyre, although hopefully not a vampire/monster version (such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) which is probably in production as we speak!  (although there is already a graphic novel version-i.e. comic book for us ancients).  Every generation seems to want to claim works such as Jane Eyre for their own, and the fact that it has been filmed for a full century, and still in print in many incarnations, would be a source of amazement to the Bronte sisters.  I doubt that Charlotte would object too strenuously to changes made to her work for adaptation to film, considering that the works of most of her contemporaries lie languishing in dusty libraries untouched for decades.  She might perhaps draw the line at Mr. Rochester as a vampire, although who am I to say?

 This is a photo of Hadden Hall from the courtyard.  This was just before a little shower, during which we poked around the inside of the house, including the wonderful long gallery, a small portion of which you can see below.

 The Squire got a great photo of the garden with the house in the background after the sun came out that afternoon.  If you click on the photo, and then again to magnify it, it will give you a much larger version of the photo and you can see some of the amazing architectural detail, which makes it such a great filming location.

So if ever you find yourself in the vicinity of Bakewell, Derbyshire in the Peaks District of England, not only will you want to take a peek at Haddon Hall shown here, but you will only be a few miles from Chatsworth, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire and location of many other films such as Pride and Prejudice 2005 and The Duchess, both starring Keira Knightley (and interestingly enough, the new 2011 version of Jane Eyre).Stay tuned for more on this production as it has finished filming and is in post production.

Well, now I will have to decide whether to go back and view Jane Eyre 2006 again, or read the book again.  Or perhaps both, although not simultaneously as I cannot multitask as well as my teenage sons who are at this moment studying, watching the World Cup Soccer and texting friends.  Sigh!