Jane Eyre Progress

29 July 2010

I have been reading Jane Eyre for the last few days and so far it is my favorite (vs. Pride & Prejudice and Vanity Fair), but it is still too Victorian for me. Brontë’s Jane Eyre begins rather painful, her childhood was filled too much sadness. I feel Brontë took more pages than necessary to detail the abuse in her aunt’s home and the devastation of death at Lowood school. Important, yes, but I felt there was extraneous details that were of no asset to the storyline. Brontë writes similarly to Thackeray with long sentences, but her style is not as difficult to read as Thackeray’s. I do become confused when I come across three, four, five, clauses in a sentence, but rereading the sentence always helps.

I have just begun reading of Jane’s meeting with Mr. Rochester. Romantic novels are predictable and I already know they will get married in the end, so I’m hoping for a good plot, not a simple serendipitous plot full of almosts until the end. I do like Jane’s spunk and her inner dialogue is amusing to read.

I am also progressing with reading Macbeth, but as I am only in the 3rd Act, there is not much to report right now.

I received my essay back from Indiana University for my Vanity Fair essay; a B- is fine, but I was hoping for more explanation beyond a paragraph of “cite more from the book”. What faults did you find that had you arrive at a B-? Ah well, some college papers aren’t as significant as others.

It has been a long day – my migraines have been rather unfriendly to me as of late so it is off to bed. I do have some good articles I want to write about – one about a school who is putting 5th grade in middle school and “legal” segregation in a Mississippi school district.