Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Jane Eyre

Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

69 reviews

carlyjoann's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This was my first time reading this book and I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. It always taken me a little bit to get into a classic written in this way but once I did I breezed through the story. It was very compelling and made me want to keep reading.
I like Jane a lot. She is firm in her beliefs and in her sense of self. I enjoyed her inner monologues at times.
I didn’t like Mr Rochester at first,

his whole Gypsy scheme and using Blanche to make Jane jealous were not great. Plus him hiding a mad wife in the house and not telling Jane until forced. But after the fire and death of his wife I could see a little change in him. And since Jane was so in love with him I was okay with them ending up together.

I really did not like St John at all. He felt like a gaslighter and self righteous. I did really like his sisters though and loved that Jane had finally found a family to belong with.

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alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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babudarabu's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nahret's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Where to begin? I love Jane. She is a most atypical heroine for her time period, which makes her all the more compelling. I am in awe of Brontë's clear vision for her protagonist.

I have historically been struggling with excessively detailed descriptions of both nature and architecture in books, but that is a sign of the times, I suppose. The story is generally rather slow-paced, giving one ample opportunity to look closely at everything. But what a story it is! One of the quintessential gothic tales, set in a haunted house with a dark and brooding master. It is a classic for a reason.

I must say, I did not appreciate Jane's headlong flight into the night, without even the hint of a plan; even knowing the outcome, I feared for her then. As I did when she was subjected to the Calvinist ramblings of St. John Rivers. "[...] you are made for labour, not for love!" is probably the worst "compliment" I've heard in my life.

The topic of religion is a kind of Leitmotiv in this novel. Jane's relationship to Christianity is tested repeatedly, and she spends a lot of time analysing her views on faith, and how they align with her own moral principles. Religious bigotry is being recognized and called out as such. Again, I feel that for their time, Jane's intellectual analysis and often critical views were extraordinary to read.

I listened to an audiobook read by British actress Thandiwe Newton. She expertly endowed Jane's voice with the full range of human emotion, from the most fragile to the most forceful. I had never previously thought about it, but I found it amazing how she managed to make me hear Jane's inward laughter without actually making the usually associated sounds. Masterful.

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larzi's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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fatimalopezg's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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bashsbooks's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

It is my current opinion that Emily Brontë was the best writer amongst her sisters, which is a shame given she has the smallest corpus.

That said, I liked Charlotte's Jane Eyre better than Anne's Agnes Grey. Jane is an endearing character, one who is far more flexible in her morality and ambiguous in her actions (though not too much so, I assume, to make her unsympathetic to contemporary readers, which is kind of a shame to me as a modern reader, but I digress). Mr. Rochester is a fucking piece of work, and I do hate him, but I totally understand why Jane wants to fuck him. I'm weirdly charmed by St. John Rivers as well, but he's also an asshole, and why are all these men trying to manipulate my girl Jane? On a somewhat related note, it's so funny that Jane's ugly appearance comes up CONSTANTLY. And that Jane's Aunt Mrs. Reed has beef with her. Like, she's ten.

I'm fascinated by Bertha Mason and the idea of a dude having a crazy wife he keeps in the attic, so I will be reading Wide Sargasso Sea. I also think Jane's life would've been better if she'd decided to be a lesbian spinster with the Rivers sisters.

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