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In my last three books (the Mapleby Memories trilogy) my heroines all travelled back in time, and in Many a Moon, the final book, the hero did as well. It took a lot of research to get the historical facts right and stepping into the past and finding a way to link it to the present was taxing at times. Writing them was also a lot of fun. Now, however, I'm in the middle of a real journey into the past courtesy of the writer Charlotte Bronte, and what an eye-opener it is proving to be.
I last read Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte's first published novel (1847) when I was 15. It was one of the set pieces to be studied for what were then known as O'Levels in the UK. Exams, that if passed, enabled pupils to continue to study at a higher level. I loved it and because I loved it, I ended up in trouble. Instead of reading at the class speed, which meant working through the book chapter by chapter twice weekly, I went ahead and finished it without listening to my teacher's explanations. Nor can I remember a single word of what she said when I was forced back into concentrating on my lessons. I never forgot the story of Jane Eyre, though. And I passed the exam!
Now I am reading it again because my eldest granddaughter gave me a copy for Christmas with the words, 'this is a bit of a random present because I'm sure you will have read it before, but because you like books I thought you'd like this one.'
She was right. It is an illustrated hardback copy of the second edition of Jane Eyre. She illustrated the original herself and my book, although a pale copy, still has pages edged with gold leaf, and there is an attached green silk bookmark. It is altogether splendid to look at and very heavy. And on the first page is Charlotte Bronte's dedication to non other than the writer William Thackeray. Using her nom-de-plume of Currer Bell, she says:
'Finally, I have alluded to Mr Thackeray, because to him-if he will accept the tribute of a total stranger-I have dedicated this second edition of "Jane Eyre"' -
December 21st 1847
The language is, of course, much more flowery than words we would use today, and she often uses a dozen words where one or two would suffice. She also makes a great use of semi-colons in places where modern writers would mostly use full stops and some actual words are used slightly differently too, but oh my goodness, apart from that it could easily be a Books We Love romance.
Jane Eyre is an orphan who has overcome a difficult childhood and made her own way in the world. How she achieves this, becoming so close to a modern day feisty heroine with a mind of her own, is almost laughable. Her morals and ethics are inevitably those of the nineteenth century but she makes the reader very aware that, although she has no intention of flouting them, at times she considers them a burden.
Then there is Mr Rochester. Rich. Entitled. Charismatic. The ultimate bad boy hero! He also has much to overcome but for many years he travels, socialises and generally indulges himself in an attempt to forget his problems. Then he meets Jane. She has been employed as governess for his charge, Adele, an young orphan he has rescued from a dalliance he once had in France. It is then that the reader begins to see his softer side. It is clear that little Adele loves him, and soon Jane, much against her will, begins to love him too.
Their courtship is very different from modern day romances, with Jane deliberately keeping Mr Rochester at arm's length, apparently for his own good as well as her own peace of mind. She also frequently challenges him, disagreeing with some of his attitudes. Only previously used to women looking for a husband within the upper reaches of society, not to someone who has to work for a living, he is both intrigued and enchanted by her spikiness. Persuading her to marry him, he deliberately overlooks the fact that he already has a wife of many years, albeit one who is insane (the actual word used to describe her in the book) and kept locked away.
Charlotte Bronte's description of her heartbreak when she discovers this, while flowery and at times very long-winded, has the same passion as that of any modern day romance. Mr Rochester's explanation does too. But while he expects Jane to stay with him, she, true to the morals of the day as well as her own peace of mind, determines to leave him forever. Of course there is eventually a happy ending, although it isn't as problem free as modern happy endings. Nevertheless, in Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte proves herself to be one of the earliest, and for its time, erotic, romantic fiction writers.
There are others of course. Jane Austen (1775-1817) wrote about love amongst the British landed gentry at the end of the eighteenth century, but always from a critical viewpoint, commenting upon the need for women to make a good marriage in order to be financially secure. Charlotte Bronte is different. Her story is one of real passion. She undoubtedly wrote from the heart, weaving parts of her own life into the story. It is known she spent some time in a boarding school and also worked as a teacher and then a governess, all things that feature in the story. It is also known that she corresponded with a married man, thought to be the love of her life. Known too is the fact that she suffered a thwarted romance. She eventually married, aged 38, but sadly died soon after, probably from pregnancy complications.
What is especially noteworthy, however, is that she wrote from a first-person female perspective, a style so innovative that it drew a harsh response from some critics despite being universally loved by readers. Jane Eyre has variously been considered coarse, vulgar, improper, and a masterpiece. It has never been out of print.
And despite (to the modern ear) the sometimes overblown descriptions of both her surroundings and the conversations she has, mainly with Mr Rochester, but with other characters in the story too, you can really hear her speaking across the centuries. She might have written Jane Eyre in 1847 but her voice talks directly to the reader and it is the voice of a modern woman. It is also the voice of a woman in love.
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