Book Cover Meme - Round 2 - Day 6

[elrhiarhodan]

Round Two of the Book Cover Meme, still ganked with love and gratitude from sallymn:

"Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. 1 book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. no explanations, no reviews: just covers."



Check the first comment to see if I can’t resist adding a bit of commentary. This time around, I think I’m rarely going to resist that urge.

Comments

[elrhiarhodan]

I first encountered Jane Eyre in my 12th Grade AP Lit class and I absolutely fell in love with the book. Poor, abused Jane clawing her way out of poverty, finding companionship with Miss Temple (even at 16 and somewhat naive, I had the sense that the nature of Jane's relationship with Miss Temple was more romantic than collegial), and of course, her doomed love affair with Edward Rochester made my heart go pitter-pat.

For over 40 years, Jane Eyre has been my go-to comfort read, although nowadays, I tended to skip the torture porn of her early years at Lowood School and the long drawn out time with St. John Rivers, who is a real incel creep.

[dizzydrea]

You know, I've never read this book. I started reading Jane Austen after high school and just sort of never moved on. I'm on the fence about the Brontë sisters, really. They might just be too dark for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[elrhiarhodan]

Yeah, the Brontës weren't all lightness and manners. The difference between Regency and Victorian, I guess.

[vexed_wench]

Jane Eyre will always be on my list of favorite books. I can't count the number of times I have reread it over the years.

[tjs_whatnot]

I remember really liking Jane Eyre when I read it, then falling more in love after reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. But I'm terrified of reading it now that I've read more of that genre and not being an adolescent anymore. When was the last time you'd re-read? Did it hold up in your estimation?

[elrhiarhodan]

I think I read it about 10 years ago. I used to keep a hard copy in my car, in case I got stuck and needed something to read. It was a holdover from the days before smartphone. It held up well enough. I also really loved the 1986 BBC version with Timothy Dalton as Rochester -- it's the most complete version to date. He's much too handsome and the actress who played Jane had been too old for the role, but they really worked, to be honest. As I've gotten older, I tend to feel a little sorry for Bertha Mason, who was beyond help -- she had syphilis, but locking her in the attic wasn't going to fix that.