Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Becoming Jane Eyre
Sheila Kohler
Review by Priscilla Comen
Becoming Jane Eyre
Sheila Kohler
Review by Priscilla Comen
Becoming Jane Eyre, by Sheila Kohler, is the story of the Bronte family, mostly about the sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne who wrote their novels under the pen names of men. The novel begins with their blind father lying in bed. His daughter, Charlotte, watches over him. He recalls the surgery on his eye. Charlotte and her sisters and her brother are dependent on him for house and stipend.
Charlotte writes a novel while she sits with her father. Her first one has been rejected. At night, she dreams of her professor, M. H. They had first met when she and her sister Emily went to Brussels to an all girls school. M. H taught literature in French. She fell in love with the words he recited. She wanted to please him with her writing. She writes an autobiography, and invents a child she would like to be: bright, brave, imaginative. Charlotte tells herself she must not fall in love with her professor, a married man much older than she. They discuss books, her writing, history. He leaves little gifts for her. In the room with her father, she devises plots of one danger leading to another. One day, she and Emily go home for the funeral of her aunt. A letter from her Master comes, offering employment as teachers. But when she returns to Belgium to the school, he is cold to her and ignores her work. She knows his wife has poisoned his mind against her. She stops him in the garden but cannot speak the words she feels. She finds evidence of his presence in her desk, the smell of his cigar, the stub of a pencil.
Her father’s nurse wonders what the girl could have to say, with her nose always in a notebook, dowdy spinster that she is. The doctor removes the bandages and is pleased with the results. Father can see a little glow. She, in her writing, will vanquish all the fools who have degraded her, including her French master. Her desire to succeed is strong. She writes a clergyman like her father into her story. She names him Brocklehurst.
At age twenty-three, Charlotte had found work as a governess for a rich family. Her employer humiliated her and the children were rude, spitting at her. That’s when she and Emily went to Belgium where she knew she’d see much of the world, learn new things. She has Jane get work as a governess. At home, Charlotte’s sisters are writing their second novels, though Charlotte can’t write one word. Their brother spends every penny on drink and opiates. None have employment but the sisters are glad they have their writing and one another. It is Emily who waits up for their brother and puts him to bed when he comes home drunk. Their brother had once set the place on fire and Emily had rescued him and put out the fire.
Charlotte casts her Master H as Rochester. Will it help her get over her love-loss for him? Author Kohler describes the brother in detail: he’s been spoiled by his father and is able to draw, paint, write stories and to play the organ. They wrote stories together, he always wrote about violence, Charlotte wrote about the setting, the place so it sounded real.
A letter comes from their publisher, Newby. He will publish “Wuthering Heights” and “Agnes Grey”, but not Charlotte’s novel. She hopes they will refuse his offer, that they will not leave her out. But they go for it, Wuthering Heights is to be made into two volumes with changes. Charlotte wonders why they have succeeded and not her? She thinks Emily’s book is too disturbing and dreary. Emily knows cruelty and endurance are beautiful.
Anne feels she understands human nature; she watches and copies. She has described the hard work and humiliation of being a governess in her book. She was in love with her father’s curate, but he died young. Charlotte decides it will be the mad wife who will perish in the fire she has set. And Jane will return to her blinded Rochester whom she has loved from the beginning.
Charlotte feels it is not fair to her publisher, George Smith, to think that she has written all their novels herself. The sisters say she should tell her father first about their works. He can’t believe this, but she shows him the reviews which are marvelous. Soon she and Anne go to the office of her publisher, to confess her authorship. Smith looks at her tiny figure and cannot believe this small woman has written such a powerful novel. It has earned him much money. He invites her and Anne to the opera at the Royal Opera house with his mother and sisters. Charlotte is in her country dress, he is in a stylish suit. When Charlotte and Anne return to Haworth, tragedy strikes; her brother dies, then Emily, and then dearest Anne.
George pursues her for a time, but then, warned by his mother against too much involvement with her, stops writing letters. She had gone to Scotland with him and dreamt of starting a family with him. But she receives an announcement of his betrothal to another woman. In June of 1854 she marries her father’s curate, Arthur Ball Nicholls. She had recognized his passion and his faithfulness.
Does Charlotte finally find the love she has always craved? Does she gain the reputation and respect as an author for her novel “Jane Eyre”? Find this grand, well-researched novel that weaves fact and fiction, at your Mendocino Community Library.
Charlotte writes a novel while she sits with her father. Her first one has been rejected. At night, she dreams of her professor, M. H. They had first met when she and her sister Emily went to Brussels to an all girls school. M. H taught literature in French. She fell in love with the words he recited. She wanted to please him with her writing. She writes an autobiography, and invents a child she would like to be: bright, brave, imaginative. Charlotte tells herself she must not fall in love with her professor, a married man much older than she. They discuss books, her writing, history. He leaves little gifts for her. In the room with her father, she devises plots of one danger leading to another. One day, she and Emily go home for the funeral of her aunt. A letter from her Master comes, offering employment as teachers. But when she returns to Belgium to the school, he is cold to her and ignores her work. She knows his wife has poisoned his mind against her. She stops him in the garden but cannot speak the words she feels. She finds evidence of his presence in her desk, the smell of his cigar, the stub of a pencil.
Her father’s nurse wonders what the girl could have to say, with her nose always in a notebook, dowdy spinster that she is. The doctor removes the bandages and is pleased with the results. Father can see a little glow. She, in her writing, will vanquish all the fools who have degraded her, including her French master. Her desire to succeed is strong. She writes a clergyman like her father into her story. She names him Brocklehurst.
At age twenty-three, Charlotte had found work as a governess for a rich family. Her employer humiliated her and the children were rude, spitting at her. That’s when she and Emily went to Belgium where she knew she’d see much of the world, learn new things. She has Jane get work as a governess. At home, Charlotte’s sisters are writing their second novels, though Charlotte can’t write one word. Their brother spends every penny on drink and opiates. None have employment but the sisters are glad they have their writing and one another. It is Emily who waits up for their brother and puts him to bed when he comes home drunk. Their brother had once set the place on fire and Emily had rescued him and put out the fire.
Charlotte casts her Master H as Rochester. Will it help her get over her love-loss for him? Author Kohler describes the brother in detail: he’s been spoiled by his father and is able to draw, paint, write stories and to play the organ. They wrote stories together, he always wrote about violence, Charlotte wrote about the setting, the place so it sounded real.
A letter comes from their publisher, Newby. He will publish “Wuthering Heights” and “Agnes Grey”, but not Charlotte’s novel. She hopes they will refuse his offer, that they will not leave her out. But they go for it, Wuthering Heights is to be made into two volumes with changes. Charlotte wonders why they have succeeded and not her? She thinks Emily’s book is too disturbing and dreary. Emily knows cruelty and endurance are beautiful.
Anne feels she understands human nature; she watches and copies. She has described the hard work and humiliation of being a governess in her book. She was in love with her father’s curate, but he died young. Charlotte decides it will be the mad wife who will perish in the fire she has set. And Jane will return to her blinded Rochester whom she has loved from the beginning.
Charlotte feels it is not fair to her publisher, George Smith, to think that she has written all their novels herself. The sisters say she should tell her father first about their works. He can’t believe this, but she shows him the reviews which are marvelous. Soon she and Anne go to the office of her publisher, to confess her authorship. Smith looks at her tiny figure and cannot believe this small woman has written such a powerful novel. It has earned him much money. He invites her and Anne to the opera at the Royal Opera house with his mother and sisters. Charlotte is in her country dress, he is in a stylish suit. When Charlotte and Anne return to Haworth, tragedy strikes; her brother dies, then Emily, and then dearest Anne.
George pursues her for a time, but then, warned by his mother against too much involvement with her, stops writing letters. She had gone to Scotland with him and dreamt of starting a family with him. But she receives an announcement of his betrothal to another woman. In June of 1854 she marries her father’s curate, Arthur Ball Nicholls. She had recognized his passion and his faithfulness.
Does Charlotte finally find the love she has always craved? Does she gain the reputation and respect as an author for her novel “Jane Eyre”? Find this grand, well-researched novel that weaves fact and fiction, at your Mendocino Community Library.