Teaser Tuesday: “Jane Eyre”

~ James Viscosi

So this week I was reading this book called Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë. Maybe you’ve heard of it.

Artist’s rendition of my wife giving Chaplin a look when he starts harassing his sister(s)

Wife (surprised): “You’ve never read Jane Eyre?”
Me: “I never got around to it.”
Wife: “I’m not sure it’s your kind of book.”
Me: “It seems okay so far. Kinda gothic. There might be a ghost. Besides, I read lots of different stuff. I’ve liked all the Jane Austen I’ve read so far.”
Wife: “I don’t like Jane Austen.”
Me: “Whaaaat? Not even Pride and Prejudice?”
Wife: “Nope. They made us read it at school.”

I’m not sure where my copy of Jane Eyre came from; I certainly didn’t go out of my way to acquire it. Most likely it was pre-loaded on one of the various eReaders I’ve acquired over the years, and just finally drifted to the top of the reading queue now*.

Anyway, even though I never read Jane Eyre, I do know some stuff about it. For instance, when the name of the owner of the estate at which Jane Eyre becomes employed as a governess is revealed:

Me: “Ohhh, this is the book with Mr. Rochester in it!”
Wife: “So you have read it?”
Me: “No, I’ve just heard of Mr. Rochester via cultural osmosis.”

Anyway, that brings us to this week’s Teaser, in which Jane Eyre has just put out a fire in the sleeping Mr. Rochester’s canopy bed:

The hiss of the quenched element, the breakage of a pitcher which I flung from my hand when I had emptied it, and, above all, the splash of the shower-bath I had liberally bestowed, roused Mr. Rochester at last. Though it was now dark, I knew he was awake; because I heard him fulminating strange anathemas at finding himself lying in a pool of water.

That second sentence has got to be the greatest description I have ever seen of somebody cursing up a blue streak. In fact I was so enamored of it I read it out loud to my wife.

Me: “‘I heard him fulminating strange anathemas at finding himself lying in a pool of water.’ I love that sentence.”
Wife: (makes the grunting noise equivalent of “yes dear”)

This scene in particular triggered another memory of Jane Eyre that I had also picked up by cultural osmosis. Umm, spoiler alert for a nearly 180-year-old novel, I guess?

Me: “Mr. Rochester has a crazy wife locked in the attic, doesn’t he?”
Wife: “Yup.”
Me: “Did you ever read the book that starts with something like ‘Last night I dreamed again of Manderley’***?”
Wife: “I don’t think so. What was it called?”
Me (thinks for a minute): “Rebecca.”
Wife: “Who wrote it?”
Me: “Daphne du Maurier.”
Wife: “What else did she write?”
Me: “……. Stuff?**** Anyway it also has a crazy person in the attic.”
Wife (beat): “If you give it to me, I’ll read it.”

So I guess we are on a “crazy person in the attic” kick now … 🤷‍♂️

* It’s in the 2019** folder, which I think is when I picked up an InkBook Focus, so it was probably that one.
** Yeah I have a pretty long reading queue.
*** Actually it’s “Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again.”, but close enough I guess.
**** Stuff like The Birds, for instance. Wow, really? Rebecca and The Birds???

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Published by James Viscosi

15 thoughts on “Teaser Tuesday: “Jane Eyre””

  1. Nor can I stand Jane Austen. I MADE myself read P&P a couple of years ago because cultural osmosis (love that phrase) seemed lacking on this book in the circles I frequent. It. Was. Awful. Who the heck cares what every character is feeling every single minute or if she gets Mr. Darcy? This is also the reason I don’t read Russian novels. However, Jane Eyre is one of my all-time favorite books. (I’ve read it maybe 5 times) And, it’s one of the few “romances” I can tolerate. After a lot of years to cogitate (one thing I do have a lot of is years), I’ve decided that the way a book gets on my A-TF list is that it has more than one character I strongly identify with. That said, I reread Green Mansions a couple of years ago which was required Jr. Hi reading for me. It wasn’t quite on the A-TF, but I found it oddly disturbing and it stuck with me. However, the adult reading left me wondering (yet again) where my jr-hi self was located in the emotional universe. P.S. I love/hate the name Bertha Poole. It has sort of an onomatopoeic disgusting bubbly, moist, sucking aspect.

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    1. Ha, yeah, the vibe here in “Jane Eyre” is MUCH different than any of the Austen stuff I’ve read. If Lizzie Bennet ever talked to ANYONE the way that Jane talks to Mr. Rochester, she would probably wash her own mouth out with soap!

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  6. That’s what the did back in the msits of time: locked the crazy women in the attic. Wonder why no men ever ended up in the attic!! I believe in equality!!! ROFL!!!! I always get “Jane Eyre” & “Wuthering Heights” mixed up. Tell KJ we had “P & P” stuffed down our throats in High School too….I did read it 14 years ago & I REALLY enjoyed it…go figure!?!?

    🙂 Sherri-Ellen (BellaSita Mum) & ***purrss*** BellaDharma

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