<p>NJTheatreMOM, I started to read the first few pages and felt disoriented. I didn’t have a sense of who the narrator is and where the action is taking place. The colloquial talk also confused me, and there were a number of head-scratching SAT-type words. Hmmpff!</p>
<p>The “denture” story made me laugh, and I am continuing on, albeit slowly. The theme of colonization is beginning to register (and coincidentally, provides a link to our discussion of JE/WSS). From the first paragraph:</p>
<p>“If there be any eyrie so desolate, or isle so remote, that one may there resort unchallenged by an Englishman, 'tis not down on any map I ever saw.”</p>
<p>I was relieved when I saw that the BabyLit books were not really toddler versions, but counting books (with nice illustrations). Lots of counting books have themes that appeal more to the parents–but the kids don’t care!</p>
<p>Psychmom, if I had picked up Cloud Atlas without knowing anything about it, I might have been so confused and antagonized by the first few pages that I would not have kept on reading. </p>
<p>Thank goodness for the rave reviews that correctly predicted what a treat I was in for.</p>
<p>In the Adam Ewing section, David Mitchell is purposely writing in the style of Herman Melville! Other parts of the book are completely different, I can assure you.</p>
<p>If you are ever in the mood for a little commentary to accompany your reading of Cloud Atlas, this link might help:</p>
<p>(I’m not sure I understand what the commentator is saying about Nietzsche. Nevertheless, his summaries of the various sections are pretty good.)</p>
<p>NJTM, I think I am on my way! The voyage has begun and I have just learned of the Moriori stowaway. Thanks for the help…it’s good to know you guys are out there and that I may not have to pick out a dress for Lizzie afterall. ;)</p>
<p>Just started Cloud Atlas, and appreciate comments posted above. NJTheater Mom should our link be read during or after reading the book ?</p>
<p>Also, NY Times Book Review article thought you might find interesting. Sir Andrew Motion’s article about “prequels or sequels”— TO BE CONTINUED</p>
<p>**the best sequels enrich and extend the oringinal story, but they do not treat it as an unfinished work that needs completion" **</p>
<p>He discusses WSS- as an example </p>
<p>…A similar kind of ingenuity — although less flashily done — appears in “Wide Sargasso Sea,” in which Jean Rhys imagines the life of the first Mrs. Rochester in “Jane Eyre.” In the novel’s luscious yet brilliantly well-organized prose, the “mad woman in the attic” is given a background, a life, a love and a tragedy that make it impossible for anyone who’s read it to think in the same way again about her husband in his subsequent Bront</p>
<p>Great article about prequels and sequels, NJCM!</p>
<p>I’m still trying to get my hands on a copy of the book of literary criticism called “The Madwoman in the Attic” that Garland mentioned. When I do, I’ll post here if I find anything especially illuminating in it.</p>
<p>My link in post #283 above about “Cloud Atlas” does not really contain any significant spoilers, but reading it might take away a bit of the sense of discovery that you’d have if you didn’t read it. </p>
<p>I tend to be of the opinion that in a work of creative imagination, the writing and the details matter more than the plot. To my mind, the enjoyment of worthwhile literature can’t really be spoiled by having information about the plot.</p>
<p>Regarding Cloud Atlas, I decided to read a few reviews on Amazon to assist with the launching, enough to pique my interest without giving too much away.</p>
<p>I am up to the third story and while it’s still pretty much disjointed, I have faith that it will come together in the end. This is one gifted writer. Really loved the Frobisher character.</p>
<p>Well, I finished (finally - never a good sign) The Flight of Gemma Hardy. I’ll damn it with faint praise: the author paints a vivid picture of the Orkney Islands and Iceland, settings in the book. Other than that …</p>
<p>Its been a while since this threads discussion of Jane Eyre ended, but I wanted to share some insights about it from a book of literary criticism that was mentioned by Garland in posts #104 and 107 above.</p>
<p>The book in question is The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, 1979, by Sandra M Gilbert and Susan Gruber. It took me several weeks to obtain through my library, but it was worth the trouble because I found some very interesting observations in it.</p>
<p>In the preface to the book, the authors state that the idea for it came from their having encountered a surprising coherence of theme and imagery in literature written by woman. Repeatedly, in literature from various genres and time periods, their studies found:</p>
<p>-Fantasies in which maddened doubles functioned as asocial surrogates for docile selves;</p>
<p>-Images of enclosure and escape;</p>
<p>-Metaphors of physical discomfort manifested in frozen landscapes and fiery interiors. </p>
<p>The Madwoman in the Attic is a close study of the literature produced by women in the nineteenth century, the first era in which female authorship was no longer in some sense anomalous.</p>
<p>One whole section of the book is devoted to Charlotte Brontë. Other authors who are examined include Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë and George Eliot.</p>
<p>The authors find the red-room scene near the beginning of Jane Eyre to be very important.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In the red-room, Jane meditated on the injustices of her life and fantasized about running away or starving herself to death. However, the authors note that what actually happened was that Jane had a sort of fit and lost consciousness. This can be interpreted as an escape through madness.</p>
<p>The authors of The Madwoman in the Attic make an interesting observation about the name Eyre:
<a href=“Jane”>quote</a> is invisible as air, the heir to nothing, secretly choking with ire.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>They also point out the following:</p>
<p>-Miss Temple at Lowood represents both purity and repression.</p>
<p>-Helen Burns burns with spiritual passion and is carried off by a fever.</p>
<p>-Diana and Mary Rivers, Janes true sisters, recall the Great Mother in her dual aspects of Diana the huntress and Mary the virgin mother.</p>
<p>-They note that St John has an almost blatantly patriarchal name, one which recalls the masculine abstraction of the gospel according to St John and the disguised misogyny of St John the Baptist, who had a patristic and evangelical contempt for the flesh.</p>
<p>The authors of The Madwoman in the Attic find much support in the text for the idea of Bertha as a symbolic representation of the darker aspects of Janes nature. Here are a few examples:</p>
<p>-All of Berthas manifestations in the story are associated with an experience (or repression) of anger on Janes part.</p>
<p>-The imprisoned Bertha, running on all fours in the attic, recalls the bad animal who was the ten-year-old Jane, imprisoned in the red room, howling and mad.</p>
<p>-Berthas goblin appearance recalls Rochesters lovers epithets for Jane, such as malicious elf, sprite, and changeling.</p>
<p>-It is only after the death of Bertha that Jane is freed of the furies that torment her. Her eventual marriage of equality with Rochester reflects a new wholeness within herself.</p>
<p>Janes reunion with Rochester at Ferndean, and her marrying him and settling there, are made possible by her new independence (she is more mature and self-confident, and she is also an heiress) and by Rochesters new humility.</p>
<p>The authors of The Madwoman in the Attic note that:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“Charlotte%20Bront%C3%AB”>quote</a> was able to act out that passionate drive toward freedom which offended agents of the status quo, but in none (of her books) was she able consciously to define the full meaning of achieved freedom perhaps because not one of her contemporaries could adequately describe a society so drastically altered that the matured Jane and Rochester could really live in it.
<p>NJTheatreMom, thank you for sharing those nuggets of thought on Jane Eyre. Some really interesting stuff there. I’m especially intrigued with the analysis of the name “Eyre”. It’s always struck me as distinctive and have wondered if it had significance.</p>
<p>Just re-read Daniel Deronda. So, so good. </p>
<p>Have you all started Cloud Atlas yet? I’m reading Didion’s recent book of essays that could co-exist pretty well with another book in my life right now.</p>
<p>Note: Today’s posts #290 through #296 above all reflect comments about “Jane Eyre” that I found in the book “The Madwoman in the Attic.” I divided this material up into six posts because one post seemed way too long.</p>
<p>Sewhappy, the discussion of Cloud Atlas started today. I had been dragging my feet about typing out all this Madwoman in the Attic material and was finally motivated to get it done by the advent of the eve of the Cloud Atlas discussion!</p>
<p>I always considered Adele to be Rochester’s daughter. Still I doubt he knows for sure and his disavowal of paternity can be part bitterness for the way Adele’s mother betrays him. Still I don’t think he would have Adele with him if he didn’t acknowledge - at least to himself - the possibility that he fathered her. (He shoulders financial responsibility while disclaiming both Bertha as wife and Adele as daughter.) </p>
<p>Funny that you pulled up this thread today. I finally watched *Jane Eyre<a href=“2011”>/I</a> and Wide Sargasso Sea this weekend. I liked the BBC WSS. I didn’t particularly like the version of JE I watched, preferring the 2006 Masterpiece Theatre version.</p>