Jane Eyre - Book Review

Today I really must give a nod to one of the classics that you may have been forced to read in school. I was not, and read it voluntarily in my young adult hood. I still go back and read it from time to time. I suppose I could make a set of deep scholarly remarks on this classic the truth is that I just really enjoy the book. There are many lines that bring a smile to my face just by thinking about them and I genuinely admire the main character. There are several scenes that after having read I just wanted to sit and think about. One of them is the scene in which Jane had left Thornfield and is walking the country side with ever mounting hunger, dependent on the kindness of strangers. The sheer isolation and lack of social supports as she found herself starving really struck me.

At the time I was writing the first draft of Sacrifice and had hit a block. Kalli, my main character, was about to be taken to see a play by the Crown Prince and I wanted to add some details. I figured that if the scene had affected me so strongly when reading Jane Eyre that it wouldn’t be a terrible way to start the play in my novel. As it turns out the play itself became a reoccuring theme within the novel, reappearing at least 3 times through out the novel.

You may think me strange, but one of the other parts of Jane Eyre is the Preface to the second edition. A section is show above and every time I read it I get shivers down my back. There are a couple of classical Prefaces that just hold me in awe as the work endures and the message that was intended of people almost 175 years ago still rings true today. This Preface was a part of the inspiration for my (as of yet) unpublished book, The Ember in the Ashes. All in all I can’t say enough good things about a book that inspired me twice over.

Want to see the play inspired by Jane Eyre? Chapter 7 of Sacrifice is now available on Wattpad.