Lost In The Plot discussion

Everyone excited to start Jane Eyre today?? It's been a couple months since I've read a book with over 400 pages but I'm excited to cozy up every night and delve into this classic.

yes, so excited!!!

Hello lovelies. I hope you’re enjoying Jane Eyre so far. I realised that the old English language used in this story may be too difficult for some as I know we’ve got some people in this group who’s first language isn’t English (including myself). For those of you who are struggling to understand the story because of the language, here is a link to an easier version you can read online (the story is still fully the same)

https://app.adaptivereader.com/jane-e...

Hope this helps some of y’all.

Much love and happy reading xx Iwana

It was quite difficult at the start, but I have used chat gpt to give me a summary after each chapter, so I make sure I get the key points right. Liking the book very much so far!

Hello, I was so excited to start this book because it is my first time joining a book club.
I am thrilled to do so because I’m learning so much, I’m loving the book so far, and English is not my first language nor my second haha, but I seem to be understanding Jane and her way of articulating her words, i realized that the English was very old and complicated sometimes, but everytime I come across a new word I make sure to translate it in my mother language so I can move on. Anyway thank you so much Iwana for choosing this book it’s amazing so far.

Hello lovelies,

How is everyone enjoying the Jane Eyre story so far?? I held a poll in the broadcast channel over on instagram and we decided to extend our reading time for Jane Eyre by two weeks since most people haven't managed to finish it yet. So instead of discussing it on the 31st of August we will discuss it on the 15th of September. Then for the last two weeks of September we will read a very short book so we still get a 'September read' in :) Hope that's okay with everyone!! Much Love, Iwana !!

Hey, I just finished it and it was 2.75 stars for me, I think it was a book that didn't really grab me and that was a big problem,and also Rochester made me so mad, sometimes I just closed the book and took a deep breath. But apart from that, my rate was really due to the beautiful writing of the dialogs and the great expression of the mind of a woman of that time that Charlotte Bronte did. It made me sad for Jane, it made mad, and it made proud of her. She's a great character for sure!

Although it was a rather long story, I found every chapter interesting in it‘s own way. You could never be sure of what was to happen next:

… would she get to go to school and get a fresh start even with her stepmother destroying her reputation from the beginning?

… would she end up in a good household?

… would she stay homeless?

… would she be gaslit by her cousin to join him on his missionary travels and to marry him to make her his „property“? He told her she would go to hell if she didn‘t withdrew all his love for her to punish her into joining him… wth

… would she find her love again and would he still be alive?

Jane is a truly lovable character, since she has no faults really… even with the way the world has treated her she always found a way to feel graditude and love for what she had.
Even at her young age she was rarely unforgiving towards the ones that hurt her. She forgave while keeping her principles straight and standing by her choices. Truly admirable!

Hello lovelies! Tomorrow we will chat about Jane Eyre!! And then for the remaining two weeks we will read “Perks Of Being A Wallflower” as a bonus book for those who want to participate <3 speak tomorrow xx

First off, the old English was hard to follow at times and made the book harder to get through, especially when not much was happening in the story. I think it was chapter 14 that I did not follow a word spoken by Mr Rochester and gave up trying to understand. This also made it harder to paint a picture in my head of the imagery.

Here are my unorganized thoughts on the actual story:
If Jane had been older the love story would have been sweeter, and Mr Rochester kept calling her little and a lamb which was always od. Never mind the fact that he was lying to her. Anyway they truly loved each other, cute. I was so proud of her for standing up for herself, she always did truly know her heart.
I can’t believe the coach took her last shillings and dropped her in the middle of nowhere when she escaped Thornfield. Did the driver just have no empathy whatsoever.
Why did Jane not think of her to mention her uncle when the Rivers asked if she had any relatives. Or when she fled as well, like girl lock in.
When St. John said “I claim you” that was yuck. And cousins come on, cut this girl a break. So glad she knew her heart once again.
The drama of the whole story was fantastic.
Jane listening to her gut and her intuition was very admirable. She always stood up for herself and knew her worth, especially in a time when women were more so seen as less than, and objectified. It’s very clear how this story has such a huge impact , and written by a woman none the less is beautiful and so powerful.
The end of the story was quite cute, she found her much deserved happily ever after.

Overall I think this was a really cozy read and would have been really nice in the winter with some hot chocolate.
My rating is a 6/10

My review of Jane Eyre

Okay first things first, I feel like this review is slightly invalid because I had to read a slightly simplified version of the story. I tried really really hard to get through it in the old English language but there were SO many words I did not understand it would’ve taken me a year to look each of them up and get through the story. It also would have made it unenjoyable so I chose the simplified route instead. A bit sad since I know the way that Charlotte wrote and described things is supposed to be beautiful. I will take on that challenge another time.

Despite missing out on the language aspect I really really enjoyed reading this story. I don’t know how to explain it but it felt like a REAL story like I enjoyed it the way I feel a book should be enjoyed. There is so much packed into this book and every part of it was intriguing.

Getting to read about Jane’s childhood really helped plant seeds on the reasons for her interactions and look on live later in the story. I’m glad Charlotte gave us this foundation the the story. Because just like in real life so much is shaped in a characters life when they are young.

I so loved reading about the friendships and other relationships like that between her and miss temple, Helen, Diana and Mary and even Bessie. Because the book is written in first person it was very easy for me to also get attached to these characters that Jane speaks so fondly of and in turn I grieved a little when these characters left the story in one way or another. The same goes for the characters Jane was less fond of and thus made this story so emotionally involving for me, which I enjoyed.

Mr Rochester… I still don’t know how I feel about him. I know that throughout the story I was routing for them and I am glad the story ended the way it did. But when I actually think about his character I question how much I actually like him haha. Jane is very good at convincing me otherwise. And to be honest I suppose she had the same issue. Although she never ever stopped loving him she knew she had to leave Thornfield Hall after the lies and stood her ground until she felt it was okay to let her feelings take over again. So respect to you Jane for listening to your integrity.

As for st. John rivers, no…just no

Let’s talk about Jane herself. I loveeee her character. Genuinely she was such an enjoyable protagonist to read about. From the very beginning I wished her the best and was rooting for things to go in her favour. Despite all the hardship she lived through, some of it genuinely capable of breaking people, she remained sweet and loving and positive. And although she sometimes got close to being persuaded into things she didn’t want she stayed strong.

Right, so overall I would give this a 4/5 (I only took a star off because I didn’t get to read the book as it was actually meant to be read. So that’s my fault not Charlottes) what did y’all think of this story?

The fact that this book was first published in 1847 really amazed me. I don’t think I’ve ever read a novel from that period before.

It made me curious about what life might have been like for Charlotte Brontë.

Knowing the time in which it was written helped me put certain social constructs and situations into perspective.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I devoured it like I would binge-watch a TV series. I liked that it’s written in the first person — it feels like I got to be there with Jane and accompany her throughout her life.

The only part I almost stopped reading was when St. John Rivers wanted to marry Jane. I thought: After everything we’ve been through, this can’t possibly be how the story ends. So I was kind of relieved that Jane and Mr. Rochester ended up together — even though I’m not really a fan of him either I was still secretly rooting for them.

I’d give it a 7 out of 10.

finally finished 🙌🙌🙌

so first of all I feel like this was partially my fault. I ended up feeling quite rushed as I didn’t properly get into until quite late in the month. this meant instead of having a couple chapters or so to read every evening I had to commit to hours of reading at a time 😭 this made the experience somewhat un enjoyable and it felt like a mammmmmoth to get through.

however in terms of the actual book. because I read books like this in school aka wuthering heights it did feel slightly academic and more of a hard core book to read rather than something chill. I’m not saying this was a bad thing but it did take a lot more brain power if that makes sense. when you do think of the history of the author and the time this was wrote it does add to the experience and it’s no doubt a very well written story.

I did become very connected to jane and it came to life in my visuals quite easily. she was a very likeable character and had a lot of personality traits which I also aspire to have. there’s definitely certain feelings I had towards the men in her life but I did have a smile on my face when she was reunited with mr rochester. the love was real and her commitment to him despite anything was quite emotional to read.

I rated this book 4/5 which is quite high considering I found it quite a slog, but when I reflect I do feel that it’s because I didn’t give it enough space and time to fully enjoy and the actual story and writing was a good read.