April

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April is Currently Reading

April is currently reading

The Odyssey

by Homer

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Aug 03, 2026 01:16PM

April is currently reading

Jane Eyre

by Charlotte Brontë

bookshelves: classics, audiobook, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in June 2020

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April said: " How satisfying it is to have read another classic. The audiobook was very good. My version was read by Wanda McCaddon.

Most of you have read this already, but if you haven't I'm going to spoil it up.

I really enjoyed the tale and the concept of follo How satisfying it is to have read another classic. The audiobook was very good. My version was read by Wanda McCaddon.

Most of you have read this already, but if you haven't I'm going to spoil it up.

I really enjoyed the tale and the concept of following Jane her whole life through--to see how she was woven and changed by her life's circumstances and to see the woman she becomes.

I spent most of the middle section thinking, "Is THIS the book with the creepy attic wife? Or was that Wuthering Heights?" (I've remained mostly spoiler-free to the Bronte works).

My 4-stars comes from not liking the ending. I never *quite* got behind Mr. Rochester as a love interest. I really don't like the device of "I'm a jerk with a troubled past! Love me!" Strike 2 is the power dynamic between governess and master...and strike 3 is trying to marry someone when you're already married (and denying it, and lying about it, and then backtracking and trying to get Jane to live in France as his mistress).

When Jane ran away in the middle of the night, I was right behind her! I was so impressed with her character and moral fiber. What a woman of conviction and honor! And to do all that and end up begging and penniless only intensified the gravity of her choice. And she is narratively rewarded with new sibling-cousins and wealth!

Until Sinjin (This is what I thought his name was the whole audiobook! Finding out his name was St. John blew me away! It is pronounced Sinjin? What kind of name is that?) becomes the creepy cousin that wants to marry Jane for her work ethic and totally mentally abuses her. "God won't love you until you become my missionary wife! And if you don't, I'm not saying you'll go to hell, but...."

And then they just have this conversation in the woods about whether they should love each other as man and wife or brother and sister. Victorian times, you are weird!

And then she can't quite shake Mr. Rochester so the rest of the book is spent going back to finding him and living happily ever after. hmm. Again, I'd be more happy if in my reading I would have gotten behind the main love interest.

But quite a good ride! Thoroughly enjoyed for the most part. ...more "

progress:

(56%)
"(Spoilers)
“Oh! Yes! I will marry you! Just—and forgive me for asking—it’s just, that man you know? Last month? And how someone ate his arm in your house? Can we talk about that...? Just, just like, to clear the air between us. You know.”" — May 25, 2020 05:52PM

Jun 04, 2020 08:30AM · see review

April’s Quotes

“She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short.”
― Brian Andreas

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