When I visited my parents a couple of weeks ago, my mom gave me a copy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This is one of my all-time favorite love stories. I don't recall reading this book before, but I do remember watching the 1983 BBC version of the movie {starring Timothy Dalton} with my parents. This version of the movie is a very good representation of the book.
The tale follows the orphan, Jane Eyre, as she grows up and becomes an independent woman {in spite of the many obstacles in her life}. The story is filled with the unexpected twists that keep you engrossed until the end.
Some excerpts from the book:
"If people were always kind and obedient to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked would have it all their own way; they would never feel afraid, and so would never alter, but would grow worse and worse." - Jane Eyre
"Would you not be happier if you tried to forger her severity, together with the passionate emotions it excited? Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity, or registered wrongs." - Helen Burns
"A wanderer's repose or a sinner's reformation should never depend on a fellow creature. Men and women die; philosophers falter in wisdom and Christians in goodness; if anyone you know has suffered and erred, let him look higher than his equals for strength to amend and solace to heal." - Jane Eyre
It was not without a certain wild pleasure I ran before the wind, delivering my trouble of mind to the measureless air torrent thundering through space.
The whole consciousness of my life lorn, my love lost, my hope wrenched, my faith death-struck, swayed full and mighty above me in one sullen mass. That bitter hour cannot be described: in truth, "the waters came into my soul; I sank in deep mire: I felt no standing; I came into deep waters; the floods overflowed me."
Laws and principles are not for times where there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they, inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?
I love this sentence: "it was not without a certain wild pleasure I ran before the wind, delivering my trouble of mind to the measureless air torrent thundering through space."
ReplyDeleteMakes me want to read it again.