 |
| Decorative element of preface in Jane Eyre : an autobiography (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I thought I enjoyed long descriptive writing when exceptionally well done. And I know I enjoy natural things. I can almost lose myself sitting in a garden gazing at sky, flowers, or trees, especially tall pines.
However, I have recently learned that I can get too much of even the best writing; this realization came as I was re-reading Jane Eyre while on several days' break recently.
The wake-up happened at the point where Jane learned of Mr. Rochester's love for her, and soon after came another long description of gardens, sky, breezes, and an insect, and I realized I had had enough of garden descriptions, sky, and wind, if not many moths. I then considered myself to be so shallow, after all; but I had to confess to myself and put the book down for a long rest before I might run into more of nature's details.
A film version of Jane Eyre that I'd not seen before had, just before I began the re-reading, come to my attention on vacation as I languished with a Kindle reader sans Jane Eyre. I realized that the movie version had been shortened more than others. I sort of fussed about this abbreviation, thereby showing the romantic (including shades of the purist) tendencies that sometimes emerge within me. I wanted "the whole thing," and that's what led to downloading a free copy for the free Kindle reader on my gift iPad (all of that to reinforce my practical side).
I thought I wanted the whole thing until I got the book, read excitedly up to about the middle, and then began to yawn, not for lack of sleep, but from impatience. "Get on with it!" I wanted to shout to that amazing author.
"There are some things we believe we want until we get them," and the expression remains classically true. When the full, unabridged version of a book, object, or person emerges, we may realize that this was not the story, thing, or real life character we anticipated.
Jane Eyre shows the author's impressive insights gained during a seemingly, perhaps deceivingly (to our thinking) sparse existence; Charlotte Bronte was one of three children of a struggling, devout parson. Whereas Emily, her sister, showed the power of open emotional passions and attachments (Wuthering Heights), Charlotte showed the equal power of hidden emotional fires, the creative and the destructive (remember the third floor occupant) in Jane Eyre.
Both Bronte women found expression for intense longing, sometimes unassuaged, sometimes self-controlled. Readers have not changed in willing responses to such themes well and powerfully developed. That's why Jane Eyre, in spite of passages we might begin to skim over, remains a gripping story of immense depth across multiple layers.
In that final assessment, I think we have not changed so much.
No comments:
Post a Comment