I'm sorry, but I'm kind of a European Historical junkie.

Just finished Jane Eyre at 1+ this morning. Around 510 pages.. took me 5 days to wade through the stuff. I finished the 7th Harry Potter book in 7-8 hours. You can imagine how heavy and complex the way of writing was.

But it was worth it. :) Really beautiful stuff. In its description, the language, everything.. (though if I'm being honest with myself, I skimmed the lengthy depictions of scenery.) I did try to absorb every sentence. :D

Mind you, the Gothic level was like 8.5 out of 10. Dreary setting.. a downright horrific character. Omigosh the hero's (Mr. Rochester's) scary madwoman first wife is like.. a Caucasian version of the girl from The Ring/Ju-On. o.o

Dark, depressing scenes and sentences aside, there are many lyrical, poignant lines.. and they outnumber the eerie ones by far. Essentially, this novel revolves around feminism and a woman's fierce independence. She's a very head-over-heart type of woman. All this and more makes me kinda pity the two guys in my lit class since it is a part of our syllabus. Well, hope the gothic elements make up for it? haha.

"He is not of your order: keep your caste, and be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and strength, where such a gift is not wanted, and would be despised."

"I had not intended to love him: the reader knows I have wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and no, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, green and strong! He made me love him without looking at me."

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Just for your info, this book is included in practically any and every formally done list of top 100 books ever. If you don't believe me, try searching and prove me wrong.
P.S. Yy, the same can be said for Great Gatsby too! Only on American lists though. Brits are quite snobbish, I must admit, as they seem to mainly acknowledge British works.

Next up, I should pick up Wuthering Heights. Supposed to be better than Jane Eyre. :O The authors of both books were sisters by the way. Talk about sibling rivalry.

Trivia tidbit: Mia Wasikowska, the girl who plays Alice in the upcoming Tim Burton movie, is also going to act as Jane Eyre in a new movie adaptation of the novel next year. Ahah coincidence much?

..I realise many of you will not be able to relate to this post in any way.. except maybe Germaine, fellow lit enthusiast. :D hii ger, if you have time to read this. I bet UK's the bombb. Can't wait to hear all about it when you're back here in April!

I actually turned my laptop on so that I could finish my psychology essays, not to blog about a 19th century novel.. anyway, 3 more to go! -.-