Welcome to my feature, Pastime Pleasures, posted every other Friday. Today is the turn of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
Here I will look at books that have given me great pleasure in the past. These are books I can read over and over again. The only rule is that the book must have been published five or more years ago.
This was one of the first classics I read when I was younger when I went through a faze of trying to read the classics. After attempting and failing at Dickens this was a welcome relief.
Jane Eyre is beautiful. I love how there are different sections of the book. It is one of the few where I could pretty read from any page and instantaneously know where I am in the story and be fully emerged. I do not have to read the whole book, I can read sections, I can drop in when I feel like it. And this is what makes it so good.
Jane may be plain, but it is her qualities and her personality, her honesty and her abilities to be practical that allow her to be successful. She does not scheme or manipulate. She is herself throughout the entire book, sometimes to a fault. But it is this strength and courage for her to remain how she is, refusing to change than makes Jane a strong character and allows her to be admired.
Jane Eyre shows that it is necessary to persevere, to go on a journey. In the end everything has a purpose and getting there will be worth it.
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
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