and just then...

Today we have the lovely letter J.  And there is only one real choice here for me.  What to know what it is?  Keep reading!

Jane Eyre

As far as classics go, I read this one early, and it captured me.  My aunt gave me both Jane Eyre and Vanity Fair one year for Christmas, and I must have been about 13.  I devoured Bronte's novel, but never could get a handle on Thackery (I've tried many a time to read it, but I only get about three chapters in before I abandon it--I watched the movie and felt like abandoning it, too, so I've given up on it for good now!).

But Jane, that austere, withdrawn-yet-deeply-feeling girl, she and I connected.  I have a feeling that many of my ideas of deep, romantic love, stem out of this story more than any other (even my much more beloved Jane Austen!).

I've only read the book two or maybe three times, but in the last ten years I've become rather obsessed with watching movie versions.  To date, I've seen at least four, if not five or six, of the versions.  And there are many more to track down and view!

Somehow, this young, mistreated governess speaks to me.  She tells me about strength, about doing the right thing, about love that is worth walking away from to make it even more pure.  That's a lot for such a young girl to teach.  But she does it well.

So far, I've enjoyed all the movie versions, but one (I can't remember which off the top of my head) left out the ripping of the wedding veil, which is one of the BEST scenes, and I just couldn't understand why you would leave out such a well-known and haunting scene, but one director did.

And my obsession with Jane led me to also venture into the world of Thursday Next (another literary character) who first appears in the book The Eyre Affair...yes, they are connected, in a most delightful way!

Note: Jane Eyre is the only Bronte story I have ever read.  I hated Wuthering Heights and never finished it, and I've never picked up anything by Anne...