One of the greatest love stories ever written, Jane Eyre is the tale of a young woman entangled with the powerful Mr Rochester. What lurks in the attic at Thornfield, the ancestral home of the surly Mr Rochester? Will the governess Jane Eyre discover his secret – and having discovered it, live to regret that knowledge? Battling inside Jane are passion and prudence; she struggles to survive the turmoil they cause.
eMusic Review 0
09.17.07
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
2007 | Label: Naxos AudioBooks
The standard against which most contemporary romantic fiction is held.
160 years after it was first published, Jane Eyre may still be the standard against which most contemporary romantic fiction is held. The penniless orphan's struggle to overcome an emotionally barren childhood home, a cruel boarding school setting and other financial indignities afford Jane a sense of dignity and inner strength — and eventually leads her to the house of Mr. Rochester, the brooding, mysterious man who will become Jane's great love and greatest tragedy.
With such a well-read, much argued classic, the reader will likely bring preconceived notions to a first listen, but veteran British actress Emma Fielding manages the neat trick of keeping the novel fresh and alive. With a variety of accents at her disposal, Fielding takes the on-the-page tension between Jane and her tormentors and the smoldering chemistry between heroine and anti-hero on the page and creates extra layers of depth that hold the listener in new thrall. Occasionally Fielding's vocalizing leads to a clash between how a character should sound and does sound (her Mr. Rochester, for example, is not as spot-on as her Jane) but it's clear the actress is enjoying her rendition of the novel — and her enthusiasm transmits itself clearly.