Just some notes-to-self:I really liked this. I guess I'd always thought of Emily has being the "main" Bronte for some reason? Because of Wuthering Heights? And I don't know why I thought that. But I'm currently half-way through WH and Charlotte was just light years ahead, as far as story-telling ability. She tells a mean story, she gets you immediately engaged in Jane, she weaves the magical and dark and creepy superbly, nothing is plunked, everything fits seamlessly and feels right where it belongs in the world she creates.
She creates pathos but doesn't belabor it like Dickens.
She's funny! This stuff Jane says, especially to Rochester, right? Hilarious, and also, I imagine, extremely shocking for the time. What a strong, strong woman she created. Amazing. Just one of the best, most singular characters, of any book, ever.
Also: the parts where Jane is sitting on Rochester's knee. Totally hot, right? I was all: *fans self*
Meg had inserted a post-it into the copy she sent me, which said something to the effect of "This is the part where I'm usually crying, FYI". (Chapter XXIII). And she was right, but also the ending, the kind of homecoming, oh my gosh. It reminded me of the scene in the Lohan Parent Trap where Chessy realizes she's talking to Annie. God that scene. One of my all time very favorite scenes and also one of the only things on this planet guaranteed to reduce me to tears, and so, just to say, it was kind of like that for me.
Very very good, so glad I read it.