Book: “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë.
Rating: 4/5 stars

Orphaned into the household of her unwilling Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a wider and richer life than Victorian society traditionally allowed. With a heroine full of yearning, the dangerous secrets she encounters, and the choices she finally makes, Charlotte Bronte's innovative and enduring romantic novel continues to engage and provoke readers.
I loved re-reading this book, though I’d forgotten almost all of the second half of the book from whenever I read it the first time. I love that she knows full well that she isn’t pretty, but still values herself highly because of her intelligence. I love that she refuses to marry a man that she does not love. I love that this novel was a romance, but that the characters had redeeming qualities beyond their love for each other, even though they were both ‘plain-looking.’
I have to be honest, though. I didn’t much like Rochester. He was high-handed and often rude to Jane, and his secret is one that should never have been kept from Jane as a member of the house, no matter how embarrassing it was. I did, however, enjoy the banter between them, and that she never pretended he was handsome.
I also intensely disliked his general disownment of Adele, who may not have been his daughter, but he was raising her. She deserved his love, and got maybe a small amount of grudging affection from him. I’m glad that Jane seemed to love her, though I wish we could have had a little more information about the child.
Aunt Reed was a horror, as she was supposed to be, and I have to admit that I was glad when her son died. I wish we could have met Uncle Reed, but given how spoiled his children were, I imagine that I might not have liked him that much, either, despite how fond Jane’s memories of him were.
Some of the plot points were a bit unrealistic –

the chances of her finding her only relations in all of England are incredibly slim

, and the deus ex machine was odd, but it was supposed to be a little bit fantastic in order to remove it slightly from reality, given the time period.
This was a very enjoyable read, though I had forgotten how long it felt to read, and I can see where it loses a lot of people. It’s written in an appropriately old-fashioned style, it’s not a traditional love story, and the characters are not all that pretty/handsome, and it felt really long despite only being like 300 pages for me.
I think my favorite quote is one from Helen Burns, who died far too soon, in my opinion, and that’s how I’ll end this, because it became such a great part of Jane’s character, “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.”