Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Published originally 1847
Source: downloaded this one from Librivox

Summary From Goodreads:
Orphaned into the abusive household of her 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.

My Thoughts:
The fact that this is my third (fourth?) reading of Jane Eyre is probably enough to let you know that I love this novel; it is one of my all-time favorite books. I loved it from the first time I read it, wrapped up as I was in empathy for Jane and the improbable romance. Rereading Jane Eyre has done nothing to dim my first impressions; instead it has served to convince me of the brilliance of Charlotte Bronte.

Jane has long been maligned as being too passive, the book of being nothing more than a Cinderella story. To some extent, that's true. Jane is an orphan, abused by the very person trusted to care for her, "saved" by a wealthy man who loves her despite the fact that she is below his station. She is a girl who understands that her poverty and lack of connections severely impaired her prospects in 18th-century England.

“Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are!”

Bur she is so much more than a patsy who spent her life under one person or another's thumb. When her cousins picked on her, she stood up to them; when her aunt verbally abused her, Jane told her aunt just what she thought of her. She didn't back down from Mr. Rochester any more than she had the head of the orphanage despite the fact that both might easily have made her life miserable. Truly, the only time when Jane lost herself entirely was when she was most overcome by her own morality, not so much that she fell under the spell of someone stronger.

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”

When doing what her heart desired would have compromised her morals and integrity, Jane stood firm. Only when her path was clear, when she was able to find herself on equal footing, then was she able to make her way back to happiness.

Is it wordy? Yes it is. It's an eighteen-century novel; aren't they all? But this time, perhaps more than any of the other times I've read this one, I really appreciated every word that Bronte chose.

Life: It Goes On - March 29

Seriously? March is almost over? How did that happen?

It's been a busy parenting month around here, something I didn't necessarily think I'd be saying when all of my kids were grown adults. Miss H has had one malady after another these past few months and has needed more mothering than she did before she moved out including spending three nights with us this past week.

This week has been all about getting ready for Mini-him's ready to move today. We went through everything we've been storing the past couple of years and found some surprises, many of which found their way to the Goodwill or the garbage. Helped me reach my 40 Bags in 40 Days goal! Tonight we will officially, for the first time, be empty nesters. For now.

This Week I'm:

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse
in Silk Stockings

Listening To: I finished Jane Eyre on audio Friday so will start a new audiobook tomorrow but I'll decide which one when I get in my car. I'm thinking Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close but I might want to wait for that one until I have time to do a read/listen combination.

Watching: The Big Guy was out of town most of the work so I got control of the t.v. and, for once, there were actually things on that I wanted to watch when that happened. On my half day, TCM showed movie musicals (Silk Stockings, Kiss Me Kate, High Society) - perfect backdrop for my projects.

Reading: I'm just about finished with Light In August. It's been slow going, especially when I didn't have a lot of time to devote to it this week. When I'm finished, I feel I'll need something light, perhaps Let's Pretend This Never Happened.

Making: Orange chicken stir-fry, chicken stroganoff (why doesn't spell check know this word??)...not much else. Two dinners at my parents' this weekend, one dinner out, and one night of leftovers made for an easy week in the kitchen.

Planning: Now that my basement's significantly emptier, I'm looking forward working down there for the next couple of weeks, rearranging, cleaning, and, as always, organizing.

Grateful for: Super Glue - I broke a piece of a family heirloom set yesterday.  Luckily it's something that is strictly decorative at this point and was reparable.  Still, much sadness.    
                                                                                                         

My dining room as of Friday

Enjoying: Spending time with my parents and my brother and his wife, enjoying her new cocktail which we dubbed "Columbia Curdled Cocktail." It really was quite tasty if you could get it just right! The guys enjoyed sunshine and baseball while we ladies hit up a couple of our favorite stores. Looking forward to finding homes of my new purchases.

Feeling: Eager to have today over with. I don't understand moving without knowing for sure if you and your roommate will need a sofa or not. I do not do moves without total planning well at all!

Looking forward to: Putting my house back in order. The other thing I don't do well at all? Having much of my house full of piles of boxes and half-packed bins.

What are you looking forward to this week?

A Day In The Life

A few weeks ago, Trish (Love, Laughter, and A Touch of Insanity) shared with her readers what both work days and days at home were like for her and now she's asking for fellow bloggers to share as well. You know, maybe all share that our lives can maybe be just a little bit crazy, a little bit less than perfect. I'll admit that I kind of forgot about doing it and probably should have done it last week which would have been a more "usual" day. Instead you get yesterday. Which had some less than normal things going on.

6:05 My alarm goes off for the first time
6:15 My alarm goes off for the second time
6:20 My alarm goes off for the third time. The emergency "just in case I shut off the first two times without getting up" alarm. I finally, literally, roll out of bed.

6:22 I hit the kitchen: start the coffee, feed the cats their wet food, then sit down for a bowl of cereal and a little reading of Light In August while out of the corner of my eye I watch the local news
6:30 I have to take a break and feed the cats their dry food...because they're high maintenance that way
6:45 Time to get in the shower, dressed and the basic makeup on

7:10 Grab my coffee, lunch, book and I'm out the door. Why yes, my hair is still wet. The car heater and a hair brush will have to do today (surprisingly, it ends up looking quite good). The rest of my makeup gets put on at red lights. Yep, I'm that woman.

7:45 Start my work day
9:00 Team meeting - what happened to snacks at these meetings anyway?
2:00 Lunch time - I've already eaten my lunch at my desk but this is my chance to break away for a bit and do some more reading
2:45 Back to work
5:15 My desk is all tidy and I'm ready to leave for the day. I'm the only person on the team whose desk looks this neat at day's end. They are all convinced this is the way I live my life. Little do they know!

5:50 Snow flakes start appearing in the rain drops. Cursing is heard in my vehicle.

6:00 Because The Big Guy is out of town this week, I stop for dinner at Applebee's, where Miss H is bartending and we can chat while she works and I eat. I did not eat all of that food but I did drink that wine in the background.

7:15 Stop by the house to give Mini-him the food I picked up for him then we load a Goodwill delivery in my Pilot. How can we have this much stuff to get rid of every few months?

7:45 Dropped off 8 bags and then we head to Lowe's looking for a rug Mini-him's bedroom in the house he's moving into this weekend. Ten minutes later, we leave empty handed.
8:10 We're going to take a twenty minute break and watch some Sweet Sixteen basketball.

9:00 Game over, we finally get to work. He works on computer stuff; I start packing his room, do three loads of laundry, move boxes into our dining room staging area and put together a plan for today.
12:20 Remember that I still have to type up this post. And that I never got the vacuuming done. I am essentially wearing cat hair slippers by the time I head up the stairs for bed. At 1 a.m.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Published 1930
Source: I bought my "copy" for my Nook

Summary:
As I Lay Dying is Faulkner's harrowing account of the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family members—including Addie herself—the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos.


My Thoughts:
Admission - I read this book by mistake. A couple of months ago, a fellow blogger and I agreed that we would, once again, attempt a readalong, this time of Faulkner. As the first of March rolled around, I found myself busy with books I "had" to read and didn't get started right away. Then, somewhere along the way, I switched the book we'd agreed to read in my brain. By the time I realized my mistake, I was almost a third of the way done with this one and decided to finish it (it was only about 190 pages so I wasn't making a huge commitment).

Faulkner has a reputation for being tough to read. As I Lay Dying is told from the perspective of 15 different narrators. 15. One of them dead. One of them not even present for the parts he is narrating. Several by neighbors who only play a small part in the story but who offer a glimpse into the family. Almost all of them unreliable. So,  yeah. A bit tough to read. Particularly since some if really isn't even meant to make sense; it's simply what is going on in a given character's mind. But it doesn't require a college English professor to explain it to you. Although there is this:

"In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, you are not. And when you are filled with sleep, you never were. I dont* know what I am, I dont know if I am or not. Jewel knows he is, because he does not know that he does not know whether he is or not. He cannot empty himself for sleep because he is not what he is and he is what he is not."

Despite death, arson, a hazardous river crossing, and an arrest, the focus of As I Lay Dying is squarely on Faulkner's characters. In death, Addie Bundren finally wields the power she never had over her family while living, taking her revenge on a family which failed, in her lifetime, to help her overcome her loneliness.

"She lived, a lonely woman, lonely with her pride, trying to make folks believe different, hiding the fact that they just suffered her, because she was not cold in the coffin before they were carting her forty miles away to bury her, flouting the will of God to do it. Refusing to let her lie in the same earth with those Burdens."

The Bundrens do dysfunctional families one better - there is almost no feel of them being a family, more a group of people who were thrown together and by necessity live on together.

According to Faulkner, he wrote the book between midnight and 4 a.m. while working at a power plant and said that he never changed a word of it. Which may explain while sometimes it felt a bit rambly but would also explain while the stream of consciousness style feels so organic. You've got to hand it to Faulkner, given that this book is consistently rated as one of the great books of the twentieth century, when he called this work a "tour de force" it wasn't just vanity. Because there is also this:

"Before us the thick dark current runs. It talks up to us in a murmur become ceaseless and myriad, the yellow surface dimpled monstrously into fading swirls traveling along the surface for an instant, silent, impermanent and profoundly significant, as though just beneath the surface something huge and alive waked for a moment of lazy alertness out of and into light slumber again."

And that is why I so enjoyed this book - Faulkner made me see every thing along the journey, feel his character's pain, understand their motives. Even while I was trying to understand what the heck he was talking about.

*as Faulkner wrote it