Some time ago in our Book Club we read Jasper Fforde’s wonderful The Eyre Affair. This is the wrong way around: it would have been better to go from Jane to feisty Thursday Next, with her ruses to improve the character of Mr Rochester, and her interference in the plot to correct the infelicities which jar for the 21st-century reader.
It is Thursday who impersonates Rochester’s voice under the window, causing Jane to come to her senses and turn down St John’s marriage proposals (how could she even consider such a humourless, hard-edged Christian?). It was Thursday, bumbling about in Thornfield trying to sort out Bertha, who inadvertently dropped the match that started the inferno that led to the extinction of the house, and the blinding of Mr Rochester. Fforde’s book is full of affection for the earlier novel.
Jane Eyre is a long book, unfashionably so, one might say. The degree of absorption and concentration necessary fully to appreciate it are hard to find in the busy lives of book club members, rushing about between work and family. However it was wonderful to feel intellectually challenged,
and to be brought out of ourselves for a while, to share the life of a ‘little’ governess, wrestling with the inbred religious fervour which sat so ill with her naturally strong, independent character, falling in love with an impossible man, remaining true to her ideals even through the most heart-rending situation. We were with her during her experiences of near-starvation and destitution, and admired her indomitable spirit.
Check out my Hollywood pitch: Three Hundred and One: The Sequel. After Spartan King Leonidas of the Mighty Six Pack and his hearty band of Chippendales Warriors are defeated by Persia’s one-million-
man slave army at Thermopylae, the Persians confront a new nemesis: Jane Eyre — a poor, plain, obscure and little English governess. Jane shocks fans by appearing clad only in a black leather thong, scarlet cloak, and artfully positioned shield. Her weapon of mass destruction: a stern gaze. The Persians are put in their place.
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Jasper Fforde’s First Among Sequels – 2 of 3
