January Reads: Jane Eyre, Robinson Crusoe & The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether
A new year and a second term of being a second year English literature student. As you can imagine this entails a lot of reading! I wanted to share the books I read each month, some as part of my degree, and hopefully some that I get to read in my spare time! January for me meant a fresh reading list with various intriguing titles, some of which I'd read before and others that were completely new!
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was a title in this list I was most looking forward to. I had read it as a little girl, as a lover of classics, romance and fascinating female protagonists. My taste in books hasn't changed much since and as a now 20 year old degree student I found it as moving, as thrilling and as captivating as I did then.
I felt Jane's pain just as I did before. Once at her childhood treatment as she lived an affectionless life of isolation, moving from the unfeeling home of her Aunt Reed to the rigid institution of Lowood School. And again at her discovery of the betrayal of the man she is supposed to marry.
One thing has changed however, and that is my reading of the afore mentioned man, Mr Rochester. Previously, I adored him just as Jane does. I thought his mysterious brooding made him enigmatic and found his outpouring of emotions romantic, he had a love reserved for the only woman that could reach him in this way. As an older reader, I recognised these traits I once admired but found them lost amongst more problematic qualities that had gone amiss amongst the childhood backdrop of true love. This of course, is reference to Bertha Mason, the woman Rochester marries and subsequently incarcerates in the attic of his family home. The troubling restraint of Mr Rochester's wife gives, I think, an insight into the 18th century view of mental ill health and is certainly something a modern reader can reflect upon.
Robinson Crusoe was a new read for me and it was almost a pleasant surprise. I say this because as the afore mentioned lover of romance novels, an entire story dedicated to the isolated life of a man stuck on an island in the 18th century was not my idea of a lovely read. And I'm not really sure it was a lovely read if I'm honest with you. I found it troublesome at points, I struggled often with the imperialistic nature of a barbarous protagonist in Robinson Crusoe and found lengthy descriptions of religious and practical toils somewhat tiresome. Having said that, as my understanding of the novel grew I began to recognise the qualities created by Defoe that would have captured a contemporary audience. The enthusiasm for the natural world, the adventure this facilitates and the perseverance of humankind for their deliverance. Overall, a novel I might not have picked up before, and may not be one I will do so again but as a pioneer of the travel writing genre and the realism novel, one I can appreciate for the founding characteristics it possesses.
Edgar Allan Poe as an writer really captured me. The format of the short story gives, for me, the opportunity for the quick thrill that sometimes the long-form novel struggles to offer. The System of Dr Tarr and Professor Fether was no exception. Twists, turns and a through exploration of the former 19th Century institution known as the 'private madhouse'. All of this, of course, illuminated by Poe's usual flare of description.
Overall, January's books each involved a step back in century and examined a variety of themes that play a part in interrogating the views and values of a modern reader.
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