Bronteana in the News

My Cornish correspondent, Aidan Brack, has just informed me that Bronteana has been voted 29th in a BBC poll for Best Drama Website of 2006! (The homepage for Jane Eyre 2006 came in 6th). I am very grateful to my readers for this totally unexpected honour. Bronteana came in just after 24, and ahead of Emmerdale, Judge John Deed, The Line of Beauty, Monarch of the Glen, New Tricks, Outpost Gallifrey, Sea of Souls, Silent Witness, and Waterloo Road.

Since coming to Halifax, I have not had the time to keep up to date on how Bronteana is being recieved, but it did come to my attention that the mirror blog I constructed on Wordpress has been a featured site for quite some time! The site is meant only to be a backup archive, but it is still very gratifying to know that my work is appreciated by the staff at Wordpress.

To all of my readers, thank you for your continued support!

ETA: While we're at it, Jane Eyre 2006 has won a top spot in all of the other categories: the production placed 3rd as overal most popular drama, Ruth Wilson has placed 2nd for best actress, Toby Stephens has placed 3rd for best actor, and the reunion of Jane and Rochester placed 2nd for favourite moment.

Jane Eyre 2006: Deleted Scenes

Denarios has posted clips of the deleted scenes from the BBC's mini-series. There are several clips included in each of the following:

Deleted Scenes from Episodes 1 and 2:



Deleted Scenes from Episodes 3 and 4:

Win a DVD of Jane Eyre 2006

Digital Spy is giving away three copies of the region 2 version of the new BBC mini-series:

Charlotte Bronte’s novel is brought to life in this lavish and complex adaptation. Newcomer Ruth Wilson (Jane Eyre) and Toby Stephens (Edward Rochester) head up an all-star cast including Francesca Annis, Tara Fitzgerald and Pam Ferris.

After a wretched childhood as an orphan and two years of being a teacher, Jane Eyre yearns for new experiences. She accepts a governess position at Thornfield Hall, where she tutors a lively French girl. She soon finds herself falling in love with the brooding owner of Thornfield, the dark and impassioned Mr Rochester. Jane gradually wins his heart but first they must overcome the dark secrets of his past before they can find happiness as man and wife.

When Jane saves Rochester from a fire, which he claims was started by a drunken servant, she begins to suspect that she has not been told the whole story. Her fears are confirmed when Rochester’s secret past is revealed, forcing Jane to flee Thornfield. Penniless and hungry, she finds shelter and friendship in the shape of a kind clergyman and his family, but she is soon shocked to uncover the hidden truth of her own past.

Adapted by Sandy Welch (North and South), produced by Diederick Santer (Much Ado About Nothing) and directed by Susanna White (Bleak House).

As well as all four 50 minute episodes, this 2-disc DVD includes extras such as interviews with cast and crew, commentaries on episodes 1 and 4, deleted scenes, photo gallery and BBC trails.

And so it begins...

I have an outline. Thus begins the Jane Eyre adaptation MA thesis. I'm very excited about finally getting to work on this piece which has been at least a year or two in the making. Thanks to my many minions and un-paid research assistants I have a ridiclously huge number of Jane Eyre adaptations to choose from. This thesis can only be the size of a small book, so I've had to leave out a few dozen adaptations, notably all of the radio adaptations and audiobooks, foreign works, and novels, paintings, illustrations, squirky spin-offs and a large amount of etcetera.

The winning adaptations are as follows:

1857:
Mad, mad, mad, and dancing farmers. Wohoo!

1934:
Slightly less mad, slap-stick, and 'uncle Edward.'

1944:
The classic. Highly aestheticised.

1952-62:
Westinghouse elecronic clarifiers and Charleton Heston.

1957:
Letchery, kinkiness, and more letchery- and Patrick MacNee.

1970:
Rather bizarre, aesthetic and restrained.

1973:
Perfection.

1982:
Kinda perfection and 'the handsome Mr Rochester.'

1996:
Very aesthetic, unusual interpretation.

1997:
Barking mad Mr Rochester- literally.

1996-2000:
Jane (and everyone else) sings!

2006:
Very aesthetic, fanfic-y.

One last note. I hope to get around to answering the increasing backlog of emails. Now that I'm settled in here I feel much better, more myself and less like a soul-less drudge. Ahem. I'll also try to get to answer all of the comments from the previous posts.

ps. Before I get any hate mail, bear in mind that I am only kidding and that it's almost 2:30 AM.

BBC Jane Eyre 2006 on Pre-Order in the US


The PBS Shop has the details on the January 8th release of the two disc set:

$29.98

The dark romantic mystery of Jane Eyre returns to the screen in this lavish new version for Masterpiece Theatre. A lonely young governess falls in love with the handsome, brooding father of her new student at Thornfield Hall, but neither Jane nor Mr. Rochester can escape the mysteries of their past lives. Toby Stephens, Ruth Wilson, and Francesca Annis bring Charlotte Brontë's timeless classic to vigorous new life.

Bronte Boxed Set

Well, Tenant of Wildfell Hall is still unavailable in any format other than VHS and region two but they have come out with a boxed set of three BBC Bronte films. Available November 6th, it can be pre-ordered now and includes the 1983 Jane Eyre with Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke, 1996 Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and 1978 Wuthering Heights. A free imaginary cookie to anyone who can guess why Tenant of Wildfell Hall gets top billing.

From the BBC:

The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall (Dir. Mike Barker, 1996): This is the fantastic BBC adaptation of Anne Bronte's novel.

When Helen Graham becomes the new tenant of the dark, decaying Wildfell Halt, her independent spirit and radical views set her apart from the staid rural community around her. Gilbert Markham, a young farmer, finds himself powerfully drawn to her and a series of dramatic events brings them closer together. But the enigmatic Mrs Graham's unconventional life and behaviour disguise a hidden past with many secrets, secrets the world of Victorian England would rather bury forever...

Jane Eyre (Dir. Julian Amyes, 1983): Jane Eyre (Zelah Clarke) is a mistreated orphan who learns to survive by relying on her independence and intelligence. Her first job in the outside world is governess to the ward of Mr. Rochester (Timothy Dalton), a man of many secrets and mercurial moods. The tentative trust between them slowly develops into romance, but their hopes for happiness will soon be jeopardized by a terrible secret.

Wuthering Heights (Dir. Peter Hammond, 1978): Emily Bronte's classic tale of all-consuming love. When Mr. Earnshaw encounters Heathcliff, a ragamuffin orphan, he kindly brings the boy into his home and makes him part of the family. And from the start, Heathcliff falls hopelessly in love with the daughter of the house, the beautiful, headstrong Catherine. She adores him, too, but when a wealthy neighbour woos her, Catherine's material instincts get the better of her, and she agrees to marry the man. However, Catherine discovers that she cannot forget Heathcliff so easily... and that not even death can make them part...

'Cut the Religion and Psychology- Get to the Bonking'

The presentation went very well (I think), and now I am free to write another on a 18th century Derbyshire manuscript my professor stole has, and I'm going to publish for the first time. yay! But in the meantime I took a look around the blogs for Janian news and met quite a lot of bile- bile which I confess that I sympathise with in part.

The disappointment of Bronte fans has been let loose on the recent BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre. I have not entered the debate fully because to be honest I need to think over a few things. Anyway, here are some thoughts:

From the Enthusiast's Guide to Jane Eyre: Beautiful cinematography and music are featured in this BBC miniseries and Ruth Wilson makes a really fantastic Jane- presenting her many emotions in a believable and subtle way. Toby Stephens is not quite the Rochester of the novel, he's more of a charming "rake" and his absolute love for Jane is not as apparent as his absolute love for tail. A thoroughly modern interpretation, sensationalzing the novel and turning it into more of a Gothic/Harlequin romance.

I have to agree that from the first episode it seemed more Harlequin romance than Jane Eyre to me.

From 'Reader, I Adapted Him': "Adapting a 19th century book and expecting the characters to adopt 21st century attitudes is precisely like going on holiday to Spain and insisting on drinking fish and chips and Courage best. There may have been a time when the BBC adapted Great Books in the hope that the Unwashed Masses who hadn't read them would be encouraged to discover the wonderful world of reading; or else they did radical reworkings of the classic to challenge and titillate the people who had. Now, it's just a matter of scouring old books for period love stories. Historical tourism. "

By the way, those huge sentences are not Charlotte's fault- if she were writing this paragraph you might see something like this- she wrote with a lot of dashes because she- she was reflecting the ways that actual speech is often broken- her publishers then went in and replaced most of them with semicolons- so blame them! Also, I think Mr Rochester is the 'thoroughly good Christian' not St.John but that is the topic of a whole other post...

From 'Jane, you ignorant slut': "The second problem is that Jane Eyre walks a fine line between eroticism and morality. Jane herself is a hot little number in a morality-mad age that divides the world into passionless "respectable" women and whores, yet she refuses to fall into either category by denying or yielding wrongly to her desires. By insisting on the right to self-definition, Jane ennobles her own story. A governess marrying the master, for God's sake -- it's the early Victorian social equivalent of being a gold-digger or sleeping with your boss. But Jane Eyre wants to sleep with the boss on her own terms, in a way that allows her to keep her self-respect and her independence. She will not consent to be his lover, but neither will she be content to remain his governess. That's what makes the story so exhilarating, and that's why women love it -- any woman of spirit struggles with sexual self-definition in a society that wants to own her snatch. "

Testamony of Jane Eyre 1956


I am still trying to piece together this BBC version, not having access to their archives. But one of my readers wrote in with this brief comparison with the recent production. If anyone remembers the 1956 version as well, please write in and let me know your recollections! The following is a comment left on the archive for this post. (Comments sent to the archive do not always reach me. Also, as a reminder, please make some sort of reference to which post you are commenting on if it is older than a week or so because I cannot locate your comment in order to reply in some cases!).

Daphne Slater was Jane Eyre likewise Stanley Baker was Rochester the 1956 production covered the whole of the book, it wasn't dumbed down or made more sexually explicit.The meeting in the garden with the cigar smoke was sexy enough I am frankly amazed that the 2006 production has received so much praise and not one mention seems to have been made about the far superior 1956 version.

This post contains the bulk of my information on this adaptation, which seems to be clinging onto its fanbase despite not being available for half a century!

Actors on Playing Jane and Rochester

Another good thing about a new adaptation is that it brings out all of the previous ones! The Daily Mail posts this survey of mini-interviews with Janes and Edwards past (thanks to siansaska!) Also, the images from this post are from the internet and not my archive so this explains why some are tiny while others are huge:

"Unknown actress Ruth Wilson has shot to fame as Jane Eyre in the BBC’s current adaptation of the classic novel. The series, one would assume, would guarantee her a glittering thespian future. Costume dramas are often a springboard to fame and fortune for young actors: Samantha Morton was 20 when she played Jane in 1997 and then went on to star in Minority Report with Tom Cruise and Enduring Love opposite Daniel Craig. But they can also be a one-way ticket to professional oblivion. Here, we find out what happened to previous Janes and Mr Rochesters, and why they now look at the role as a double-edged sword.


SUSANNAH YORK starred with George C. Scott in the 1970 version of the film. Susannah, 64, is starring in a touring production of The Wings Of The Dove next year. As well as acting, she also writes film scripts. She recalls: At the time I was asked to play the role of Jane, I was quite hot, so to speak. Offers were coming fast and furious, so I was delighted when I got the part. I loved the book and it was a part I had always wanted. I was bewildered and upset, however, when people said I was too pretty to play a plain governess. I have always thought of myself as a character actress and I longed to be noted for my acting ability and hated it when people paid attention to my appearance.

I’ve never thought of myself as pretty and truly felt I was Jane. She’s not a showy character, but she is still passionate, and that’s what I liked about her. People are also saying that Ruth Wilson is too pretty. But I think she has just the right qualities and seems to have the same view and feel of, and feeling for, Jane that I did.

My co-star, George, was a big, craggy, gruff creature, and he was great for a chat. But our approach to filming was totally different. I liked to rehearse, but he would do a scene in one take then go back to playing backgammon. I thought he made a pretty good Rochester, though, as he had a real presence — although he was perhaps a bit too old. I must confess that I have yet to see my perfect Mr Rochester. Even Toby Stephens in the current adaptation, while a great actor, is not the Rochester of the book as he’s a bit too young.

I wouldn’t say I was typecast, but people tended to see me as a more serious actor afterwards. As a result, although I refuse to accept it when people put limitations on me, I’ll admit that it hasn’t always been easy to get roles since.

I don’t regret playing Jane, though. It was a brilliant part. Usually I curl up with embarrassment when I watch my performances, but when I watched my version of Jane Eyre, it seemed to me that I had struck the right note.



MICHAEL JAYSTON played Mr Rochester to Sorcha Cusack’s Jane in the 1973 BBC miniseries of Jane Eyre. Michael, 70, currently on tour with the play Heroes, says: I landed the role of Rochester as a result of a practical joke. My then wife, Heather, sent a funny letter to the director, Joan Craft, saying, ‘It’s about time Michael played Rochester’, and we used to think that I got the part as a result.Looking back, though, I was on a roll at the time. I’d just come from playing several highprofile roles such as Tsar Nicholas II in Nicholas And Alexandra, and A Bequest To The Nation opposite Glenda Jackson. And here was the ultimate romantic part.

Sorcha was only 23 and I was 37. People said there was an electrifying chemistry between us, which was true. I did find her attractive, but we kept things quite jokey on the set to alleviate the intensity. It’s not that romantic performing love scenes on a cold morning at 8am, with a props guy holding a hot fan right next to you to stop your lips freezing. Professionally, playing Rochester didn’t do me much good. I never played a romantic part on TV after that. I was baffled because when it was shown on TV, I received the biggest fan mail I’ve ever had.



SORCHA CUSACK, 57, never made the big time after playing Jane Eyre, but has had roles in such shows as Morse, Casualty and North And South. She is currently starring in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Romeo And Juliet. She says: Jane Eyre was my first TV job and, to be honest, I felt I was rather hopeless. With no major roles under my belt, my performance was flat. I was very lucky to get the role in the first place and I think I got the part because I’m plain-looking and, because I was born and bred in Ireland, I was ten years behind other girls in terms of sophistication. Both were key ingredients to the character.

As a child, people were always saying, ‘Isn’t Sinead [her actress sister] gorgeous?’ But my look was perfect for Jane. Rochester, Michael Jayston, said, ‘After this you’ll be huge,’ and, while we were filming, I did go to my bank manager and say, ‘I won’t need the overdraft any more.’ But I did need it as I didn’t get any big breaks afterwards. There was plenty of work, but not a role that changed the course of my career.Lots of theatre work followed, but several years after playing Jane, I put my career on hold for a while to return to Ireland to care for my late mother, who had heart problems. It’s nice looking back on the whole Jane Eyre period, and it’s lovely that I still get letters saying, ‘You’ll always be my Jane.’



ZELAH CLARKE starred in the lavish 1983 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre opposite Timothy Dalton, who was said to be too handsome to play the brooding Rochester. Zelah, 52, says: Jane Eyre is the ultimate poisoned chalice. Everyone remembers the Rochesters, but no one recalls the Janes. I hoped the role might be a springboard — I never thought it would force me to retire. Before Jane Eyre I had done lots of TV costume dramas, but not a lead role, so I was thrilled when I got the part. Tim Dalton wasn’t a superstar then — in fact, I had more TV experience than him.

It was depressing when things suddenly stopped after Jane Eyre, especially as I had no idea why. But then I got married and my life changed. There is something undignified about old actors scraping around for work. I would never go back into the theatre; it ruins your social life and breaks up families. If I hadn’t done Jane Eyre, perhaps I’d have felt that I hadn’t proved myself. But I did and I have. Now, looking at the series, it seems old-fashioned, but I was pleased with my performance. Between roles I became interested in art, so perhaps I didn’t have such a desire to be a famous actress after all."

Dredging out the Archive

I confess, I enjoyed the third episode of Jane Eyre 2006 but I felt the passion was a bit flat. I knew I had a clip from the BBC's 1973 version somewhere, so I went looking for it (my DVD isn't working properly on my laptop!). I didn't find the clip but I did find these other interesting items!

In the name of harmony and world peace (at least among those who admire BBC dramas), here are Mr Rochester and Mr Darcy dancing together at last! (There is in fact a finer clip of Rochester dancing- actually he strips off his skirt, swirls it around like a matador cape and leaps off a chair...).

Can you guess what this is?



That's right. Colin Firth did play Mr Rochester but his scene ended up being cut from Saturday Night Live. They eventually replaced him with Jude Law (and NO I do not have any footage of Colin Firth as Mr Rochester!).

And lastly, I believe Bronteana reader chrisv wanted some proofs of my artistic talents. Here is my 'illustrated Rochester is love' bar (sorry I had to shrink it to fit the blogger page but if you click on it it will enlarge)*:

*Actually, it is no use. Just click here.

From left: 1980s RD edition, my (in)famous Jane Eyre comic book, two donations from a friend in Australia, detail from an india ink sketch by me, another detail from an india ink sketch by me, and that last one- my favourite- flying stickman Mr Rochester from a comic strip my friend Kristin created over a year ago. In it I heard that there was going to be a new adaptation of Jane Eyre starring Arnold Swartzenegger. He kidnapped Jane from the novel in a foul plot to 'crush their dreams like daisies.' Anyway, long story short I met a flying Rochester. Here he is flying into my arms! Look at how happy and sparkly he is! He's also naked, but radiating pink sparkles (everyone was naked, actually, except for Jane which was odd and probably caused a lot of brooding).

Jane Eyre 2006 Preview and Competition

The BBC are giving away two scripts signed by Ruth Wilson, Toby Stephens, Sandy Welch, Diederick Santer, and Susanna White. Details here.

And here's the preview clip for the... *sniff* for the last episode.

Clips and Trailer for the BBC's Wide Sargasso Sea

Clicking on this link will take you to all four videos.

"Do you still think you're dreaming, Mr Rochester?"

"Secrets and treasure"

"The truth shall set you free"

The Trailer

Preview Clip for Episode Three of Jane Eyre 2006



The preview clip is now available here. Not much happens in this clip, so I have only made a few screencaps this time. Aunt Reed is ill, Jane reads a letter. I wonder what that's about...

ETA: Link fixed.

More Reviews and Some Intellectual Fangirling

Well, a lot of fangirling, actually. But first for the review, which follows our rule about articles about Jane Eyre having to contain a pun: An Eyre of intelligence. It is favourable, if not a little ambiguous about which 'Jane Eyre' he's talking about at times- the novel or the television series.

The challenge to which the director Susanna White and her adaptor, Sandy Welch, have chosen to rise is to make an intelligent, thinking Jane Eyre (Sundays, 9pm). To be avoided, on the one side, is the Scylla of the OTT Gothic novel: everyone knows there is a madwoman in Rochester's attic, but this adaptation reminds us that there are monsters on Jane's sketch pad, too. On the other side lies the Charybdis of a sloppy romance: Rochester, the Byronic owner of Thornfield, is the prototype for every tall, dark and smirking nob Barbara Cartland ever wrote about. But navigate between the two, and you discover the first great English Bildungsroman in which hero and heroine are given a sentimental education.

[...]

His Rochester is in love with his own suffering, in awe of his own decadence. He calls Jane a witch, but it is his own dark past that has bewitched him. Yet, as Mrs Fairfax says, the master is not without humour. Without giving him a heart of gold, Stephens lets you know that, while Rochester's instinct is to laugh at everyone, his ambition is to find someone to laugh with. In a reversal of the romantic stereotype, Rochester loves Jane because she is that someone. Asked if she finds him attractive, Jane wins a chuckle from him and us by saying "No" and then adding that he is not repellent either.

[...]

The conceit of the book is that while Rochester believes Eyre, in her sinless youth, to be in need of a sentimental education into life's horrors, it is he who ends up taught a lesson in humanity by her. His blinding - the symbolic castration that brings Jane back to him - is the creepiest moment in the book, not to mention the most absurd. I hope this magical adaptation has the sorcery to make us accept it.

And now for the fangirling from the article 'Is Jane Eyre the Sexiest Book of All Time?'

In Jane Eyre, Charlotte poured her loneliness and thwarted lust on to the page. The great and touching paradox of Jane Eyre is that if Charlotte Bronte had been loved, there would be no Mr Rochester.
But she wasn't and there is. (I must turn away from my computer now to have a Rochester-themed reverie.)

[...]

Rochester is an angel. He is a darling. He is a chocolate. And — did I mention it? — he is very, very rich.
He pouts, broods and beats his way into our hearts, riding around the moors in leather boots and furry coats, looking ripe for rescue by our Jane.

[...]

St John is a prim, sexy blond. (She probably cut a third hero, a red-head this time, from an early draft.) And, sometimes — particularly on winter Sunday afternoons — I find him more beguiling even than Rochester.
St John is a priest — a "cold hard man" he tells Jane — but he falls for Jane like an orange rolling off a fridge. She fancies him, too, watching him admire a picture of a beautiful girl and drooling: "He breathed low and fast; I stood silent."
That's two-love to lonely Miss Bronte. How spoilt she was in her head. But it's back to Rochester and his marvellous flaws, and the beautiful cry: "Reader," — say it with me — "I married him." Aaah.
That is when I collapse prostrate on the floor, like a piece of toast waiting for some Rochester-flavoured jam.

The author goes on... oh dear:

When you are lonely, sad or just plain disappointed with the man in the street, roll over and pick up Jane Eyre. With Jane Eyre and a Hobnob biscuit you need nothing else.
Romantic love is a fiction anyway, designed to numb you to the pain of childbirth. (Ask any woman married for over seven years.) So why not take the best, the ultimate, the only? Go to bed with Rochester. He's only £5.99.

Sound a lot like another article I ran across: Rochester porn:

The new BBC-series of Jane Eyre isn’t just ”fan fiction adaptation”, I think - clearly this goes under the category of “Rochester Porn”. I just invented that term, but that’s what it is.

[...]

So, what do I mean to say with all this? Do I like it? Why of course I do! It’s Rochester Porn! Rochester-porn, people. What’s not to like about that?

A History Lesson for Viewers

This article is quite thorough in pointing out the Bronte associations of places near those used in the new BBC production of Jane Eyre.

The Brontë trail from the churchyard leads towards them, via scenes familiar to readers of Jane Eyre. A lane climbs through woodland to the view of Hathersage described in the novel, with the hexagonal spire of St Michael's Church rising above woods and pastures and a stream glittering elusively among them.
A footpath then passes a large house called Moorseats, standing alone on the hillside. This is generally supposed to be Moor House, to which an exhausted Jane was drawn from the moors like a moth to a flame by a light burning in a window. Eventually we reach North Lees Hall, an Elizabethan manor house that Brontë visited and that served as the inspiration for Thornfield Hall, the home of Edward Rochester.
"It was three stories high, of proportions not vast, though considerable; a gentleman's manor-house, not a nobleman's seat: battlements round the top gave it a picturesque look."
So Jane described her lover's retreat, and so it stands today. One of seven houses built by Sir Robert Eyre for his seven sons, it is now owned by the Peak Park, and is available as a holiday let.

[...]

BBC producers adjudged North Lees Hall too small for their drama, so they decamped Jane's lover to Haddon Hall near Bakewell.

[...]

Lord Edward recalls a problem that arose during an interior scene that was supposed to be taking place in spring. Unfortunately it was mid-winter, the room was freezing, and the actors had to have ice cubes in their mouths to prevent their breaths from visibly condensing in the cold air.

Juliet Barker on Jane Eyre 2006

One of the most well-known Bronte scholars gives us her opinion on the new BBC adaptation in this article, A Breath of Fresh Eyre (it must be an inviolable law that all articles on Jane Eyre must include puns).

HERE we go again, I thought, as I watched a red sari-clad girl wandering across a desert in the opening sequence of the new BBC 1 adaptation of Jane Eyre.
Some egotistical director has decided to drag the nineteenth century orphan heroine of Charlotte Brontë's novel kicking and screaming into the modern world and make her `relevant' to today's audience.
You don't need to do this, I lectured the screen. Why can't you just do a faithful adaptation that will let the characters and the story speak for themselves?
Brontë knew what she was doing and that is why her novel remains one of the bestsellers of all time.
As it turned out, I was wrong.

[...]

He may have accused Jane of bewitching his horse and causing it to throw him, but it was Stephens himself who gave the mesmerising performance.
Stephens, who has form as a Brontë hero, having played the more instantly likeable Gilbert Markham in the 1996 television version of The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, was surely born to play Rochester.

[...]

Ruth Wilson is a newcomer but her quietly confident performance as the adult Jane is the perfect counterbalance to Rochester's fireworks.

The Reviews of Jane Eyre 2006

Well, the first professional reviews are coming in now. And the response is full of backhanded approval:

After parading his ignorance for us (and writing worthy of the Edward Bulwer Lytton Prize for terrible prose, masquerading as Bronte's), the writer of this article says the first episode is 'more concerned with arresting spectacle than nuances of dialogue.' He spends the rest of it describing hair and voice tone in minute but meaningless detail and ends the drivel with: 'Jane Eyre? Rotten book for ninnies ; enjoyable telly show.' I guess for having nothing better to say than Ruth Wilson can smile and Toby Stephens can ....smile as well, he really did enjoy it somehow but he could have fooled me.

This critic was also very disappointed:

Jane Eyre has a classic first-person narrator problem. The heroine is isolated and without a confidante. She can only pour her heart out on to the page. But what's she to do on TV? Voiceover is the obvious answer, but there seems to be an anti-voiceover fashion on TV just now. Certainly this adaptation has not solved the problem. Ruth Wilson, as any actor would, struggled to find ways of showing what was going on in Jane's mind. Charlotte Brontë's narrating voice in the novel helps one buy into the horse accidents, burning beds and mad maids in the corridor but, stripped of that voice, these incidents came over as the redundant plot furniture of gothic melodrama.

For all her love of Thackeray Brontë is not a great satirist and the crude writing and acting around the snobs was so ridiculous I longed for Jane to take the piss as adeptly as *Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennet would have. Francesca Annis brings a lot of stature to her snob, but no matter how much presence and restraint actors may have it does seem to be very difficult for them to resist the cliches of English period acting. Rochester's complexity comes over as a bit artful in Toby Stephens's hands. He is so changeable and his performance is like one of those token Sloanes who sometimes stroll into *Big Brother to become the victim of an entire nation's class resentment. Bad enough that Jane comes over as a morbid bore but add his Rochester and you're questioning why he's posing her a dilemma at all.

And I think this critic is seriously disturbed- oh the strange imagery!

The BBC’s Jane, on the other hand, is one hot 19th-century governess. She looks like a chick in a Magnum ice-cream advert. She’s got flawless skin, tumbling hair, perfectly sculpted eyebrows and a frankly extraordinary upper lip: a fleshy, kissable duckbill, which appears to vibrate lasciviously in moments of high emotion.

However — and thankfully for the auspices of the rest of the series — Ruth Wilson’s beauty isn’t being made into a big issue. She isn’t going around being beautiful, if you know what I mean. She sits very quietly, and with a cautious stillness — as, indeed, would someone who’d spent most of their life in an evangelical Christian orphanage run by emotional sadists, and then suddenly found themselves living in a castle with a wolf, a sex-case and a mental.

Toby Stephens’s Rochester, meanwhile, while definitely not as tall as Rochester should be — he borders on Titchester, to be frank — is doing well as a sex-case living with a wolf and a mental. There’s a vulcanicity to him. He strikes you as an entity with hot, steaming vents on his lower flanks — even though, on unhappy occasion, his hair does fatally recall Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Vents? For what? Nevermind. I really don't want to know.

Preview Clip from Episode Two

Here's a very brief post about an addition to the BBC's website for the new Jane Eyre. The preview clip for episode two is already available. I couldn't find it, but Thisbeciel sent me the tip. So here it is.

It is nice to see that there are tons of blog posts from people who intend to be watching tonight. And it's a little funny to see how many are skeptical- STILL- that it even exists. Really, I have been doing my best since December to get the news around but people are still going to watch this expecting to see Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke. I'm not kidding. They even speak of others assuring them that this is new, but they will not believe it until they see it with their own eyes! Ah well.

ETA: I've made some screencaps of the preview clip:

Rochester: 'The sex is of no interest to me whatsoever'

Taking lines out of context is a lot of fun. I've had confirmation today that I picked the right school. I've 'begun' 'work' on my thesis on adaptations of Jane Eyre and am finding Jane Eyre and What Adaptors Have Done to Her to be a lot of fun. A little thin on criticism, but the quotations are excellent- and often totally hilarious. It begins with a fabulous quote from a theatre review in which they express astonishment that there is no 'National Society for the Suppression of Plays about the Brontes.' Talk about harsh! I love it. Anyway, she goes on to say that the BBC crushed her dreams and so she's not going to play with them but stick to Victorian stage adaptations and two American films (so there!).

The Victorian plays are awesome. I have one linked on the sidebar- the 1857 Brougham one, which includes happy dancing farmers at the end, tons of 'snubbed, by Jove!,' Grace Poole's cake addiction and one 'dem rhinoceros!' (The illustration from the script also shows Mr Rochester flying through the air). To this must now be added some extraordinary lengths to make the story happier (Jane has only just told Rochester that his infirmities 'are none to me, sir' when- poof! he can see again! This reminds me of a blog entry I read recently where someone complained that Rochester's hand doesn't grow back and he doesn't get 'pretty'. If his eye can grow back at a word from Jane, I can't see the trouble with the hand and a perm).



Two of my favourite moments come from the same play. Goes a little something like this:

Brocklehurst: Ew, who's that smelly tramp?
Rochester: Oh, the hurting off stage and the pain!
Brocklehurst: Let us do the Christian thing and flee the smelly tramp! *leaves*
Rochester: SNARKSNARKSNARK blast it. SNARK
Jane: Oh, snarking. Can I help?
Rochester: You ma fairy womans! Give me a hankee and lift me to safety.
Jane: ...O...kay. Uhm. There.
Brocklehurst: Did you just lift that smelly tramp with a handkerchief? You are so FIRED!Rochester: No, she's hired. I need a governess. Here's my phone number. See you are 9. *clicks*

John Reed: All your inheritance are belong to me! Ha ha!
Jane: Noooo!
Rochester: *whips off his bandages and snatches the inheritance papers*
John Reed: Blast! It cannot be! He sees!
Rochester: I will now pronounce a very long speech about blindness touching mostly upon the blindness in not realising the love of a certain little lady in the crowd today-
Jane: Oh, that's me! I love you!
Rochester: Yes, I was blind but not blind to see ma woman's inheritance stolen!
Jane: ...Hey, you can see!
Rochester: ...Yes. Sorry, I was just pretending.

One last thing. From yet another adaptation comes this complete 'whitewashing' of Rochester's character. It would also be quite a stupendous cover story... Once upon a time Edward loved 'Henrietta' but while he went to London, she married his elder brother 'Arthur.' Edward was going to protest but they had him declared mad, tied up, knocked out and put on a ship to the West Indies. Time passes, everyone dies, so he returns home to find a note from his brother. His brother explains that Henrietta quickly came to hate him, she took a lover, gave birth to Adele. He killed the lover, and had Adele taken from her, so she went mad and he died of guilt- or something. Anyway, Edward is now supposed to hush up Henrietta and raise Adele. Aw... (I couldn't help but think this is too much like: 'It isn't my fault, Jane! I was kidnapped by pirates!')

Okay, one last last thing. The Bronte section here is at least twice the size of the one at my old university and it has bound editions of Transactions of the Bronte Society going back to the 1890s (they all look so cute in their sideburns and cravats for those member portraits! The Victorian editions are in facimile). So guess what I will be doing this weekend! If only I had a scanner... some the material is entirely new to me (including an un-finished novel by Charlotte called 'Ashworth.')

And Yet Another Article on Jane Eyre 2006

This time courtesy of Bronteana reader Julie, via Millhand.


ETA: Also, if you were unable to view the BBC's preview clip for the first episode, you may now view it on youtube (where it is somewhat larger than on the BBC site).