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.
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.
7 comments:
Oh, but I am! The picture just refuses to show up. :)
Would I love to see that complete list of adaptations. Illustrations/paintings included in the complete list -- how interesting. This Christmas my husband gave me an edition of Jane Eyre illustrated with engravings by Fritz Eichenberg. I really like the engravings and especially that there's an illustration of Jane on the horse with Rochester. I hadn't seen that section of the book illustrated before.
So I guess those cuts include our Star Wars/Jane Eyre crossover observations....oh well... ;-)
to chrisv:
Alas, certain sacrifices had to be made in pursuit of reasonable deadlines!
I don't even have a complete list. I know that there are at least another dozen audio adaptations, some of which I have not even had the time to listen to yet! And there are still a few foreign language versions I have yet to track down. Once I find a permanent home for Bronteana I can start uploading my collection of illustrations once again.
I guess that means no section on bonnets. There have been so many incarnations of Jane's bonnet. What's the deal with the one in the 1983 version? It looks so big on her head...
Bah! Zelah looks so strange wandering around in her dressing gown and ginormous bonnet.
Are you differenciating the Charlton Heston and the other one pictured? The second one (I've completely forgotten the name of all of them) I liked a great deal, it is probably my fourth favourite JE, and is much better than the Heston one from what I've seen.
At least you covered the JE visual adaptations after my birth (1970). All I have to say is Good luck and May the Force be with you.
PS - Speaking of Jane's Bonnets, I thought seeing Samantha Morton's bonnet was unusual.
off-topic question:
whatever happened to your uploading the brontes at haworth? just curious. i've never seen the series and i you provided the only visual source i could find =(
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