Becoming Jane Eyre: A Novel (Penguin Original) [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Sheila Kohler (Author)

Book Description

Release date: December 29, 2009 | Series: Penguin Original

Read Sheila Kohler's posts on the Penguin Blog.

A beautifully imagined tale of the Bronte sisters and the writing of Jane Eyre

The year is 1846. In a cold parsonage on the gloomy Yorkshire moors, a family seems cursed with disaster. A mother and two children dead. A father sick, without fortune, and hardened by the loss of his two most beloved family members. A son destroyed by alcohol and opiates. And three strong, intelligent young women, reduced to poverty and spinsterhood, with nothing to save them from their fate. Nothing, that is, except their remarkable literary talent.

So unfolds the story of the Brontë sisters. At its center are Charlotte and the writing of Jane Eyre. Delicately unraveling the connections between one of fiction's most indelible heroines and the remarkable woman who created her, Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre will appeal to fans of historical fiction and, of course, the millions of readers who adore Jane Eyre.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

South African Kohler's well-written seventh novel takes the lives of the Brontës: Charlotte, Emily, Anne, Branwell and their father, and substitutes imagination for facts. The book opens in 1846 with Charlotte's father recovering from eye surgery in Manchester, England. The narrative follows the internal ragings and musings of Rev. Brontë, the Brontë sisters, the nurse briefly hired to help Charlotte and her father, their own nurse of many years and even the mother of George Smith, the eventual publisher of Jane Eyre. Charlotte's desire for a heroine with more courage than she herself has spills onto the page during the long, lonely hours of her father's convalescence, as she remembers her doomed love for her teacher in Brussels and other hurts and affronts throughout her life. Kohler (Crossways) gives us a more multidimensional, passionate and temperamental Charlotte than most biographies. Too much narration and switching of points of view slows the pace, but connecting the writer with her heroine is intriguing. This novel will likely send fans back to the originals and should inspire those who know of the novels to finally read them. (Jan.)
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Review

“Kohler offers an imaginative recreation of the woman who created this once-scandalous, now beloved classic. Sensitive, intelligent, and engaging… A beautiful complement to Brontë’s masterpiece.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)



“Well-written. Kohler gives us a more multidimensional, passionate and temperamental Charlotte than most biographies… connecting the writer with her heroine is intriguing. This novel will likely send fans back to the originals and should inspire those who know ‘of’ the novels to finally read them.”—Publishers Weekly



“Sheila Kohler moves with assured ease between fiction and biography, between the inner life of Charlotte Brontë as she composes Jane Eyre and the comedy of professional rivalry among the three Brontë sisters.”—J.M. Coetzee, author of Disgrace and Summertime



“Bravo! I couldn’t put it down and finished it in the depths of the night.” —Lyndall Gordon, author of Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life



“Becoming Jane Eyre is lush and filled with dark sensuality and the tension of unsaid things. The style is quite different from Charlotte Brontë’s in Jane Eyre, yet the tone and imagery and spirit remain in the same realm. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books and Sheila Kohler one of my favorite writers.”—Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; 1 edition (December 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143115979
• ASIN: B003VWC4M6
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #824,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Some fresh insights into Becoming Jane Eyre December 5, 2009

By Russell Fanelli VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Halfway through Sheila Kohler's biographical novel Becoming Jane Eyre, I decided to reread the Charlotte Bronte original novel on which Kohler's book is at least partially based. Side by side I read Kohler and Bronte to get a better sense of Kohler's achievement with her novel. This was a good decision on my part because I was able to learn much about Charlotte Bronte in Kohler's novel that helped me appreciate Charlotte's achievement with Jane Eyre, surely one of the most popular of Victorian novels.

Kohler shows us how Charlotte Bronte's life contributed to her art, first with the unsuccessful first novel The Professor, and then with the very popular Jane Eyre. Additionally, we learn about Charlotte Bronte's family: father, son Branwell, and sisters Emily and Anne. All three sisters spend the lonely hours in their father's parsonage on the moors writing novels. They send them to various publishers only to be politely rejected, until Emily's Wuthering Heights - a great novel - and Anne's Agnes Gray find a publisher willing to print the books if the girls send fifty pounds to underwrite the project. This modest success of her sisters motivates Charlotte to finish Jane Eyre and it immediately becomes highly successful, changing Charlotte's life forever.

I asked myself several times during the reading of Becoming Jane Eyre about the potential audience for such a book and concluded that it will be for all those people interested in learning more about Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, and the Bronte family. I think this audience will not be disappointed in Kohler's work. The Bronte children lived short, mostly unhappy lives - Branwell, Emily, and Anne were dead by their late twenties or early thirties.... Charlotte did not live much longer, but as Kohler points out toward the end of her novel, Charlotte did marry happily, even if it lasted less than a year.

Any reader of this review, who decides to read Becoming Jane Eyre and has not read Charlotte Bronte's great original creation, will almost certainly get a copy and not be disappointed with the story of one of the great heroines of Victorian literature. In Becoming Jane Eyre the reader learns that Jane's creator was herself a heroine and one of the important novelists of Victorian England. Read more ›

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Put It Down December 28, 2009

By Janeite VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I approached this book with skepticism as I didn't like the title (and still don't) and I'm leery and weary of books spinning off the brilliance of the Brontes and Austen. (If I see one more book continuing the story of Darcy and Elizabeth, I'll scream.) But as a total Brit. Lit. fan, I found the premise of this book engaging enough to give it a try, though I was expecting to throw in the towel before getting 20 pages in. How surprised I was to find this tale told in sparkling prose with a deep respect for the Brontes that kept me turning pages fervently until the end. I positively devoured this book in a few hours. The author's fictional voice of Charlotte Bronte charmed me utterly. I'm ashamed to admit that although I'm familiar with most of the "major" facts about the Bronte family, I've never read an entire scholarly biography of any of them. This book filled in the framework and made it warm and human. It made me feel as if I had gained a true understanding of what Charlotte and her family and situation were like. Of course, this is a work of fiction, but I felt that the author took very few liberties and stuck to the facts as they are known and generally accepted. She didn't throw in any wild surprises to make Bronte's life more interesting. Rather she told her story in a voice that seemed sincere and authentic and fleshed out the facts with real emotion. I think this is a very well done book that any Jane Eyre or Bronte fan will be glad to have read.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, quiet read for Bronte fans December 12, 2009

By Esther Schindler TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I should start out by saying that I am not a die-hard Jane Eyre fan. As a teenager, I went through my Bronte phase, reading Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights with a wistful desire for a dark and brooding hero (I think most young book-centric girls do, while their not-so-book savvy friends have a horses-are-wonderful phase). But 19th century literature is rarely my first reading choice.

However, there's something about Jane Eyre that inspires people to explore the moor-filled worlds of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte. At least two of the books borne from Jane Eyre have inspired me, though in very different ways. First is Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair (which I heartily recommend as giggle-worthy for anyone as over-educated as I -- really, DO indulge in it). The other is Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, which I read in college. It significantly influenced my own writing (it describes the life of Rochester's mad wife and how she came to be that way -- without ever quite shouting, "I'm the other half of Jane Eyre!") because it taught me to look at a story (real life or otherwise) from different people's viewpoints. And of course there's Kate Bush's song, "Wuthering Heights" (it's on The Whole Story) to complete the mood. (Really, with all those references you'd think I was seriously into the Brontes....)

As a result of that background, I was attracted to Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre when I saw it in my Amazon Vine selections. I'm glad I read it -- but once was enough.

I like the historical novel, as my knowledge of the Bronte's own history was minimal. I enjoyed the author's exploration of what it means to write, to invent a story, to re-interpret one's daily events into the heroine's experiences (perhaps having her say what one does not dare). Kohler writes well, and she certainly kept me turning pages. I turned them slowly, because this is a quiet read without a lot of derring-do and action scenes (not something you care about, probably, if you're into Jane Eyre), but I certainly kept going.

A few things were a little irksome. I wish the author had stayed in one person's head (presumably Charlotte's) rather than changing viewpoint characters so often. Perhaps I would have enjoyed that more if I was "into" the Bronte family history; then, maybe, the servant's observations about the father-and-daughter relationship would have been enlightening. And while I did like the glimpse into "a writer's life" (that is, the creative process), I rather wished for a better (fictional) enlightenment about Charlotte's moments of writing brilliance. For example, her turning away from the story and writing, "Reader, I married him" is one of the most powerful moments in 19th century fiction, yet Kohler puts most of her attention on plot development.

I also found the ending disappointing, because so many important events are wrapped up in a few chapters. Granted, the story is about *becoming* Jane Eyre (or rather becoming the author of a best-selling book) and those "what came after" events occur once she achieved the goal, but it felt like a cheat. After all those interminable details about writing and being a governess and coping with their brother and so on -- to summarize the sisters' deaths in a few pages? That didn't work for me.

However, I did like the book overall. Like, not love. If you're REALLY into Jane Eyre or any of the Bronte sisters, this is a no-question purchase. If Jane Eyre was an assignment you vaguely recall from a school Required Reading List, I think your enjoyment of this novel will match your appreciation of the Bronte's work (for good or ill). That is, if you remember that you liked the book when you read it, you'll like this too. If it was an "Eww do I HAVE to?!" chore, you won't like this book either. Read more ›

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Yawn... December 11, 2009

By Elizabeth G. Melillo VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

The author indeed does manage to work in sufficient details of the lives of the Bronte's to make clear connections with characters and situations in Jane Eyre (and some of the poetry), but overall it is a flimsy narrative. Many a tragedy or case of unrequited love are referenced, yet there is no passion in the book - more a sense of resignation and of being dutiful (including one quite clear illustration of what a drag it would have been to close one's eyes and think of England.)

Though I shall admit that the Bronte writings are not favourites of mine (I know them more through 'duty' as a student of literature than pleasure - and therefore may have met the approval of Charlotte's father), passion is a key element in, for example, both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. There are incidents referred to in this book which are sad, indeed miserable, but no note of passion is stricken. I did not feel the Bronte sisters were captured well, and the connections with (for example) Charlotte's experience of seeing her sister die at a dreadful school and a similar (immediately recognisable) incident involving Jane Eyre and schoolmate Helen are contrived and brief. Would that we got to see as much of Charlotte's budding literary fire as we do of papa's bedpan.

I did give the product three stars because I believe it could be a passable 'read' for a long and stormy afternoon, and that those who either love the Bronte's or who are just becoming familiar with their work could find the connections between life and work interesting.