I read Great Expectations for freshman English and found it pretty good, although I agree it's pretty drawn out. (Of Dickens, I like A Tale of Two Cities best.)
As an English teacher (I'm assuming) you'll especially enjoy the rest of the series--the next books reference even more classic literature.

By the way, welcome to the fforum! The Nextian Chat section is a lot busier, and if you come on over, they may offer you tea and cake (but be careful; we're all mad here…)

Thanks! Yes, I'm an English teacher and that's one of the reasons I loved TEA soooo much! I have taught British lit for the last 5 years, but begged out of it for next year in favor of American lit, mostly just for a change...after reading TEA I'm kind of regretting that decision - I would have LOVED to have used the book as part of my curriculum!
I will check out the Nextian forum - this is fun!! :)

I really loved jane Eyre as a teenager, and I guess I still do, but have not re-read in ages.
I struggled through Wuthering Heights, and will never try again.
I admit to a teenage literary crush on Mr Darcy....
Dickens has always been a great stumbling block for me, but have been planning to read Great Expectations, but I am worried that I will like Jasper's Miss Havisham more than Charles'.

Can anyone help?

When I was in 3rd grade my older sister was in high school and had a project to do on Jane Eyre. She LOVED the book - but she's a hopeless romantic to begin with. Despite being seven years younger, I was more skilled than she in several areas, one being art, so I was put to work on her school project, making collages of different aspects (one about characters, one about events etc). I became really curious about the book. She turned it into a bedtime story in her own words, it was fun and novel (pardon the pun), getting told it over a week or so. It's really stuck with me over the years.
I finally read the book for myself when I was in college, not part of any class, but just because I felt like I should do so. I liked the book, but was more fond of the memories of my sister's interpretation.

BTW - I loaned Eyre Affair to a friend that had NOT read Jane Eyre, and it took them quite some time before they realized that the ending described in Jasper's book (pre-entering & changing) was not the real ending. That cracked me up. I figured EVERYBODY, even those who had not read the book or seen the movies, must know the ending of Jane Eyre.
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Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. --- Edgar Allan Poe

Annie, has any girl not had a teenage literary crush on Mr. Darcy?



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Metaphors be with you!

I just read Jane Eyre this summer. I've been meaning to read it for more than three years now, since I first read TEA. I loved it. I also just read Wuthering Heights, too, and I'm reading Sense and Sensiblity now.

I'll go into the catagory of read the book (jane eyre), I think there was a film as well i seem to recall seeing at the cinema about 10 years back. I'll also go into the catagory of having read watership down. Good book but I thought Robert O'Briens Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was better :-)

I've never read "Jane Eyre" but must agree that little if anything appears to have been lost on me while reading JF's delightful entry.

I find myself with an excessive amount of driving time while commuting to work these days, thus lowering the number of hours I can spend holding a book in hand. For now, I content myself with listening to unabridged audiobooks (where possible...the longer, the better!) during the 2.5+ hrs of daily driving, and was wondering if anyone among us has heard a good audio version of the book. Prior reading knowledge of the book would be helpful in regard to this recommendation.

While I tend to buy the real books anyway -- publishers must love my sort -- for eventual reading, I will say that there have been some very nicely done audio versions (all but "Something Rotten" which just seemed off compared to the original narrator's tone).

For anyone who can't quite bring themselves to another reading of JF's books, I would recommend this kind of performance as a very good addition to the canon, including the NCD stories. Not exactly worthy of substitution, but great when pinched for time.

I've not only read Jane Eyre, I have in fact INHALED it *counts* three times. No, indeed, four times - once for the first paper (university), and three times over for my MA paper, which I am in the process of writing.

And yes - it is at the top of my list of favourite books, still. After reading it four times and writing over 30 pages (in all) about it :) Amazing!

Actually, since my study copy looks horribly used, I've just bought a nice pocket version of it, hardcover, just like the one that saved Thursday's life I suppose *g*

Cheerio,
Barbie

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Never put a sock in a toaster!
E. Izzard

I've read it, too! *grin*
What an adorable book!! If you haven't read it so far, you should bridge that gap in your literary mind as soon as possible!!!

Hello all - first time poster here - and may I say I have read "Jane Eyre" five.

As much as I love the novel - I cannot, alas, say that all five were of my own volition. The first one was. The next four were because I studied literature at uni and had it as a first year text....

Also had to do Wide Sargasso Sea. Has anyone read that? If so, thoughts?

braex27, welcome to the fforum. I've read Jane eyre several times and then I bought it on CD so I could "read" it while doing other things. I'm quite fond of the book.

by sheer coincidence, I started Wide Sargasso Sea last night. Enjoying it immensely.

Kudos to anyone who can read Wuthering Heights (hats off to sci-fi40). I can't understand anything that Joseph says! JFf actually mentions something to that effect in one of the TN books. I've started WH twice and put it down. Loved Sense and Sensibility, though.

I have read "Jane Eyre" but can't say that I enjoyed the experience. A bit too girly for me. Probably why Mrs. SkidMarks loves it, 'cos she's a girl.

I quite enjoyed "Wuthering Heights", though.

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My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

Thanks for the welcome aria and I agree with you regarding Wuthering Heights. Going through the Brontes - I found WH the most difficult of all the books to read. I finished it after many many attempts and wondered whether I'd actually enjoyed the experience.

Sense and Sensibility is just wonderful. Just wonderful. My favourite of Austen's would have to be Pride and Prejudice though.

Think, the Jurisfiction headquarters could've been at Pemberley.

What would happen if Elizabeth Bennett and Marianne Dashwood met? Hahahaha.

Hi all, I'm new to the fforum :D

I actually read The Eyre Affair a couple of years ago, probably when I was 13, (and from there the next Nexts) but I only just read and finished Jane Eyre a couple of days ago! Needless to say I loved it; it had been on my to-read-list for a while because of TEA, I just never got around to it. Ended up devouring it in a few days :), and it was really great knowing the characters from TEA! Although I must say, the ending was a little spoilt, hehe :P So now I've done that, I think I'll go back over The Eyre Affair and look for things I may have missed pre-JE.

Hi, welcome to the forum! I too read Jane Eyre as a result of TEA (though I read TEA only after seeing the musical of Jane Eyre) and found it wonderful.

There's a lot more activity going on in the Nextian Chat section of the forum; if you go over there and introduce yourself, you may be offered pie. :-)

I found TEA through Jane Eyre, as I was randomly typing Jane Eyre into Amazon and came up with the Eyre affair (Such a happy event!) I LOVE Jane Eyre, I have read it several times, it is one of my all time favourites! I love Pride and Prejudice and actually really really enjoy Persuasion, both of them are 'comfort' books. I read Great Expectations when I was younger and found it a real drag (this was before reading JF) I am still a bit haunted by the memories, but fully intend to give Mr Dickens a second chance in the future thanks to JF. I tried Wuthering Heights but I think I got distracted by another book and hadn't managed to be caught by the story so have never gone back to it, perhaps in future. I am doing a post grad in Primary teaching at the moment though so I am busy reading kids books (more than usual!)

I first read Jane Eyre when I was about 10 and loved it, although clearly missed a lot of the substance of it. I have re-read it at least once every two years since and it still never fails to amaze.

I have read all Jane Austen's books and love the all bar Emma as I found her highly annoying and self-important. I am in fact re-reading Mansfield Park again at the moment.

I admit to 'teenage literary crushes' on both Rochester and Darcy and (with no small amount of blushing) cannot deny that there is still a certain lingering softness in my heart for both of them.

I still haven't read Wuthering Heights. I can't really work out why but I have always intended to.

Read Great Expectations a long time ago and liked it but can't remember details anymore. Also read Hard Times.

TEA is an amazing book (naturally) but it really does make all the difference if you've read at least some of the books it talks about.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2007 04:54PM by JaneElliot.

I try to read as many interesting classics as possible, especially the ones mentioned in the TN books, but its quite difficult to find English books at the library of my town, they mainly have German books... And I deffinetely canīt afford to buy all the books Iīd like to read (still going to school).
Thus, Iīve read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights (and some others), but only in German.
Iīm lucky to have a half-American friend who gave the Englis TN-books to me, for the German translation really isnīt THAT good...

Welcome to you, Pfefferminztea.

I guess that you are from Germany, Austria or Switzerland - your library having mainly German books was the clue - so let me offer you some Zuger kirschtorte as well as the usual selection of pies. Someone will be along soon with a fine selection of cybercakes and something to drink (although it looks as if you have sorted that out for yourself.

Pop over to Nextian chat: very few of them bite.

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My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing