Please let me know if I'm not crazy.

I recently reread "Jane Eyre" and noticed something that hadn't caught my attention before: The last few chapters (really, everything after Jane decides to leave St. John) seem to be written in a style completely unlike the one C. Bronte used in the rest of the book.

In my opinion, it reads an awful lot like Alexandre Dumas. And even if not, it's still very different from the narration of the rest of the book.A few of the stranger inconsistancies that led me to this conclusion:

-- While Bronte seemed perfectly happy to leave all displays of affection in the narration (ex: Emil kissed Emily) in the rest of the book, suddenly she is incapable of doing so anywhere except the dialogue (ex: Emily: "I shall kiss you. There! and there!").

-- Overwhelming use of dialogue to the point that you can go most of the page without a single "he said" or "she said."

-- Very brief lines, mostly due to un-Bronte conversations in which one character is confused and/or impatient and constantly interrupts the other's tale -- usually without pausing for a "he/she said."

-- The use of humor in the above conversations.

After reading "Lost in a Good Book," I wonder if Narrators ever go book hopping same as characters. Has anyone else ever noticed this?

-- f

I have Jane Eyre waiting for me to re-read next to my bed. I have to finish the book I'm reading first. JE takes too much concentration to read at the same time as another book. But I will watch out for this Narrator-Hopping problem we may have

H'mm... interesting... must re-read it!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah