The Barmy Bronte Bunch!

I was fascinated to read your comments re: Jean Rhys whose novels are somewhere in this house but I never felt a need to put them at the front of my reading queue. The whole concept of taking Bertha’s character and developing it into a novel in its own right intrigues me. Your comments regarding Mr Rochester make me breathe huge sighs of relief!

Jane Eyre is a good yarn - as indeed the same can be said of Wuthering Heights - but for the love of God in wha« t way are these men in any way likable? Heathcliffe in particular is as mad as a box of March hares and Rochester is surly and arrogant. Oddly enough I can live with this, I know many women who would have hurled themselves at their feet. I cannot handle a perfectly intelligent young woman not sussing out that she shared the big house with a nutcase in the attic who had a fancy for arson! I mean come on Jane, get a grip here love, go and take a look when the screeching stops you sleeping and the flames are licking round the drapes.

Incredibly I think I could even cope with the mystery woman who could not be named, but the marriage fiasco - ‘I object, the man is married and I have nipped over from the Windies to proclaim this news’ - no.  No, no, no, no and no - but oh so convenient. I could possibly make myself get over that but no…. worse is to come. Jane ups and offs in a carriage going nowhere in particular with money that requires her to be bundled out on a dark and rainy moor and who should find her - yes, her long lost and only relative in the world who popped up in the nick of time to provide genteel comforts and hot soup!!! Bobby Ewing walking back into the cast of Dallas, through a wardrobe or a shower having spent 3 years dreaming whilst half the western world had him for dead was completely derided as the ultimate in pot-boiling garbage. Janey’s rellies are more or less on a par - the writer did not, could not devise a plot so she threw in ludicrous twists and figured her readers would think,’ Gosh! Lucky Jane.’

As for Heathcliffe and the evil that pervades his character as he frantically digs his way into Cathy’s grave so he can lie beside her - he should have married Rochester’s wife and hung out in the attic!

Just a thought, well, a diatribe really, after reading your post. Jean Rhys - wheel her in!

Jan