Happy Friday!
The book I’m featuring this week is:
Jane Eyre
By: Charlotte Bronte
“There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”
Ok, so can I make an honest confession and admit that I haven’t read this book yet? No worries though, I snagged a copy from a local library book sale so I’m hoping to remedy this soon! I know it’s a classic, and I’m really not sure why it hasn’t hit the top of my TBR pile before. Here’s to hoping it makes it to the top soon!
About the book:
Fiery love, shocking twists of fate, and tragic mysteries put a lonely governess in jeopardy in JANE EYRE
Orphaned as a child, Jane has felt an outcast her whole young life. Her courage is tested once again when she arrives at Thornfield Hall, where she has been hired by the brooding, proud Edward Rochester to care for his ward Adèle. Jane finds herself drawn to his troubled yet kind spirit. She falls in love. Hard.
But there is a terrifying secret inside the gloomy, forbidding Thornfield Hall. Is Rochester hiding from Jane? Will Jane be left heartbroken and exiled once again?
About the Author:
Charlotte Brontë was a British novelist, the eldest out of the three famous Brontë sisters whose novels have become standards of English literature. See also Emily Brontë and Anne Brontë.
Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, the third of six children, to Patrick Brontë (formerly “Patrick Brunty”), an Irish Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Maria Branwell. In April 1820 the family moved a few miles to Haworth, a remote town on the Yorkshire moors, where Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate. This is where the Brontë children would spend most of their lives. Maria Branwell Brontë died from what was thought to be cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters and a son to the care of her spinster sister Elizabeth Branwell, who moved to Yorkshire to help the family.
In August 1824 Charlotte, along with her sisters Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, was sent to the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire, a new school for the daughters of poor clergyman (which she would describe as Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school was a horrific experience for the girls and conditions were appalling. They were regularly deprived of food, beaten by teachers and humiliated for the slightest error. The school was unheated and the pupils slept two to a bed for warmth. Seven pupils died in a typhus epidemic that swept the school and all four of the Brontë girls became very ill – Maria and Elizabeth dying of tuberculosis in 1825. Her experiences at the school deeply affected Brontë – her health never recovered and she immortalised the cruel and brutal treatment in her novel, Jane Eyre. Following the tragedy, their father withdrew his daughters from the school.
At home in Haworth Parsonage, Charlotte and the other surviving children — Branwell, Emily, and Anne — continued their ad-hoc education. In 1826 her father returned home with a box of toy soldiers for Branwell. They would prove the catalyst for the sisters’ extraordinary creative development as they immediately set to creating lives and characters for the soldiers, inventing a world for them which the siblings called ‘Angria’. The siblings became addicted to writing, creating stories, poetry and plays. Brontë later said that the reason for this burst of creativity was that:
‘We were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition.’
After her father began to suffer from a lung disorder, Charlotte was again sent to school to complete her education at Roe Head school in Mirfield from 1831 to 1832, where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. During this period (1833), she wrote her novella The Green Dwarf under the name of Wellesley. The school was extremely small with only ten pupils meaning the top floor was completely unused and believed to be supposedly haunted by the ghost of a young lady dressed in silk. This story fascinated Brontë and inspired the figure of Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre.
Brontë left the school after a few years, however she swiftly returned in 1835 to take up a position as a teacher, and used her wages to pay for Emily and Anne to be taught at the school. However, teaching did not appeal to Brontë and in 1838 she left Roe Head to become a governess to the Sidgewick family – this was partly from a sense of adventure and a desire to see the world, and partly from financial necessity.
Charlotte became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to Gaskell, she was attacked by “sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness.” She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, aged 38.
Now it’s your turn!
Grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. To see what First Lines others are sharing this week head over to Hoarding Books.
This is a classic. I loved Jane Eyre!
Let me share the first line of the book I’m currently reading instead. This one is from Suzanne Rindell’s “Eagle and Crane”
“They bump along the country road, rolling though golden hills that are punctuated with granite boulders and dotted with clusters of oak trees that appear blackish green from afar.”
Have a happy weekend! 😀
Ooh love the imagery! Thanks for stopping by and sharing! 🙂
Jane Eyre — ooh such a wonderful book! I shared from The Love Letter by Rachel Hauck on my blog. But here I’ll share the first line from the next book in my TBR pile — A Rebel Heart by Beth White. “Selah could hear the horses thundering closer, oncoming hell and destruction.” Happy Friday!
Oh I’ve heard of that one! It’s on my TBR too but it’ll take me longer to get to it lol
Fascinating reading about the author’s life. Charlotte certainly faced her challenges but came out on top. So sad, though, that she died so young. The book I’m featuring on my blog is “The Country House Courtship” by Linore Rose Burkard. Since I’m still reading this novel, I will share the first line in Chapter Seventeen here. “Mrs. Royleforst finally made her public entrance among the guests after taking breakfast in her room and spending much of the day abed.” Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Yes I read her bio in the front of the book I have. I knew her life was rough but not THAT rough! So sad her life ended so soon too when she finally had a chance at happiness
Enjoy reading this classic!!
Over on my blog I’m sharing the first line from Karen Whitemeyer’s More Than Meets the Eye. There is also a giveaway running on the Author Interview post with Karen on my blog. Please stop by and enter to win an author autographed print copy!
Ok I will thanks!
Love going back to some of the classics.
Here’s the first line of The Road to Magnolia Glen by Pam Hillman (I hope to finish this one this weekend):
The Lady Gallant in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean – January 1792
“Keep your brother away from my sister!”
Happy Friday!
Brothers 😂😂
Happy Friday!😊
My FLF comes from Claiming Her Cowboy by Tina Radcliffe
If Lucy Maxwell had learned one thing, it was that when life appeared to be going smoothly, it was time to listen closely for the other boot to drop!
Have a great weekend and happy reading!📚😎
Sigh. This is one that I’m sad to say that I still haven’t read yet.
I’m sharing about “Just Let Go” by Courtney Walsh on my blog today, but I have “The Hawaiian Discovery” by Wanda Brunstetter and Jean Brunstetter waiting for me to read next.
Middlebury, Indiana
Ellen Lambright finished sweeping the kitchen floor and paused from her work to brew a cup of tea.
Have a great weekend!
I have both on my TBR but no clue when I’ll actually get to them… my poor TBR lol
Jane Eyre is my most favorite book ever. It’s brilliant!!!
Happy Friday!!!
Today on my blog, I’m sharing the first line from As The Tide Comes In by Cindy and Erin Woodsmall. Here I will share the first line from a short story I’m currently reading. It’s called “A Lady of Scandal” by Heather B. Moore. It’s very good.
“Hugh couldn’t help but think of his biggest question about Anthony and Lady Bridget. Why had Anthony offered to marry her?”
Hope you have an excellent weekend filled with good reading time!
Thanks I hope you have a great weekend too!
I love this book!! The Victorian era is my favorite era of literature. 🙂 Great choice! Happy Friday and happy reading!
Thanks you too!
I love Jane Eyre!
It was going to be a fine day. Behold, Here’s Poison by Georgette Heyer
Love it! Have a great reading weekend! I hope you can stop by:
http://collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com/2018/06/first-lines-friday-62218.html
Colletta
Happy Friday! My first line is from Light My Fire by Susan May Warren:
“His knee had turned into a melon, achy and soft, and Tucker Newman’s entire body throbbed, right down to the marrow.”
I hope you love Jane Eyre!
I’m featuring lines by S.E. Rose’s upcoming release Chronicles of a Hot Mess on my blog. Hope you can stop by!
Here, I’m sharing the first line from Overcome by A.K. Evans.
“This had to be a mistake.”
Happy reading, have a lovely weekend!
I just finished reading The Love Letter by Rachel Hauck today…
You see, love stories never worked for her. She never got the guy.
Happy reading!