Sunday, March 20, 2011

Jane Eyre

I am still marveling that I haven't read this book before now!
I have always been a pretty big classic reader but the year in high school that most of the students read Jane Eyre they ran short of books and our teacher gave us a something else to read-- I think it was Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. It wasn't a bad book but all I remember about that book was one of the female characters was very strange. Her name was Eustacia Vye and in one passage it said that when walking if she happened to catch her hair in a branch as she passed it she would turn and walk by it again just to feel it catch her hair again. For some reason that stuck with me.
Anyway!
So I just finished reading the book last night during the supermoon!
Here is our best picture of it- I guess I need some photography lessons? It looks more like a sunrise than a moonrise but that was what the night shooting setting on me camera did. Not sure why? It was pretty though.
My friend Charmaine loaned me some of the older versions of the Jane Eyre movie and of course the new one is now out in some cities and I can't wait to watch them all! The trailer on youtube looks really good for the newest version click here to go watch it!
I have a large book with all the collected Emily and Charlotte Bronte novels in one volume:
but I found on my shelves also an older copy of Jane Eyre from 1945 that Random House put out. It  has these wonderful wooden engravings by Fritz Eichenberg in it. Eichenberg was an anti-Nazi German who came to America before that got him into trouble in Germany during Hitler's rise to power. He lived in New York City and during his later years experimented with Zen Buddhism and later became a Quaker. He was a believer in non violence and much of his art was of a religious nature. ( I know I am such a nerd...)
My copy of the Jane Eyre, with his art, has sadly seen better days but, I really enjoyed that edition of the book. Here are a few pictures from it of Eichenberg's work.
Title Page:

 The type is set in an older style with two columns of text per page.
What a treasure to find on my bookshelf!
The details in the pictures are unbelievable.
When I searched on etsy for Jane Eyre it had some interesting items from many different sellers. Several used the engravings in the 1945 edition of the book in their jewelry and things.  It sort of made me want to try using them in a quilt of some kind?  I am as always full of inspiration and full of ideas and short on time and execution!  It is still very enjoyable to plan and dream out projects even if I never hold them in my hands.
So now back to quilting....

2 comments:

  1. Loved seeing this older version of the novel and what interesting visuals! Hope you love all the movies.

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  2. okay now I may have to go read Jane Eyre. If I read this book in school it was too long ago and I don't remember. Thanks for sharing.

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