I’m in one of those annoying middle times that happens now and then where I have finished a number of books close together and then find myself in the midst of many things but close to finishing nothing. That means no reviews to write and much effort spent wracking my brain to find a topic to blog about that isn’t terribly repetitive or boring.
I did start reading Jane Eyre last week. I have read it at least twice before, maybe three times, I can’t remember for sure. The last time I read it was twenty years ago. What is so wonderful is that it feels familiar enough still that I have the pleasure of anticipating certain events. It has also been long enough that I don’t remember everything. Then there is the fact of having lived twenty years (plus a few) and experiencing the story differently than I did in my early twenties. Add to this that I am still making my way through Fiery Heart, the new biography of Charlotte, in which the author points out different events in Charlotte’s life that end up being reflected in Jane Eyre. It makes for a rich reading experience.
I am racing through a book to review for Library Journal on Melville and his affair with Sarah Morewood. Both of them were married at the time. I never knew much about Melville’s biography other than that he spent time at sea and all that, but I always pictured him as a proper sort of fellow. Far from it! He was a very bold, party-loving kind of guy and during his sailing years he spread his love around among the South Seas ladies. His novels pre-Moby Dick garnered him a large and fawning fanbase of women groupies who imagined exciting and exotic romantic situations with Melville the sailor! I am having a hard time adjusting my picture of the man.
My eyeballs are also giving time to The Creative Tarot by Jessa Crispin of Bookslut fame. Part of me wants to forget reading everything else and devour this book. I have a collection of tarot cards and have a tattoo of the strength card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck. The book is not about fortune-telling but about using the cards for creative inspiration. I am very much enjoying it.
There are many other books I am in the midst of right now, most of them I’ve had going for quite a while and have mentioned them numerous times. But these are my main squeezes at the moment. Very soon I get a four-day weekend for Easter and I am looking forward to spending the time reading, gardening and cycling with reading top on the list. I am very much looking forward to that. I might even be recovered from the change to Daylight Savings by then too.
I know how you feel. I have a number of books on the go and need to just focus and get to finishing them. I feel like a magpie… shiny objects, shiny objects… 🙂
LikeLike
roughghost, oh yes! Such a perfect image 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
If Misery loves company, then you have me! I have finished all that I could and am now either stuck in the middle or beginning of everything! Funny what you shared about Melville; I too imagined him as an old fashioned gentleman, but considering he was a sailor during the more adventurous times of world history, I am not quite sure, how I managed that very proper image of him! Ah! well….I am guessing he had fun to say the least! 😉
LikeLike
At least those are interesting books you are in the middle of. I can understand the pleasure that reading Jane Eyre again would be. I remember being surprised at just how gripping it was to read when I first read it years ago…must pick it up again. It sounds like reading the novel in tandem with the biography is quite an enriching experience.
LikeLike
Ian, yes, at least they are interesting! Reading Jane Eyre along with the biography is very enlightening. I is also tempting me to reread Wuthering Heights and see if I can’t find a bio of Emily. She seems to have been one really messed up person which explains a lot about WH.
LikeLike
cirtnecce, what are we on the same reading schedule or something? 😉 I don;t know why I had such a proper image of Melville either but clearly it is way wrong!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that feeling of rereading. The familiarity, anticipation, surprise still at forgotten turns or seeing new details I completely missed the first time. I keep thinking once I get my TBR shelf whittled down (haha) I will set aside a year to only reread books on my ‘forever’ shelf. And maybe some of them will no longer be keepers and get ditched. But I still don’t know if I could do it. Too many new titles would pile up in the meantime…
LikeLike
Jeane, an entire year devoted to rereading sounds appealing in so many ways but I am positive I couldn’t manage it, I am too much the magpie like Roughghosts!
LikeLike
Whether people like the plot or not, Jane Eyre has imagery that remains for years. Reading it along with Charlotte’s new biography should be an interesting experience!
LikeLike
jenclair, yes, that red room! And now I am at Lowood. Reading it with the bio is really interesting especially since I just had the barest outlines of Charlotte’s life before.
LikeLike
Further to re-reading, i have been doing a lot of that since 2008 when my late husband and I moved here to our retirement home and he got a carpenter in to build shelves for me – all the fiction is at last in A/Z order (I was a librarian) and I’ve been doing an A/Z read, alternated with reading new books if you follow. It’s been fascinating meeting up with old and loved stories. Further to your comment about JE seeming different when read after 20 years, I do recall as an enormous watershed that after the birth of my son in 1975 and my daughter in 1979 I could never again read anything in quite the same way. ‘All changed, changed utterly.’ Especially perhaps those oblique references in Victorian fiction of ‘being brought to bed of a fine boy.’ ‘Ouch’ was my new response!
LikeLike
Sue, oh your bookcases sound lovely! It is amazing how much lived experience can change how we understand the books we read. That I think it one of the best parts of rereading!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not a free day in sight for me sadly. I am wishing I had more reading time since I am also in that middle space of being so close to finishing books, (though I do still have a few I could write about–those more proper bookish posts always take me more thought and effort which I don’t seem to have much of lately). So I am trying to stay focused on my almost-finished but also being terribly tempted by new books coming in my front door by way of the mailbox…. I feel another in-progress books on the nightstand shuffle coming, I fear. This may sound a little weird, but I always thought Melville was a not unattractive man in his youth–to the ladies he must have been quite a hottie really! 😉
LikeLike
Danielle, there are so many books I want to be reading right now there isn’t time in the day for all of them even if I didn’t have to work. It’s that time of year between prize lists and the flood of new books that I feel like a kid in a candy store, yes please give me all of them and then I get a big stomachache but it was so worth it 🙂 The young Melville was considered quite handsome, he was tall and apparently cut quite the dashing figure!
LikeLike
Oh the dreaded middle times! I get into such a pickle sometimes when I have so many books in progress; too many threads pulling me in too many directions leaves me bewildered. 🙂
I really want to re-read Jane Eyre soon. I devoured it when I was a teenager, but haven’t tried it since. A couple of years ago I polished off Charlotte Bronte’s other novels and wondered how JE would strike me after that experience. It made the power dynamics of Jane and Rochester’s relationship seem much more sinister and questionable to me in retrospect. Have you read Villette? Such a fascinating novel.
LikeLike
Victoria, oh yes! You have it exactly! I have not read Villette but the bio is making me want to read it quite a lot as it is apparently quite autobiographical in many instances. Plus it seems so delightfully odd.
LikeLike
JANE EYRE! I am happy any time anyone rereads that book, as it’s one of my all-time favorites.
The Creative Tarot is forcing me to pay attention to it, as it seems to be everywhere these days. I am a teensy bit mad at Jessa Crispin for some things she said in The Dead Ladies Project that made me go “whoa!”, but on the other hand, I love playing around with Tarot cards. And writing. So.
LikeLike
Jenny, it’s not among my all-times but it is definitely very high on my list of favorites. I have made it to Lowood and I remembered Helen as being so very angelic and perfect in every way and have been surprised to find out she is rather a slob which I find strangely wonderful. The Creative Tarot is so far very enjoyable. It has a really good history of the cards and Crispin is very encouraging about creating a personal understanding of them rather than simply memorizing the meanings from the booklet. She also emphasizes the story-telling aspect of the cards which is a lot of fun.
LikeLike
Oh no, please don’t mention daylight savings, because it reminds me that ours is coming to an end. I’d nearly forgotten. There is a definite autumn chill in the air this week, after a week of over 30°sC last week. (I say this even though right now, at 5pm it is still 22°C!!).
Oh, and good luck with the reading.
LikeLike
whisperinggums, all good things eventually come to an end 😉 So what constitutes autumn chill? Is it like my parents in southern California who are freezing when the temperature is at 18C? They have a fireplace (who needs a fireplace in SoCal?) and will have a fire going and if I am visiting I feel as though I am in a sweat lodge!
LikeLike
No, we’re not quite so unused to “chill” as that. (I totally agree re a fireplace in SoCal – we thought it rather weird). I think the chill relates more to the sudden drop in temperature so that instead of the early mornings and evenings being quite warm, you suddenly feel coolness in the air by comparison with the warm days and you know winter is on the way.
LikeLike
Ok good. I am glad I don’t have to make fun of you and your delicate hothouse flower constitution 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those two biographies sound great!
LikeLike
Carolyn, they are! The Brontes as a family are sooo weird and Melville, totally not the man I pictured him to be!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: It’s a Priority | So Many Books
I have an enduring love affair with Miss Eyre because it’s such a wonderfully layered book that each time I reread I find something new. I suspect you’ve read the interpretation in The Madwoman in The Attic but have you read the David Lodge essay Fire and Ice ? Fascinating..
LikeLike
BookerTalk, Jane Eyre is a very fine book. I have read Madwoman in the Attic and Wide Sargasso Sea. I have not read the David Lodge essay so will be sure to look it up. Thanks for the tip!
LikeLike
Your post reminded me of this passage from The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, Stefanie. “”Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life.” 🙂
LikeLike
Deepika, what a great quote! And so true!
LikeLiked by 1 person