# Any Jane Eyre fans in the house? (Any straight male fans?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665 "2011-07-28T20:57:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/41 "2011-08-03T01:59:08Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > In the book he brings up his villa in the Mediterranean, she resists “Sir, your wife is living,” and he goes into the whole history of his marriage, thinking Jane will give in to his wishes out of sympathy for his situation. Uh-uh. She thinks to herself: “_I_ care for myself… Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour… Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.” > > And I just want to cheer. Go, Jane! Indeed. In fact, I often use this quote together with the scene from the Magnificent Seven – the conversation between Chris and Vin. Chris says they have to go back and finish the job, because they took a contract. Vin points out, “It’s sure not the kind any court would enforce.” Chris replies, “That’s just the kind you’ve got to keep.” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/42 "2011-08-03T02:00:14Z")
And let me just point out I’m aware of the oddity of quoting _Jane Eyre_ and _The Magnificent Seven_ in the same breath. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/43 "2011-08-03T04:26:15Z")
JE fans who also enjoy humorous speculative fiction might check out “The Eyre Affair” by Jasper Fforde - lots of fun. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/44 "2011-08-03T05:04:11Z")
Here are some other _Jane Eyre_-inspired books I am aware of: _Jane Rochester_ by Kimberly Bennett – a sequel detailing Jane’s married life. Kind of dull actually, except for Jane’s wedding night (yes indeedy), but the author does a terrific job of re-creating Bronte’s nineteenth century voice. _Rochester_ by J. L. Niemann – _Jane Eyre_ from Rochester’s POV and yep, it’s erotica. Fun but not for the squeamish, I guess. But very romantic. _Jane_ by April Lindner – “What if Jane Eyre married a rock star?” Lots of fun. _Jane Slayer_ “by Charlotte Bronte and Sherri Browning Erwin” – Jane and vampyres, zombies, and werewolves. Haven’t read this one yet. _Jenna Starborn_ by Sharon Shinn – Jane Eyre [IN SPACE!](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitlekt6mtovm4vne) Haven’t read this one yet either. _Jane Eyre’s Daughter_ by Elizabeth Newark – don’t know this one. _Becoming Jane Eyre_ by Sheila Kohler – this is a novel about the Brontes. There’s also a book written from a grown-up Adele’s POV, and I guess Adele isn’t happy. There’s a Jane Eyre graphic novel. I once found some kind of naughty JE book on Amazon – spankings at Lowood, etc. – the reviews made it sound like it was garbage and very weird; hardly anything of the original characters. Not my thing. Two Kindle books: _Jane Eyre’s Husband: The Life of Edward Rochester_ by Tara Bradley and _An American Heir: A Modern Retelling of_ Jane Eyre by Chrissy Breen Keffer. I know nothing of these. I should probably stop now. 😃 I _did_ say it was my favorite book, didn’t I? Anyone got any others? I know about _Wide Sargasso Sea_, of course, but that doesn’t interest me. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/45 "2011-08-03T05:07:54Z")
Oh, and two weeks until the latest movie is out on DVD! Oo-oo-oo! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/46 "2011-08-03T16:37:48Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Here are some other _Jane Eyre_-inspired books I am aware of: > > I once found some kind of naughty JE book on Amazon – spankings at Lowood, etc. – the reviews made it sound like it was garbage and very weird; hardly anything of the original characters. Not my thing. That would be _An English Education_. Very strange indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/47 "2011-08-03T18:50:49Z")
So what does everyone think is the fundamental pull of this story? Why is it so compelling, so enduring? What is it in it that evidently speaks to something very fndamental in a very large number of people, both male and female? ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/48 "2011-08-03T19:13:17Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > In the book he brings up his villa in the Mediterranean, she resists “Sir, your wife is living,” and he goes into the whole history of his marriage, thinking Jane will give in to his wishes out of sympathy for his situation. Uh-uh. She thinks to herself: “_I_ care for myself… Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour… Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.” > > And I just want to cheer. Go, Jane! I think this says it very well. Jane’s smarter and tougher than I ever found it in myself to be. Also, I groove on the descriptions of clothing and furnishings. I love the scene where they _clean down_ Moor House. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/49 "2011-08-03T19:14:08Z")
Because he loves her for herself – she has no social status, no money, she’s not even _pretty!_ Usually any google-eyed twit can snag a man if she’s at least pretty. He loves and respects her because of her independent will, her intelligence and her moral character. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/50 "2011-08-03T20:33:15Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I think this says it very well. Jane’s smarter and tougher than I ever found it in myself to be. Well, except for the fact that her position is rdiculous. Not in that time and place, of course, and that’s why I can enjoy the story, but still… his wife is a disconnected homicidal maniac! He’s supposed to give up any chance at happiness? Again, that time and place… > [@a35362](#): > > Because he loves her for herself Yeah, that’s my take. It’s REAL love. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/51 "2011-08-03T21:09:51Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > So what does everyone think is the fundamental pull of this story? Why is it so compelling, so enduring? What is it in it that evidently speaks to something very fndamental in a very large number of people, both male and female? If we always want what we don’t or can’t have… in this day and age of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, _et al_, we _NEED_ Jane. On the commentary track of _Sense and Sensibility_, Emma Thompson said something about the reason these older romance books endure has to do with the unattainable or forbidden love. Nowadays anybody can marry anybody or even not get married at all. I read somewhere that this is part of the reason Bollywood movies are catching on – they also have that unattainable or forbidden love plot present in the Indian culture. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/52 "2011-08-04T00:13:34Z")
I was at a Halloween party last year, and was, by 2 A.M., the sole surviving guest. As our exhausted friends snored all around us, the hostess and I had a lovely conversation in which we discovered that we had highly compatible literary tastes. When she asked my opinion of _Jane Eyre_, I was forced to admit that I’d never read it, a confession that sent her almost sprinting to her bookcase. _“Tolle, lege!”_ she cried, forcing the battered volume into my hands; and at that very instant, even as my fingertips closed about the worn leather binding, I sensed a spark bursting to life within the deepest recesses of my desolate soul. It was for but a moment – ephemeral, one thousandth of a heartbeat – yet possessed of astounding potential. It seemed to me not unlike to a tiny stone that, plunging through the surface of a stagnant pond, sweeps all away before its resounding wake, which starts as a nothing and reaches out inexorably to grasp eternity. Okay, not really. But I finished the book in two days, which is a remarkable feat for such a slow reader as myself. While it did, at times, test my patience, I found it a thrilling narrative – good enough to earn a permanent spot on my to-be-reread-periodically list. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665/53 "2011-08-04T23:17:38Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Anyone for _Vanity Fair_? Yep. I think that’s the only novel I can remember laughing out loud the whole way through. Didn’t know there was a flick version of it. Major lust for good old Becky, though. ETA a few of Jules Vernes’s stuff did have me in stitches, but I can’t think of any other runners up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-jane-eyre-fans-in-the-house-any-straight-male-fans/590665.md?page=2)