plain jane...

this book deserves my very favorite adjective : haunting.
from the moment jane was locked in the red room where she passed out from fear
to her first meetings with the mysterious, yet magically open with jane, mr. rochester,
i was intrigued with images of foggy mornings and evenings at thornfield hall
and near-death incidents brought on by an unknown/unseen member of the household.
as the seasons passed and jane battled her growing love for her master.
i loved her brain and her attempts to save her own heart and let reason rule...
but oh how i was relieved when both heart and mind won her over in the end.

i finished the final pages rejoicing in such a happy union {full of tension, of course}
and was happy to finally make my way to the theater for a matinee viewing of the
newest film version of this story.
was happy indeed with how it turned out...i thought it very haunting indeed.
as with all films adapted from novels, many details were left out, but i didn't mind at all.
i could fill in the blanks and it felt incredibly accurate.

the thoughts that are lingering in my mind and body after both book and movie are this:
i am in love with a plain jane, and have found a renewed love of my own plainness.
my obsession with england grows as i think more of the countryside and its moors...can't wait for summer.
conversation is my deepest desire...i want to talk and talk and talk with those i love most.
tension is what i crave...i love doubt and faith, courage and faint hearts, strong and weak.
i love a good ghost story {when i'm not alone or in the dark}.
i am more determined to someday have a little orchard and spend a night here and there in candlelight.
strangely i am trying to figure out why this book left me loving things that are harsh and rough...i have yet
to fully digest these feelings.

some favorite quotes i jotted down:

will be thinking of jane for months to come. thank you, nadia.

tess : "i am ready"

every time someone saw me with "tess" in my hands,
and my eyes deliberately soaking in every word, they gave
me some kind of warning, "be ready to read something happy afterwards"
or "oh, poor tess!...have you read such-and-such yet?...it's terrible."
i guess these warnings might have turned me away, but i rather
like a story of heartache and suffering...because it is so much part of us.

before la porte rouge offered this book as our first read
tess had sat patiently on my shelf, and i was completely ignorant of her...
each page was a surprise, a true unfolding of a life before my eyes.

i fell in love. how can you not when you read of her perfect lips
and love of melody? how can you not love a woman who indeed
was full of virtue? what strength and forbearance she possessed.

i loved dreaming about her hard labor on the farm as she fell
deeply, madly in love with a gentleman. i too cried when
angel left her and she protected his good name.
i cherished every moment she had of her last days
with him as they fled and hid in forests and a mansion.

i knew that as soon as she offered her body upon
that ancient altar she was done for. i wept.
tess, least despised of them all. most loved forever more.

often as i read i had my warm spiced milk,
thinking of tess and all the many women in this world
who suffer such a life this very day...the victims of
social injustices. it's international women's day...
and i will celebrate tess and those who struggle
to keep their heads high as they have been cast so low.

and now, onward. onward to jane.

join & read with la porte rouge

have you heard? nadia over at la porte rouge has started a book club...

and it's just in time too since i left my book club back in california.

i must admit, i have been dying to be part of any club of nadia's...

so happy she started a book club.

hoping you'll join me and all the other lovely "read with me" members,

starting with thomas hardy's tess of the D'Urbervilles.

i've never read this classic and can't wait to start.