"Reader, I married him." One of the best-known lines in classic English literature elicits contented sighs from readers who remember watching Jane Eyre fall in love with Mr. Rochester. But for those who haven't picked up Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece in a few years, other details may have grown fuzzy with time. The cruelty of young Jane's relatives, the damp misery and the unexpected transformation of Lowood School into her first home, the growth of Jane's confidence and her discovery of friends who become family all prove equally fascinating when reread. Jane, as she admits, is small, plain and poor, but her spunk, intellect and unimpeachable sense of self captivate Mr. Rochester and have won admiration from generations of readers.
Drawing on her own experiences in Scottish boarding schools, bestselling author Margot Livesey (The House on Fortune Street) provides both a retelling and a variation of Jane Eyre in The Flight of Gemma Hardy. Set in Scotland during the 1960s, Gemma's story begins by paralleling Jane's in many ways: both are orphans sent to boarding school, overworked and unloved. However, both Gemma and the story come into their own when she leaves her au pair job on the Orkney Islands and sets off for Iceland to discover the name and the family she has never known.
For an utterly-wacky-yet-literary twist on Jane's story, look no farther than The Eyre Affair, the first book featuring Jasper Fforde's ffearless literary detective, Thursday Next. Fforde sets his story in a 1980s alterna-Britain, where the Crimean War has dragged on for more than a century and dodo birds (such as Thursday's beloved Pickwick) are common household pets. When Jane Eyre is kidnapped from her own tale, Thursday must learn to "bookjump" into multiple narratives to find her, and then jump back into Jane Eyre to orchestrate the fateful meeting between Jane and Rochester in the lane near Thornfield. Denizens of Thursday's world are shocked--and readers will breathe a sigh of relief--to see the happy ending restored. Although Bronte's story is the true gem, Livesey's homage and Fforde's hilarious new angle will delight and entertain. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams