
So, it seems Jane Eyre is being re-written as a trashy romance novel. Or should I say, a trashy romance novel for our time; as I believe the original Jane Eyre was a trashy romance novel by Victorian standards, as indeed are all books that are any good. But times change, and audiences seem to go less and less for subtlety.
The author of the new version, Eve Sinclair, said:
I think that readers through the ages have appreciated the smouldering sexual chemistry between Jane and Rochester and I have changed very little of Bronte’s original to retell the timeless story of a young girl falling for an unattainable older man and getting out of her depth in a sensual world she cannot control.
Well… it seems like she would have had to change rather a lot of the story, since the plot hinges on Jane not wanting to, ah, “live as Rochester’s wife” without actually being Rochester’s wife. And that only happens at the end of the book. And if she didn’t change it much, then… what was the point of this again?
You know, I think this is the same problem I complain about in the horror genre: nothing gets left to the reader’s imagination anymore.