The Secret History of Jane Eyre: How Charlotte Brontë Wrote her Masterpiece
Pfordresher goes to great—and often contrived—lengths to show how Brontë’s life influenced her writing, yet, by making frequent reference to her juvenilia, he rather shoots himself in the foot, because these texts do more to illustrate the extravagance of the Brontë siblings’ imaginations than show factual sources for Jane Eyre. Surely the skill of this great novelist lies in her ability to successfully meld imagination and emotional truth and not in her ability to turn her life into fiction.
As one who has read Jane Eyre many times, I found Pfordresher’s approach to the text estranged it, which can be exhilarating and illuminating but here seems more like careless reading. Why, for example, does he persistently refer to Rochester as Fairfax rather than Edward? Why does he never acknowledge the sub-text, which suggests Adele is Rochester’s daughter? Why, most vexingly, does he fail completely to address the strange ending of the novel—the emphasis on the missionary career of St. John Rivers which tells us how much more Brontë intended than to write a romance? A frustrating read.
