Come join us! This is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.
For the month of January, my bookclub was assigned "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë. Believe it or not, I had never read this classic. It took me awhile to plow through the 600+ pages of this book written in the language of Victorian times. My initial rating of three out of four stars was guarded. But as the weeks have passed I realized that it really wasn't a fair rating. I needed to appreciate the age of the author at the time of the writing, the language of the era, and the author's background and what she brought to the story. Since I have read the book, I have watched three or four movies based on the book. I have grown to love the story and will definitely read it again sometime in the future.
I had to give you a little background before I told you about this week's book. It happens to be the February selection for my bookclub. It is called, "The Flight of Gemma Hardy" by Margot Livesey. This book was specifically chosen to be read following Jane Eyre because it is an updated version of the book. The story takes place in 1950 Scotland, Orkney Island and also Iceland. The story goes along the same line as Jane Eyre in the beginning because Gemma is orphaned when her parents died. Her uncle takes her in to live with his family. But after he dies and her aunt is left to raise her, there is no love lost between Gemma, her aunt, or her cousins.Gemma is sent away to a boarding school. She does grow up at the school and eventually leaves to become a governess of a child on Orkney Island. The plot follows along somewhat like Jane Eyre, but not exactly. Both books have strong heroines, (Yes!) who pursue their dreams; not only their hearts. I love reading about new places and learning about new things. This was a faster read than Jane Eyre not only because it was about 200 pages shorter, but also because it was written in more modern English.
The author, Margot Livesey, related to Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, and her protagonist Gemma Harding, as they all had a somewhat hard home life, and went away to a boarding school.
I would especially recommend this book if you are a fan of Jane Eyre, but this book can well stand on it's own.
8 comments:
Sounds good ! I read the nature in my back yard mostly hehe ! Thanks for the review will have to check it out ! Have a good day !
Orkney Islands and Iceland! That sounds like a good winter read. Love the cover, too. Thanks for sharing. Have a lovely reading week! (here are my reads: http://virtual-notes.blogspot.de/search/label/bookshelf )
Sounds like it's worth checking out!
That looks like an interesting read and somewhat shorter than the more meatier classic Bronte book!
Are you glad you did finish the classic? I am still trying to get through Anna Karenina however I know when I finished Pride & Prejudice I felt a great sense of Pride (No pun intended!)
hmmm sounds like an interesting book...i enjoy jane eyre but not sure if enough...smiles...always looking for new books though....
I never heard about this updated version -- sounds very interesting. But I love Jane Eyre -- I reread it recently and liked it much better than I did the first time years ago (because I'm old now and have more time to read). I've been reading a lot of old books (or re-reading) on my Kindle ... they're so cheap or even free and I didn't really read much good stuff when I was young.
Back in high school I loved to read the classics and Jane Eyre was one of my favorites. In fact I loved any work by the Bronte sisters. I have seen The Flight of Gemma Hardy but haven't read it yet.
Thanks for the recommendation;)
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