Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte is, by no surprise, one of Stephanie Hudson’s favourite books. No wonder she uses the book to frame Keira’s narrative in the Afterlife Saga.
Published in 1847, under the male pseudonym ‘Currer Bell’, the novel follows the (self-proclaimed ‘autobiography’) of the eponymous heroine and her growth as a young child into adulthood, and her love for Mr. Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall.
Fun fact- The technical term for a book that follows a protagonists adolescence into maturity is called a bildungsroman.
Jane Eyre’s popularity arose from the revolutionary use of an intimate first-person narrative. Some historians allude that the novel was a catalyst to feminist criticism that was put on the map by earlier writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft (the mother of Frankenstein writer Mary Shelly) Bronte’s psychological approach to writing has also allowed her to be known as the “first historian of the private consciousness”.
Bronte wrote most of the work in Manchester, and historians have likely envisioned the Manchester Cathedral Churchyard as the burial place for Jane’s parents, with the city being the most likely birthplace for the protagonist. (...and the fact FFB this year was held here makes this truly full circle)
Similar to Jane Eyre’s story, Keira undertakes her own journey (perhaps a little later in her life) from adolescence to marrying her own Mr. Rochester. She, like Jane, ascends to become a influentially powerful character, using her own intimate narrative as a place for solace and reflection for readers across the world. Conventions of the romance genre, utilising strong morals as a compass to the direction of the text, and deep cut Christian allegories anchor parallels between both Jane Eyre and Afterlife.
The text frames both the beginning of Keira’s journey, reading the novel with Dominic sending his own intimate messages within the text, to the very end, when the book is used as a key to Afterlife in the Janus gates.
Read more about Jane Eyre in the Afterlife Saga, available on Kindle and free on Kindle Unlimited here.
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