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Darling readers, we’ve been digging deep with sweet Jane Eyre who is orphaned and eventually finds herself settling amidst this found family of Thornfield Hall, yet there’s something lurking that’s not quite right, and it seems like more than Grace Poole.  It reminds me of when Feyre finds herself settling the first time, except there is so much she doesn’t know, yet, because all she’s told, all she can be told, is that there’s a blight on the land.  What happens when secrets are in between people in relationship?  Nothing good dear readers!  Jane runs away because she won’t be a mistress.  What does Feyre darling do?  We’ll discuss that and so much more on Friday, February 12 at 7:30 p.m. CST.   Sign up here to join us for an evening of conversation about  Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series.   Spoilers will abound as we prepare for the next book in the series.  

Sarah Shoemaker knew by third grade that she was going to be a writer. But, as she states on her website: “On the way, I became a teacher, a wife, a mom, a librarian, and, finally, a published writer.” It is amazing to know that this is her debut novel, and only published work because there is such a depth of style. One gets the feeling that Shoemaker has had stacks of published works in which to hone her skill. She lives in Michigan where she grows her own popcorn and, according to her Goodreads profile is working on her sophomore novel which is NOT a reimagining of a known character’s journey.

Mr. Rochester was published in 2017 and it is an amazing imagining of the backstory of one Edward Fairfax Rochester. We are told the life’s story of the character who is considered in one poll to be literature’s “most romantic fictional character.” I never saw him as such, nor do I see the possibilities translated on screen for such a distinction, but that’s a discussion for Monday’s post.  We meet young Edward close to his eighth birthday, a young boy of the opinion that a governess is no one “other than a presence to be borne.” His brother Rowland is eight years his senior and their mother died giving birth to Edward. So, yes, we start the novel feeling such pity for a privileged white boy who never met his mother, whose father ignores his existence except for how it benefits the Rochester family, whose elder brother is physically abusive, and whose only friends are the servants of  Thornfield Hall. There’s such possibility for us as readers to somewhat justify the way Rochester treats Jane, Adele, his other servants, his wife, and his peers, by understanding the horrid upbringing he had, thinking that he never received an example of a good human of his ilk.

When Edward gets sent off to be schooled at Black Hill at the age of eight years old, he has to travel by himself the entire way, to a place he has never been – or heard of – to live with people he has never met. George Howell Rochester, Esquire, is, quite frankly, guilty of child endangerment and it’s a miracle Edward arrives at Black Hill with as little trouble as he received. Don’t think Rochester Senior will have some redemption arc, he doesn’t, and Rowland only becomes <this much> less of an asshole during Edward’s teen years. His life isn’t all woe and terrible, scary experience. He makes friends who become like brothers to him at Black Hill. And, even though Rochester Senior is the orchestrator and manipulator of Edward’s life trajectory, the son finds joy in his apprenticeship to a mill owner, in his attendance of Cambridge University, and surprisingly, up to a specific point, the life and business he takes up in Jamaica. (The point is Bertha’s decline into madness, y’all.) The descriptions of Edward’s life on the continent are typical of a person who has lost touch with who he thought he would be and is trying to find some semblance of happiness in the situation in which he finds himself.

Edward stumbles upon Jane halfway through the novel and so the final half of the book is the plot of Jane Eyre but with so many surprises by all the characters (except Jane, of course) I will not spoil them here. Overall, Mr. Rochester was an enjoyable read, an unexpected debut novel, and four solid stars of entertainment. I won’t be reading again, and I’m still not convinced that Rochester could ever earn the title of “most romantic fictional character” with his lies of omission and mercurial moods, but I do have a healthier respect for Rochester’s character knowing he never really made a good decision on his own until he fell in love with Jane.

Oh, readers, we love a good retelling, and by this point if you don’t know that Nikki always wants “MORE EPILOGUE” have you really been reading our blog? Do you prefer a modern author to continue a story or give a character we already know a more in-depth background?

~Ashley

Readers, isn’t Ashley cute?!  I want a continuation of the story AND a more indepth background, and even though it’s only a baby continuation (read: respectable epilogue), it’s there.  And I wouldn’t say no to more!  

I’ve already confessed that I don’t understand why Jane still loves Rochester and wants to marry him after he tells her that he asked her to unknowingly be a part of a bigamous / invalid marriage, so it should come as a surprise to no one that I was mad at Rochester when I started Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker.  What sort of a childhood makes a man in his mid-thirties (my age) feel like tricking the love of his life into a false marriage is acceptable?  Yes, I understand there are class issues that my twenty first century self doesn’t truly understand at play, but still.  I was expecting awful things in Rochester’s past honestly, more awful than those that Shoemaker writes, but oh dear readers, she does not disappoint!  

When Mr. Rochester opens, Rochester is remembering his younger days.  We know he’s the second son of a member of the landed gentry and we know his father has interests in Jamaica, but there is so much detail, and delight, that Shoemaker puts into the story that made it so much better and so much more heartbreaking.  Do I still not understand why Jane still loves him?  Absolutely.  Of all the lessons he learned from his father in this tale, lying by omission was not one of them (or rather, that’s exactly what dear ole’ dad taught him to do) and that’s one that gets me to the core.  Maybe my issue is really how does she forgive him for this?  Is this an issue that wouldn’t have affected readers of Jane Eyre as much 175 years ago?  Likely some expected it while others were offended by it, but really I’m not sure.  I still want Edward to be open and honest with Jane, but now I get why he wasn’t.  But why wasn’t being honest an idea that entered into his mind?  Here’s my big take away though:  Daddy Rochester is THE WORST and Rowland is essentially a waste of a person.  Readers are made to believe Edward thinks daddy Rochester tried, in his own way, but also, does he?  Really?!  NOPE.  Time after time, just when Edward gets acclimated and settled, dad rips the rug out from underneath him.  Even after dad and Rowland are dead, there’s another rug darling readers, and it gets ripped yet again.  I don’t want to spoil it, but there’s a thing I didn’t see coming from the original text, because it’s not there, but the space for it to be true sure is.  It works, and it’s glorious, and it makes me loathe father and big brother all the more, even though I’m not super confident I like it as an addition to the original story, I do love it in this book.  I want this book to be older, so much older, so that it too could be a Dickensian commentary on what not to do with the “spare” some men of land so crassly call their second sons.  

I give Mr. Rochester a solid four stars.  It’s a glorious response to the original text that is very much in the tone and language of the original.  Shoemaker did her research and spent loads of time in the original text, and readers, it shows!  If you like a deep dive, a backstory, or a familiar tale from a different perspective, give this title a try!  

What’s a book you expected to frustrate you but you read it anyway?  Did it surprise you?  Did you enjoy the experience?

~Nikki 

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