Showing posts with label Jane Eyre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane Eyre. Show all posts

Friday, May 19, 2017

A Q & A with Sarah Shoemaker, author of Mr Rochester

On May 15 The Berkley Public Library and local bookstore Book Beat sponsored a Q and A with Michigan author Sarah Shoemaker whose first book Mr. Rochester went on sale this week.

I was thrilled to chat with Sarah before the program. I learned she was a United Brethren pastor's daughter who was lucky to spend 15 years in one parish.

Sarah began by introducing herself, talking about her career and lifelong interest in writing, and how the book came to be written.

A lifelong writer with a stack of unpublished manuscripts, when her son went to college Sarah returned to school to become a librarian. After she and her husband left Metro-Detroit for Up North she became involved with the local book club. Their choice of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte led to a discussion weighing why Jane would love the gruff, angry Mr. Rochester. A remark that someone should tell his story got Sarah thinking. On the drive home, she decided she would be the one to discover Mr. Rochester's story.

She began by reading period books, then started in writing, continuing her research to understand the 19th c writing style and the background history for her story. She was thankful for the Michigan Electronic Library for obtaining the 50 or so books she needed for her work, including an 1836 volume held together by a rubber band and a rare narrative, Marley, about running a Jamaican plantation.

It took two years of writing and one year of rewriting before Sarah's manuscript was handed over to her agent. The agent met with Grand Central Publishing whose new editor was hired to expand their brand into literary fiction. And the book was sold!

Sarah's editor was precise and demanding, resulting in a flurry of rewriting. In a year the book was ready for market.

When asked about cover ideas, Sarah imagined an English landscape painting with a silhouette of Rochester, back turned, as if surveying the scene. When she saw the cover of a man's silhouette revealing a Jamaican landscape painting it was not what she expected. After reviewing English landscapes, she decided that the cover was, after all, the best choice. The audience agreed it is a great cover.

Another interesting tidbit about the cover is the typeface font and style imitates the first published edition of Jane Eyre, down to the periods.
title page of Jane Eyre, 1847 edition
Sarah explained that 19th c books were not bound with covers as bookbinding was a separate industry from printing. People paid to have a book bound for their permanent library, often in a matching style.

I had detected a Dickensian feel to Mr. Rochester's boyhood story. Sarah told the audience that Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens was a source for understanding the experience of Rochester's education, but she wanted a positive experience for her hero. The friends he made at school offered him the love and acceptance he lacked from his father and brother.

Sarah carefully considered how to keep Rochester true to his own character, and I thought did a great job.

When asked what was Rochester's pivotal life event, Sarah considered and determined that it was his Jamaican experience. Married to the mad Bertha altered his entire life, and even brought him to be the tortured resident of Thornfield Hall who is saved by the love of Jane Eyre.

Another member of the audience questioned Rochester's lack of class consciousness. At one point while an apprentice he tries to befriend a factory worker and is repelled. Sarah noted that in the 19th c, as too often is the case today, those in positions of power often used it for sexual favors. Rochester had to learn to respect class lines. Consequently, Sarah imagined he was careful in his situation as Jane's employer so as not to be seen as abusing his power over her.

Sarah read the opening paragraphs of her book, told first person in Rochester's voice. He tells he was raised by a "succession of nursemaids and governesses, who were sometimes bad and other times worse. It was years before I could think of a governess as anyone other than a presence that must be borne." And for those readers 'in the know' we understand the irony of this statement.

Read my review on Mr. Rochester at https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2017/05/mr-rochester-by-sarah-shoemaker.html

Sunday, May 7, 2017

Mr Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker

Sarah Shoemaker's first novel Mr. Rochester retells the story of Jane Eyre from the point of view of its hero. Readers are offered a richly imagined look into Rochester's life before Jane. Under Shoemaker's hand, the brusque, tempestuous hero is transformed into a innocent child, a victim of his father's cold calculations, a naive lover, and a man determined to do the right thing. Shoemaker gives us a kinder and more lovable Rochester.

The novel is told in the first person, and linear in time, a comfortable and cozy read that felt very 19th c. Rochester's childhood has a Dickensian feel with the early death of a beloved mother, a cruel elder brother, and a cold and uncommunicative father.

Unlike Jane, Rochester is provided with a first class education under a fair master. He makes dear friends at school; like Jane, one of Rochester's school chums dies. When his father deems it time, Rochester is given a tutor and sent to university. In Paris he fell into a loose life, meeting the dancer who becomes his mistress and whose daughter Adele he later takes in.

After his less than stellar performance at university, Rochester is apprenticed to a fatherly mill owner. He redeems himself as a hard worker and loyal surrogate son. Finally, it is revealed that Rochester is to inherit his father's West Indies plantation, and it is soon apparent that the beautiful Creole Antoinette is chosen to be his wife. Rochester's happiness is shattered as he realizes his wife is mad. He has been used badly by his father; his paradise becomes a hell.

Rochester truly wants to keep his vow to Antoinette's father to take care of her, and he does his best, first in the West Indies and later in England. But in the end, he has no choice but to lock her away in the Thornfield attic, for the safety of all.

When Jane arrives on the scene we learn the motives behind Rochester's manipulation and testing of her attachment. His endeavor to divorce his mad wife is curtailed as only by proving her adultery can he obtain a divorce.

Readers learn the historical background to Rochester's story, including Jamaican plantation life and it's reliance on slave labor and the Luddite rebellion against the mechanization of labor.

The novel stands on its own for those who have not read the Bronte novel, or like me, have not read it in several years.

According to a Goodreads poll there are 94 books inspired by Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre. I previous have read Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea which redeems Bertha from madness, the story of a sensual Creole who suffers under Rochester's Victorian morality and white man's fears. It also has a compelling description of Jamaican slavery and the fomenting slave uprising.

For over two hundred years Bronte's novel has remained a favorite. It was one of the first 'classic' novels I read, through Scholastic Books, and before that the Classics Illustrated Comic Book had been one of my favorites. It appears that the appeal of the story is not going to flag anytime soon.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Mr Rochester
Sarah Shoemaker
Grand Central Publishing
Publication May 7, 2017
$27 hard cover
ISBN: 9781455569809