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Graphic Novel Review


Book Cover

Jane Eyre
Quick Text

 

Author: Charlotte Brontë
Script adaptation: Amy Corzine
Artist: John M. Burns
Classical Comics
RRP: £9.99, US $16.95
ISBN: 978 1 906332 08 2
Available 29 September 2008


In the early 1800s, Jane Eyre's parents die - leaving young Jane to be looked after by her uncle and aunt; but after the death of her uncle, her aunt and cousins make her life truly miserable. Surely, being sent away to school could only improve things...

Charlotte Brontë's classic 1847 novel follows the life of Jane Eyre from turbulent childhood into the heartaches of adulthood, and is reminiscent of the author's own experiences. It was written at the dawn of feminism, when female authors were rare, and books about the lives of women were even rarer.

The graphic novel adaptation of Jane Eyre is available in two versions - Original Text and Quick Text editions. The idea behind this is that for those studying the original book, these two editions give a much better understanding of the settings of the book as well as making it accessible to those who find it hard to grasp the book fully.

I have to admit that the differences between the two versions are much more obvious than previous releases. In the past I've found that the Quick Text editions help to get the story over to the reader no matter what reading level they are at. For example a younger child can appreciate the simplified versions of the tales, or someone who wants to know the basic gist of the story can easily read these releases while studying the book. While this is still the case here with the Original Test edition, I found the Quick Text release to be a tad too simplistic. Some of the conversations, especially those between Jane and Mr Rochester, seemed rather confusing, forced and rushed.

The result being that while the narrative flows well in the Original Text edition, the Quick Text release is lacking somewhat.

There are a number of extras included in this release. At the back of this collection there's a three-page biography for Charlotte Brontë; a Brontë family tree; a chronology of the Brontë sisters main accomplishments; the reproduction of a letter from Charlotte to her publisher; and a look at the page creation for this series.

For those studying the original novel at school while I'd recommend the Original Text edition, I really can't do the same for the Quick Text release.

this graphic novel may help you get a better understanding of the basic story, but otherwise I really can't recommend this - it's not a patch on the usual quality of releases that Classical Comics put out.

5

Amber Leigh

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