by Jane Stubbs
Historical Fiction
Amazon / Goodreads
Plot Summary:
The Rochesters are very good at keeping secrets...
Thornfield Hall, 1821. Alice Fairfax takes up her role as housekeeper of the estate. But when Mr Rochester presents her with a woman who is to be hidden on the third floor, she finds herself responsible for much more than the house.
This is the story Jane Eyre never knew - a narrative played out on the third floor and beneath the stairs, as the servants kept their master's secret safe and sound.
Review:
This was such a disappointing read for me. While initially I was enjoying it - the account of the elder Mr. Rochester (the present Mr. Rochester's father) was interesting and Mrs. Fairfax - a poor widow, forced into service from her previous status as gentry - felt true to the vision of the original book Jane Eyre. When Bertha was introduced, I also felt like it was a sensitive portrait of a woman who has had a lot of hardships, but who is quite definitely dangerous at times (she seemed so initially) and that made me feel like this would be an intelligent reworking of Jane Eyre from the servant's point of view. Sadly as the story developed, the believability of this novel as a retelling of Jane Eyre became lost. Jane herself, was painted in such an unappealing way - as a pert, uptight thing - so naive in her innocence as to be almost stupid. Mrs. Fairfax seemed unable to truly respect her, yet she had the utmost respect for Bertha and Grace Poole. Jane's life and her story seemed trivialized in the extreme, especially with how this novel twists the events to make pretty much everything Jane believed to be inaccurate.It was incomprehensible to me as well to see Bertha in this new light - someone who is a little simple, but not really dangerous - actually quite gentle, and yet there had to be a culprit behind the fires and the attacks at Thornfield, so a new female servant was created to serve that purpose. I didn't understand what was wrong with the original, that the story couldn't have kept Bertha as the perpetrator yet in the more ambiguous light of an unfortunate woman with dangerous tendencies. Basically the story made anyone, who was seen in a negative light in the original story, out to be more sympathetic and unfortunate in this book. And the only way I could find that believable is if I completely disregard all my knowledge of the original book.
