Jane Eyre Meets the 21st Century When Jane St. John gets a plum summer job as the nanny for a family in St. Barths, she hopes her troubled past is far behind. But from the first ill-fated flight, to the prickly housekeeper, abrasive employer and a stalker who may or may not be trying to kill her, Jane's hopes for happy summer days are fading fast. When noises and ghostly visitations trouble her nights, she suspects more than just the past is haunting her. Could other more terrifying family secrets be hiding in the old house? This retelling of the classic Charlotte Brontë Gothic novel, Jane Eyre, includes everything you loved about the original, respun for the 21st Century. Closely following the original's plot lines and character development, Jane starts with ten year old Jane St. John, this one living in a brownstone in Brooklyn, falling afoul of her stepmother and abusive cousins, and getting shipped off to Lowood, a school for troubled girls. More like a prison than a boarding school, Lowood is where the abandoned, abused, and poor girls of New York State are left in the care of an ambitious psychiatrist who pronounces them all mentally ill and pursues a course of institutional abuse as a self-styled cure. Despite humiliations and deprivations, Jane makes friends with another resident and the two of them provide emotional support through harrowing run-ins with the headmaster, lack of food and warm clothes, and a deadly outbreak of Legionnaire's disease. Though many girls do not survive Lowood, our Jane does and eight years on is a teacher at the same school, yearning to escape dreary upstate New York and start her "real life." She applies for-and gets-a summer job as nanny for a rich family in St. Barthes. Thinking she's finally earned some good luck, Jane arrives at the island paradise ready to take up her new duties in a Gothic mansion built by Corsaires for a notorious island family. Just like in Jane Eyre, there's a prickly housekeeper, an abrasive employer, and strange noises and visitations during the night that keep the story moving along at a clip. Madwoman in the attic? This one's on the roof. There's also a romance in there someplace, but not the Cinderella variety. Jane doubts her own emotional capacity to love or trust anyone and suspects her romantic partner of lies and betrayal. Suspicions that turn out to be true. Jane explores the inner turmoil of an independent woman who is often insecure and angry with the world and her place in it. Somehow, through it all, she learns to confront her demons, both those in the old house and those she's carried along from her past, and finds a way to live with herself and forgive others. More than a modern Gothic romance, Jane is the coming-of-age story of a 21st century feminist and an engrossing read for anyone that likes Gothic romances and feminist ideas.
About the Author: Penelope C. Bell is a fan of feminist literature and Charlotte Brontë.