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My review of the new movie adaptation of Jane Eyre is up at Taki`s:
What we are left with seems rather like Jane Eyre if Jane Austen had written it. Austen, who died in 1817, was a witty, levelheaded product of the 18th century. She would have gotten along well with Ben Franklin. In contrast, the Brontës were the quintessence of the 19th century`s Romantic mood.
After the neo-Romanticism of the 1960s-70s, tastes have moved away from the BrontĂ«s and toward Austen. (The name “Emma,” Austen`s second-most-famous heroine, was merely the 448th most popular girl`s baby name in the 1970s. By 2003, it was the 2nd.) Thus, the new movie features much about the Austen-like topics of class and gender battles. Fassbender`s Mr. Rochester comes across more like a bigger, bolder version of Pride and Prejudice`s Mr. Darcy than like Wuthering Heights` demonic Heathcliff. Yet Jane Eyre is so expansive and lively a source that this rendition remains authentic and entertaining.
Read the whole thing there.
