ABOUT THE BOOK
Mr. Rochester is a book of three parts. It begins with Rochester’s emotionally desolate childhood, his education and his distant relationship with his brother and father. It follows him into adulthood and his years in Jamaica where he meets Bertha Mason and manages his father’s business interests there.
Others only get the best of us when they sense a weakness. One can never hurt a man who refuses to be hurt.
Eventually, we see his return to England and Thornfield with his now insane wife. When her presence taints the only place that feels like home, he heads to Europe where he encounters Celine Varens. Finally, he returns to Thornfield and an encounter with a plain little governess which will change his life.
Even now, when I think of Thornfield-Hall, I choose to remember what it was then—the playground of my childhood—and not what it was to become: a place of secrets and threats, of angers and fears.
You may think you know the story, but do you? Because this one belongs to Edward Fairfax Rochester not Jane Eyre. If you expect this book to be a re-telling of Jane Eyre from Rochester’s perspective, you might be disappointed. Though that part of the story doesn’t change, Jane’s presence does not arrive until the last quarter of the book. Instead, this is a comprehensive character study of a man’s life.
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