If you are looking for a quick way 'read' Jane Eyre, then this is the one for you. It was quick and VERY easy (so easy, it had a glossary in the back for words like 'attic'). However, having read the original some time ago, and having seen screen adaptations of this work, there really wasn't anything missing, besides the in-depth descriptions by Charlotte Bronte.
The illustrations were very 'comic book' like and helped to add to the limited dialogue by 'painting' the picture of the various scenes. It seemed to stay true to the book's storyline. However, you only get a glimpse of many scenes, like the Lowood School, or how mean Jane's cousins were.
I don't think that I would recommend this book, but to a quite younger generation, who wants to know what Jane Eyre is all about. It might give the reader a simple taste, who will hopefully want more and thus turn to the original work by Charlotte Bronte.
I don't know what it is about our society that we feel we have to 'mash up' our classics, or to put them in graphic novel format. If it is the hope that it will get our younger generations to read more of the classics, I think this new craze is missing the point. But it seems almost geared toward a society of reading less in order to read a greater quantity. The main reason that I picked up this graphic novel was to see what all of the fuss was about. Now, I can say that I saw, I read, and I am sending it back to the library quickly, without further recommendations.
3 Stars
