Jane's secret remedy

Daily News and Analysis reviews Jane Eyre Laid Bare.

Just a page into the novel, we see Jane Eyre, at the tender age of 18, en route to Thornfield Hall where she will be governess to one young Adèle Varens. How does she deal with the tedium of a journey in solitude? By positioning herself over the wooden handle of the carriage for a quick orgasm — her “secret remedy to alleviate the disquiet of the mind”.
Smile at the turn of phrase or applaud Jane’s ingenuity, but don’t hope for a joy ride. The overdose of mindless sex in the book could numb your brain. This book is one among many that merit writer Ambrose Bierce’s remark — “The covers of this book are too far apart.”
In Jane Eyre Laid Bare, author Eve Sinclair takes off from the undertones and whiffs of sexual tension with which Charlotte Brontë had carefully nuanced the original Jane Eyre. On the walls of Thornfield Hall hang tapestries of men and women, gods and mermaids copulating. There are explicit paintings, statues and effigies of “strange flowers, strange birds and the strangest human beings in contorted positions”.
In her initial quiet months at the Hall, before Rochester makes his appearance, Jane’s “sole relief” is to walk along the corridors and arouse herself by gazing at these works of art as preparation for her secret remedy. Brontë’s Jane, extremely passionate and also devout, struggled to walk the middle path between righteous morality and passion.
For Sinclair’s Jane, carnal pleasures easily win the battle. She junks her conscience casually and feels that “it is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity. They must have action and they will make it if they cannot find it.” And there’s plenty of action to be found at Thornfield Hall.
Rochester is portrayed as a man inclined to indulge in vices even in the original novel, although Brontë hadn’t elaborated upon them. Sinclair’s Rochester is more like a Caligula, the scandalous Roman emperor. Rochester and his friends — Lord Ingram and his two sisters, Blanche and Mary, Henry and Fredrick Lynn, Lady Fulbright, Miss Dupret, Captain Dent, Louisa and Amy Eshton and their brother — spend evenings playing sexual games.
Furtively, Jane watches them from behind curtains and longs for a chance to put what she sees into practice. Her tendency to play peeping tom rewards her with more sources of arousal than what may be seen in Rochester’s art collection —there’s incest, lesbian lovemaking, a maid and butler adding a predictable dimension to the chore of making the bed, threesomes, foursomes and more. (Malavika Velayanikal)

El Norte (in Spanish) also comments on the 'sexing up the classics' phenomenon.

The New Yorker reviews Wuthering Heights 2011 but unfortunately the content is for subscribers only. Mauxa (in Italian) comments on how the 19th-century seems to be in vogue on screen, using Jane Eyre 2011 as an example (sadly with a typo about the year in which the novel was published: 1874 instead of 1847). Terra Perú (in Spanish) uses the same adaptation to comment on the Paris Fashion Week.

Es la segunda temporada que el "prêt-à-porter" de Hexa by Kuho desfila en la capital francesa y, en la colección presentada hoy, la marca ha apostado por revisitar los modelos del siglo XIX de la película "Jane Eyre" (2011), de Cary Fukunaga, basada en la novela de Charlotte Brontë.
El coreano Kuho Jung imagina una era victoriana con vestidos cortos, mangas abullonadas y pantalones abultados a la altura de la pelvis, todo ello en tonos crema, salmón, burdeos o turquesa. (Translation)

Hometown Life mentions the PBS tradition of broadcasting novel adaptations:

PBS has a long history with using novels for its programming. Current shows that are airing on the Masterpiece/Mystery series include Wallander (H. Mankell) and Inspector Lewis (C. Dexter). Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot as well as Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have been staples on public television. Popular mini-series have been adapted from Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters.

The Brontë Parsonage Blog has a contribution from a reader on the possible threat to Haworth's Green Belt Land. The Briarfield Chronicles discusses whether the Brontës were translators or composers. Anne Brontë is the writer of the month on Vintage Reads while Agnes Grey is the book of the month on Sognatrice a bordo (in Italian). Read Awesome-Nity is reading Jane Eyre and loving it while Fantastiska berättelser posts in Swedish about the Classical Comics adaptation of the novel. Butterfly-o-Meter Books reviews and gives 4 butterflies to Tina Connolly's Ironskin. Poems & Perceptions has written a poem called 'Jane Eyre to Edward Rochester' and Flickr user Yannewvision has drawn a lovely portrait of Helen Burns in the 2006 adaptation of Jane Eyre.