Some time in my early teens I decided that, being the voracious fantasy reader I was, I should probably extend my literature vocabulary to include something slightly less, well, fantasy, so I decided to try my hand at The Classics. My parents had a copy of Jane Eyre, looking suitably 'classic' with its fancy Reader's Digest hardcover, so it was with Jane Eyre I began - and ended for quite some time** - my Classics education.
What I remember most about it is the feeling of deep, dark, dank loneliness; with the protagonist, the empty country estate, the landscape, the weather, everything. I also remember having to stop reading it a few times and lift my spirits with something more lighthearted for fear of spiralling into a depression to rival that of Lucy Snow's in Villette (Charlotte's other depressing novel).
And yet, the Brontë sisters are Literature (a point I am not disputing) so I must get use to the fact that it will be included in the English and Literature curricula. Furthermore, I will no doubt be required to teach texts I dislike frequently enough over the course of my teaching career, so, again, I'd better get used to it.
So I now have three weeks to figure some semblance of a unit plan for Jane Eyre... I hope I can do it justice.
* 1 x Year 9, 1 x Year 10, 2 x Year 11. Also, I got the job!
** Until I tried again, with The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, at some point in my mid-twenties - an inspiration!
