Jane Eyre, the novel, was always faintly absurd and decidedly lurid. But to a story bordering on trash, Charlotte Bronte brought storytelling bordering on genius. Told by uncoy, buffeted, orphanage-bred Jane herselfwho comes as governess to Thornfield Hall, where the Byronic Mr. Rochester has a mad wife hidden awayJane Eyre advances, in a rush of words, with a beat of real emotion.
A. & P. Heir Huntington Hartford's stage adaptation is Jane Eyre virtually without Jane, and chunks of the story with no hint of the storytelling. Everything stagiest about the bookthe gruffly romantic hero, the pasteboard aristocrats, the burning of Thornfield,...
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