Amy, I cannot believe no one else has posted here yet! I really love the lines you posted above, and the whole garden scene. My absolute favorite is: '...I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you- especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. My second favorite is: 'Thank you, Mr. Rochester, for your great kindness. I am strangely glad to get back again to you: and wherever you are is my home- my only home.' (emphasis mine) But I could go on forever! The quality of CB's writing is such that there can be no end of excellent quotes. What a book...

Its a long passage, but it is my favorite: 'Never,' said he, as he ground his teeth, 'never was anything at once so frail and so indomitable. A mere reed she feels in my hand!' (And he shook me with the force of his hold.) 'I could bend her with my finger and thumb: and what good would it do if I bent, if I uptore, if I crushed her? Consider that eye: consider the resolute, wild, free thing looking out of it, defying me, with more than courage- with a stern triumph. Whatever I do with its cage, I cannot get at it- the savage, beautiful creature! If I tear, if I rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose. Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwelling-place. And it is you, spirit- with will and energy, and virtue and purity- that I want: not alone your brittle frame. Of yourself you could come with soft flight and nestle against my heart, if you would: seized against your will, you will elude the grasp like an essence- you will vanish ere I inhale your fragrance. Oh! come, Jane, come!'

seized against your will, you will elude the grasp like an essence- you will vanish ere I inhale your fragrance. And is this perhaps why he did not pursue her when she left? Beautiful, Lori -- as I said, there are far too many!

Yes, JANE EYRE has so much incredible poetry throughout! It's such a different book that what we're used to reading in Austen. Charlotte just lays her feelings & passion out on the table. I was reading a book yesterday that says that JE owes quite a bit to PILGRIM'S PROGRESS -- that during each stage of Jane's journey, she learns a bit more about herself, until at the end, she is ready to serve as Rochester's true equal.

"There was a time when my cheek burned to give such scornful fiends the lie Ungoverned nature madly spurned The law that bade it not defy O in the days of ardent youth I would have given my life for truth For truth, for right, for liberty I would have gladly, freely died And now I calmly hear and see The vain man smile the fool deride Though no because my heart is tame Though not for fear though not for shame My soul still chafes at every tone Of selfish and self-blinded error My breast still braves the world alone Steeled as it ever was to terror Only I know however I frown The same world will go rolling on (EJB, 1839) Oh - can I put the whole of WH in its entirety here?

You don't have to! You can find the entire book on-line at: gopher://ftp.std.com:70/00/obi/book/Emily.Bronte/wuther.html.Z And the whole novel of JE at: http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/Fiction/JaneEyre/ Is that great, or what?

Here's another great line from JE, about Rochester's capacity to love: 'To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil when I find out they have neither souls nor hearts- when they open to me a perspective of flatness, triviality, and perhaps imbecility, coarseness, and ill-temper: but to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break- at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent- I am ever tender and true.'

to the clear eye and eloquent tongue, to the soul made of fire, and the character that bends but does not break- at once supple and stable, tractable and consistent- I am ever tender and true.' Is that not a wonderful description of Jane? No wonder she touched his soul.

Yes, it really is. Rochester was able to look beneath the plain exterior & see what she really was.

"Look!" she cried eagerly, "that's my room, with the candle in it, and the trees swaying before it... and the other candle is in Joseph's garret...Joseph sits up late, doesn't he? He's waiting till I come hame that he may lock the gate. Well, he'll wait a while yet. It's a rough journey, and a sad heart to travel it; and we must pass by Gimmerton Kirk, to go that journey! We've braved its ghosts often together, and dared each other to stand among the graves and ask them to come...But Heathcliff, if I dare you now, will you venture? If you do, I'll keep you. I'll not lie there by myself: they may bury me twelve feet deep and throw the church down over me; but I won't rest till you are with me...I never will!" She paused, and resumed with a strange smile. "He's considering...he'd rather I'd come to him! Find a way, then! not through that Kirkyard...You are slow! Be content, you always followed me!" WH, Chapter 12 So... do they sleep in the quiet earth or do they walk?

Absolutely, they walk!!!

"Her senses never returned - she recognised nobody from the time you left her,: I said. "She lies with a sweet smile on her face; and her latest ideas wandered back to pleasant early days. Her life closed in a gentle dream - may she wake as kindly in the other world!" "May she wake in torment!" he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. "Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not there - not in heaven - not perished - Where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer - I repeat it till my tongue stiffens - Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest, as long as I am living! You said I killed you - haunt me then! The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe - I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss where I cannot find you! Oh God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!"

That is an incredible passage, isn't it? It really took my breath away, along with his whole speech to her in her bedroom: "A movement of Catherine's relieved me a little presently. She put up her hand to clasp his neck, and bring her cheek to his as he held her; while he, in return, covering her with frantic caresses, said wildly,--- "You teach me now how cruel you've been---cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry, and wring out my kisses and tears; they'll blight you---they'll damn you. You loved me; then what right had you to leave me? What right---answer me---for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart---you have broken it; and in breaking it you have broken mine. So much the worse for me that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you----- O God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?"

Beautiful. When I was younger and a good deal less restrained than I am now (actually, I'm twenty-three, but I like to give the impression of ponderous age), I used to quote chapter and verse of WH. Many was the stunned audience of school fellows who got to hear my passionate delivery of the "Nelly, I am Heathcliff!" passage. My Uni lecture notes are annotated with illustrations crawling along the margins and spilling onto the text of lines such as "Ah! you are come, are you, Edgar Linton?"...."Your are one of those things that are ever found when least wanted, and when you are wanted, never! I suppose we shall have plenty of lamentations, now...I see we shall...but they can't keep me from my narrow home out yonder - my resting place where I'm bound before Spring is over! There it is, not among the Lintons, mind, under the chapel-roof; but in the open air with a headstone, and you may please yourself, whether you go to them, or come to me!....What you touch at present, you may have; but my soul will be on that hill-top before you lay hands on me again. I don't want you, Edgar; I'm past wanting you...Return to your books... I'm glad you possess a consolation, for all you had in me is gone."

Great stuff!! Though in all fairness, since Nelly didn't report the extent of Cathy's illness to Edgar, how could he know she would practically waste away within three days? I am hoping to hike to Top Withins when I am in Haworth next week & see if I can catch a resemblance to "Wuthering Heights."

Back to "Jane". After reading all of the above, I thought I would test a theory that no matter what page my book opened to I'd find a jewel. How about this: "'I have been with my aunt, sir, who is dead.' 'A true Janian reply! Good angels be my guard! She comes from the other world--from the abode of people who are dead; and tells me so when she meets me alone here in the gloaming! If I dared, I'd touch you, to see if you are substance or shadow, you elf!....'" Or, "'Tell me now, fairy as you are,---can't you give me a charm, or a philter, or something of that sort, to make me a handsome man?' 'It would be past the power of magic, sir.'" What delicate dances around each other CB has them do, no? I can't leave out one of my all-time faves, which I occasionally will startle (puzzle?) acquaintances with: "You shall walk up the pyramids of Egypt!!" Taken in the right context, it can be very satisfying to blurt that out!

That's one aspect of Charlotte that's often overlooked amidst all the tragedy: she really had a great sense of humour! Those exchanges bet. Jane & Rochester are truly witty & fun, certainly as much as some of the ripostes bet. Lizzy & Darcy in P&P!

Well, apart from the entire book Wuthering Heights I like the scene where Catherine is describing her dream to Nelly: "This is nothing,' cried she;'I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home ; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out, into the midle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights, where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in therehad not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have hought of it. It would degreade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire." and chapter 34 (Heathcliff dies) I sought, and soon discovered, the three head-stones on the slope next to the moor - the middle one, grey, and half buried in heath - Edgar Linton's only harmonized by the turf and moss, creeping up its foot - Heathcliff's still bare. the poem "Faith and Despondancy" I could go on forever, so I'll stop.

In a novel of great turbulence and unrest, the greatest lines from Wuthering Heights must be Cathy's serene vision of the release of death : "The thing that irks me most is this shattered prison, after all. I'm tired, tired of being enclosed here. I'm wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there;not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart; but really with it and in it...I shall be incomparably beyond and above you all." Also, the novel's final paragraph must be one of the most calming and peaceful in literature. A fine end to the finest novel! Does anyone agree? I'd love to know...

Why doesn't anyone mention Villette? I could probably randomly open that book and feel 100% certain that I had found the best passage. But for now my favorite is: "We walked back to the Rue Fossette by moonlight-- such moonlight as fell on Eden-- shining through the shades of the Great Garden, and haply gliding a path glorious for a step divine-- a Presence nameless. Once in their lives some men and women go back to these first fresh days of our great Sire and Mother-- taste that grand morning's dew-- bathe in its sunrise." And then, one page later: "He deemed me born under his star: he seemed to have spread over me its beam like a banner. Once-- unknown and unloved, I held him harsh and strange; the low stature, the wiry make, the angles, the darkness, the manner, displeased me. Now, penetrated with his influence, and living by his affection, having his worth by intellect, and his goodness by heart-- I preferred him before all humanity." It makes me want to cry just thinking about it! But really, the passages are pretty melodramatic, but that is part of Villette's attraction, I think. Lucy Snowe seems to be such an accessible character, and yet her relationship with M. Paul seems unearthly to me, more so than Jane & Mr. Rochester's...

In WH, there's a passage between the younger generation, Linton and Catherine, which I like because it takes these really dramatic issues of Heathcliff/Cathy/Edgar and makes it into a little squabble, which really entertains me for somet reason... "'My papa scorns yours!' cried Linton. 'He calls him a sneaking fool.' 'Yours is a wicked man,' retorted Catherine; 'and you are very naughty to dare to repeat what he says. He must be wicked to have made Aunt Isabella leave him as she did.' 'She didn't leave him,' said the boy; 'you shan't contradict me.' 'She did,' cried my young lady. 'Well, I'll tell you something!' said Linton. 'Your mother hated your father: now then.' 'Oh!' exclaimed Catherine, too enraged to continue. 'And she loved mine,' he added. 'You little liar! I hate you now!' she panted, and her face grew red with passion. 'She did! She did!' sang Linton."

What role does Linton play?

Well, Linton is the child of Heathcliff and Isabella, the sister of Edgar Linton. Edgar is Catherine�s husband - *the Catherine* Heathcliff is madly in love with! Heathcliff neither loves his wife Isabella nor his sickly son Linton - both of them are just pawns in his chess game! He forces Linton and Catherine No.2 (the daughter of Catherine and Edgar) to marry. Edgar and Linton die soon afterwards and Heathcliff gets Thrushcross Grange (Isabella died years before) - in addition to Wuthering Heights, which he already owns! Revenge complete, but nothing gained from it, I dare say! bye:-), Miss Eyre

If I had to choose one passage from the entire book, I`d take this one, because it`s the book`s essence in my eyes: Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;--it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, **EQUAL,--AS WE ARE!**" bye:-), Miss Eyre