Hm...Jane/Rochester strikes me as far less cynical a love story than Cathy/Heathcliff, but it's been ages since I read either one.

Isn't a cynic just a romantic who's lived too long? And in some ways it is a far more traditionally romantic text, but I always felt it was far more honest, too.

I lean towards hate for the Brontes. Haven't read the books in years, but MAN do I remember wishing that someone would just shoot someone else. I don't normally wish that literature would turn into a Bruce Willis movie, but Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre were begging for car chases and wry, not-quite-funny quips.

Reader, I shot him. t /obQuote

Wuthering Heights is about extreme, passionate, demented people, placed in an eerie landscape that mirrors their emotional state. That's about as romantic as you can get without having a club foot.

"Romantic" doesn't just mean having or inspiring squishy feelings of love. They aren't naturalistic characters, they aren't classical characters; they're romantic characters.

...If your character wouldn't be out of place swooping a cloak, he might be a romantic character.

...If your character stares out the window at moors at night, while the wind howls, he might be a romantic character.

...If your character has some kind of deformity that causes him to dress up like a great big freak, he might be a romantic character. (Okay, I think that happens only in one text.)

It's like "you might be a redneck", only in scarlet and midnight black!!

Snerk, Nutty.

Also, I just realized that I will be working Sunday night, as will S, and we'll be missing most of the Oscars. Dammit.

I'll have Mr. Rochester and the batshit secret in the attic, pleasethankyou.

I'm about two-thirds done with The Eyre Affair, and love the fact that Rochester is becoming a big, if mysterious, character in this modern-if-AU story. Also loved that Wordsworth is portrayed as a typical poet, using his romantic airs to hit on women.

JANE:Mr. Rochester(cocks pistol): Make up your mind.Blanche or me. I'm way too old for this shit. Oh, and thanks, Corwood, for the image of two of my favorite literary characters running around the moors like Paulie and Christopher in "Pine Barrens" Catherine saying "cocksucker" when her phone doesn't work, alone, may drive me back to therapy. Honestly, "Reader, I murdered him." works better. Alliteration and shit.

I don't know...I like the language in it.

Erika is me. I also just love how very fucked up all the characters are, but I love Jane Eyre more.

"Romantic" doesn't just mean having or inspiring squishy feelings of love. They aren't naturalistic characters, they aren't classical characters; they're romantic characters.

This is why I used a small 'r' in my post about Heathcliff not being a romantic hero. I use the small 'r' for squishy, happy romantic love stuff, and capital 'R' for the traditional definition. Wuthering Heights is about as Romantic as you can get.

"Romantic" doesn't just mean having or inspiring squishy feelings of love. They aren't naturalistic characters, they aren't classical characters; they're romantic characters.

That's true, but I don't think the writer of that particular article meant the term in the broader "Romance" sense.

Jane Eyre was one of the formative books from my girlhood and I still carry fond memories of it, for all the overwroughtness. It saddens me that there hasn't been yet a "definitive" adaptation of the book to screen (IMO anyway) although I did like the Zelda Clarke/Timothy Dalton quite a bit. No doubt someone will try again.

There was a *terrible* adaptation of Wuthering Heights with Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes as Cathy and Heathcliff back in the early 90's. It boggled my mind because I love Binoche and Fiennes, but they were so miscast and the direction and the dialog were just horrible.