My Marathon – Reading Jane Eyre

One September morning, I turned to the last page and read the last line of Jane Eyre. With a sigh of relief, I closed the book, feeling like a first-time marathon runner who had just crossed the finish line, exhausted but elated.

I bought the book Jane Eyre several years ago and had tried several times to finish it, but never gotten beyond the first few chapters. This summer, I made a promise to myself that I would finish it. Picking up my favorite bookmark and putting the other books out of my sight, I started reading the book in early May. While reading Chapter 14 sometime in June, I was overwhelmed by so many new words and complicated sentences in that chapter, and again was intimidated by the daunting task ahead of me. One day, I posted a message on the MYSJ forum to see if I could find another “fool” like me out there reading the same book with a similar experience. I got a reply from 紫君 with a link to the Chinese version of Jane Eyre. With the help from the translation, I managed to read through Chapter 14 with a pretty good understanding. From then on I felt like I had passed the point of no return – I did not want to quit after I had climbed the steepest part of the mountain. Thank you, 紫君.

I did most of my reading during early mornings while the rest of the world slept. I was alone with Jane Eyre in her time and place, breathing with her and talking to her. As the sun rose and the world woke up, I often had a sense of unrealness about the world in which I was living. Thus I had been suspended between the two worlds for several months. Sometimes I could not help but see the world through Jane Eyre’s eyes and judge others using Jane Eyre’s moral compass; at other times I retreated to the Jane Eyre’s world to hide and escape from reality.

In retrospect, I might not have learned a great deal of practical or daily English from reading Jane Eyre with its obsolete English words and outdated grammar. But Jane Eyre expanded my heart and enriched my soul in a way I had never experienced before. In my American life, I could still relate to her struggle for self-respect, her search for freedom, and her quest for love, even though she lived one and half centuries ago and a continent away. It seemed that Jane Eyre and I were connected with an invisible and mysterious thread across space and time.

I am glad that I kept my promise I had made to myself, although it only matters to me. Now I feel as if I have climbed Mt. Everest, and can climb any other mountain I set my eyes on in the future.