In the month of May we celebrate my boyfriend's birthday. He helps me excel at everything I do while being a guitar-slinging, motorcycle-riding, health care provider. He helps me emotionally, supports me where I am weak, and reassures me about my tattoo and bookseller business. I am ever-so-lucky to have such a tall, dark, and handsome man standing by my side! This month I sold a beautiful, old copy of Jane Eyre which is about a courageous young woman who falls in love. The timing was auspicious, so I thought I'd also discuss a client's book series whose covers I designed. “Child of the Mountain Gods” is a modern take on Charlotte Bronte's feminist heroine and trailblazer writing style. There is a video interview with my client at the end of the article discussing some of these topics.
Charlotte Bronte begins Jane Eyre's story when Jane was ten living with a family that disliked her. She grows strong, excels at school and becomes a governess. Eventually she meets and falls in love with the mysterious and dangerous Edward Rochester. After being deceived by him, she goes to Marsh End where she gets in touch with her spirituality. Vicky Goggin has written a series of books soon to be released which are titled “Child of the Mountain Gods”. The series celebrates having a strong female spirit while exploring why women are drawn to bad boys. I speculate it is the allure of excitement. Each year for the past eight, my boyfriend and I have ridden the Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap on one of his motorcycles. It has 318 curves in 11 miles. Designated US 129, the road is bordered by the Great Smoky Mountains and the Cherokee National Forest with no intersecting roads or driveways. Tail of the Dragon is America's #1 motorcycle and sports car road and it simply makes me wild.
As a feminist, Jane Eyre is unique for the Victorian period. There are few examples of strong women in literature from the 1800s. That being said, Jane's wisdom, perseverance. and pursuit for true love -- make her a good candidate. Goggin's heroine, Genny Rekas, is equally adept. She flies planes, shoots guns, and smuggles parrots across the Mexican border, all in the name of rescuing her boyfriend (and in later novels battling a drug dealer and his cartel after the murder of her husband). Showing women in strong roles portrays them from a new perspective. It contributes to breaking gender stereotypes and archaic ideas of the feminine. Jane Eyre and Genny Rekas pursued true love. True love is about providing emotional support, reassurance, acceptance, and encouragement in a relationship and not settling for mediocrity.
Jane Eyre was often banned because Victorians considered it coarse and immoral. The novel made bad boys like Edward Rochester attractive to young girls and it promoted rebellion through its orphan heroine who insists on her own worth and does not express gratitude for the “charity” extended to her. Goggin's leading lady suffers a similar plight, she has to navigate through ancient mysticism making sense of taboo topics while drawing on a close-knit sisterhood of friends for encouragement and guidance. The photo of the voodoo dolls on the back cover of the second book in the series was taken by Goggin when she flew to New Orleans to interview a priestess for the novel.
Charlotte Bronte was an uncompromising feminist trailblazer when she wrote Jane Eyre in 1847, however now many of its ideas are considered the norm. In the bio of Goggin's first novel it says, “With a list of crazy characters moving in and out of her life, it was time to write about them.” If novels like Jane Eyre were banned and if writers like Vicky Goggin weren't inspired to write stories with empowering female characters, would I really have had such excellent taste in men and had such a strong work ethic when starting a business?
Jane Eyre is not only one of the first feminist works of literature, it is also supposed to be the first book ever written in first person. The most famous line in Jane Eyre is “Reader, I married him.” It is written with an active voice which makes it feel more vibrant, offers more clarity, and it results in the sentence being more streamlined and less cluttered. One might say this is the philosophy of how a feminist lives her life. It also provides the novel with a happy ending. Charlotte Bronte argues in her novel that bad boys and feminists can, and do, co-exist happily ever after by providing each other with emotional support, reassurance, acceptance, and encouragement. So to all the handsome and mysterious men out there having cakes baked for them this month, happy birthday!