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December 9 Event Schedule

The following screen adaptations of JE will be played in Room 201 in Clemons Library (directions):

JE. Directed by Christy Cabanne. Starring Virginia Bruce and Colin Clive. Monogram Pictures, 1934.

The 1934 film not only casts tall and beautiful Virginia Bruce as Jane, but shamelessly rewrites the script around her good looks. Viewers familiar with the book will fall out of their seats when Blanche Ingram, meeting Jane for the first time, jealously appraises her: “Mmm. Enter the beautiful governess!” This is the first sound adaptation, and every JE fan should see it once. Just don’t watch it before taking a test on Brontë’s novel!

JE. Directed by Robert Stevenson. Starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. Produced by Twentieth Century Fox, 1944.

In a 2003 article in Literature Film Quarterly, critic Gardner Campbell wonderfully summarizes the work as a “1940s mass-market film analogue of the blood-and-thunder Gothic strain in Brontë’s novel” and explores in great detail Welles’s role as silent director of the film. Campbell praises Welles’s strong expressionistic images and complicates the generally held view that Jane’s character is overly passive and subordinate to Rochester’s by arguing that, besides narrating the film, Jane also serves as scenarist. The famously powerful shots, seen in this light, are the product of her silent, ever-present authority.

JE. Directed by Julian Amyes. Starring Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke. Produced by BBC, 1983.

The 1983 BBC production of JE is notable for its outstanding performances by Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke, as well as Alexander Baron’s excellent screenplay. Most of the dialogue, taken directly from Brontë’s text, flows easily from the lips of the actors, who interpret their lines not only with the passion that Brontë is known for, but also the wit and playful humor that are often buried or entirely lost in other performances. Like many BBC pictures from this time, JE was shot live on a sound stage, and the overall feel is that of watching a play. But what a play!

NBC broadcasting corporation. Saturday Night Live. October 2004 broadcast.

Saturday Night Live’s short production opens with a respectable-looking copy of Brontë’s novel. But its pages, we discover, are unfaithful in more ways than one. The skit recasts Bertha as a sexy, street-talkin’ modern woman and Rochester (played by Jude Law) as a distracted man constantly dashing upstairs to gratify his prodigious lust – even as an oblivious Jane assiduously records what she believes to be the sounds of “squirrel-trapping” up in the attic. The result? A slangy version of JE, in which Bertha lives happily ever after: “Oooh, yeah, aaiight. That'll work.”

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Exhibits

The Dome Room on the top floor of the Rotunda houses the bulk of the exhibition. An adjunct exhibit of the first, second, and third editions of Jane Eyre will be on display in the UVa Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library (directions) from November 14 through December 13, 2005.

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RBS Tours with Terry Belanger

Terry Belanger, founding director of RBS, will give tours starting in the RBS Pressroom.

Belanger is University Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections at UVa. He was one of 25 fellows named by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on 20 September 2005.

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Exhibition Gallery Tours

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Bookstores Extending 10% Discounts

As a courtesy, Rare Book School publishes a guide to area booksellers, “Antiquarian Bookhunting in Charlottesville.” (This file is in Portable Document Format, and requires a copy of the free Adobe Reader to open.) Feel free to download and print copies of your own!

University Area

These stores are all a short walk from the Rotunda and the libraries.

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Downtown Charlottesville

A free trolley, known locally as the “Hoo Bus,” stops at the UVa Corner, at the UVa Chapel, and at the pedestrian mall at the other end of town every 15 minutes. The Downtown Mall is home to a number of good restaurants as well as the following book stores:

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