Home2024-03-05T19:16:18-06:00
March/April Issue: The Victorian Age in Literature

March/April Issue: The Victorian Age in Literature

Sample Content from Our Latest Issue Table of Contents Sample Article Novel Illustration: An Educational Approach to Jane Eyre “Where...
Read More
Jan / Feb – Broken Images & Handfuls of Dust

Jan / Feb – Broken Images & Handfuls of Dust

Literature in the Twentieth Century Sample Content from Our Latest Issue Table of Contents Sample Article Catholic Realism and Fantasy...
Read More
November/December issue: Beauteous Truth

November/December issue: Beauteous Truth

Sample Content from Our Latest Issue Table of Contents Sample Article Love, Reason and Imagination: Samuel Schirra Interviews Joseph Pearce...
Read More
July/August Issue: Faith and Fantasy: Chesterton, Tolkien, Lewis, Rowling and Other Tellers of Tall Tales
May / June Issue — The Mere Genius of C. S. Lewis

May / June Issue — The Mere Genius of C. S. Lewis

Sample Content from Our Latest Issue Table of Contents Sample Article The Great Divorce: A Novel Answer to an Immodest...
Read More

Lent with Frodo Baggins

Last week, Joseph Pearce invited us to join Bilbo Baggins on his Lenten journey. Now, he asks us to follow...
Read More

What was the Counter -Reformation?

Understanding the real Reformation... What was the Counter Reformation? - Joseph Pearce (jpearce.co)
Read More

Greek Tragedy and Anglo-Saxon Wisdom

Episode 2 of Joseph Pearce's series for EWTN on the Great Books...  Greek Tragedy and Anglo-Saxon Wisdom - Joseph Pearce...
Read More

The St. Austin Review

The St. Austin Review (StAR) is an international journal of Catholic culture, literature, and ideas. In its pages, printed every two months, some of the brightest and most vigorous minds around meet to explore the people, ideas, movements, and events that shape and misshape our world.

The Victorian Age in Literature

Sample Article Novel Illustration: An Educational Approach to Jane Eyre

“Where did you get your copies?”

“Out of my head.”

“That head I see now on your shoulders?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Has it other furniture of the same kind within?”

“I should think it may have: I should hope—better.”

He spread the pictures before him, and again surveyed them alternately.

Jane Eyre

In this memorable early scene, Mr. Edward Rochester examines the artistic portfolio of his governess, the eponymous heroine of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel, Jane Eyre. Rochester categorizes the content of the portfolio as “for a school-girl, peculiar”—an evaluation with which readers concur. The paintings are so peculiar, in fact, that many readers, including my students, consider the ekphrastic lapse a cue to skim rather than read deeply for a few paragraphs.

This would be a mistake. In fact, this is a critical passage for close-reading, providing insights into the character of the heroine and the central tensions of the novel. It also provides an opportunity for readers to consider the place and pedagogical virtue of visual art in depicting a fictional world.

The Ink Desk Blog

Check Them Out

St. Austin Review Issues

Check out our other issues here and see what you're missing!
Check Them Out

More From The Ink Desk Blog

1503, 2024

Lent with Bilbo Baggins

March 15th, 2024|0 Comments

Having previously accompanied Frodo on a Lenten pilgrimage, Joseph Pearce now follows in Bilbo's penitential footsteps... Lent with Bilbo Baggins - Joseph Pearce (jpearce.co)

Get Involved

Support St. Austin Review

To be truly effective, we need the help from clergy and laity everywhere. Help us help the next generation of Catholics to grow up educated in Catholic truth, beauty, and goodness. Please consider a one-time or continuing, tax-deductible gift to StAR!
Get Involved
Go to Top