This tear-jerker of a line spoken by the romantic heroine in the 1996 Hollywood movie Jerry Maguire after her successful sports agent husband makes a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, might not at first glance appear to have too much to do with a roll-call of classic novels that have endured the test of time. But it does if you think about how some of the best of them begin.
‘All children except one, grow up.’
‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’
‘In a hole in the
ground there lived a hobbit.’
These are all great story openers. Whether for children or older readers, they are lines that draw you in, make you curious, even desperate to find out more.
Every one of us will have our favourites of course.
This is the one which resonates most with me. As with the others, you’ll know which book it comes from, I’m sure:
‘There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.’
With that line Charlotte Bronte pushes open the door to her story, inviting the reader to step inside. To find out who is speaking and why something as simple as a walk is such an impossiblity. And the person who lies waiting on the other side? Why it’s poor, unloved young orphan, Jane Eyre. She’s hiding behind a thick red curtain in a window seat, doing her best to escape both the rainstorm outside and the harsh treatment by her adoptive family within by burying her head in a book. But it’s not just any old book. It’s one full of shipwrecks, abandoned churchyards and ghosts. Pure catnip for any bookworm, especially if, like me, you enjoy reading stories with a gothic twist.
Caption: From film version of Jane Eyre (2011)
And now you’re in, there’s plenty more the author does to keep you there – to make you want to read on.
At first it seems that Jane has been successful in getting away from the scolding tongue of her Aunt Reed and the cruel taunts of her three cousins. But this is merely the calm before the real storm. All too quickly Jane’s hiding place is discovered by her nemesis, John Reed, the bully-boy of an older cousin who likes nothing better than to taunt and belittle his poor relation.
You’re well and truly hooked now. What is going to happen to poor Jane? Will she manage to slip past him? Escape his clutches and run to her room? But no. The beastly John has trapped her. True to form, he humiliates her, reminding her that if it wasn’t for them, she’d be on the streets begging. Then, after trying unsuccessfully to make her call him ‘Master’, he turns violent. Snatching up the book she’s been reading, he throws it at her, knocking her to the ground.
But Jane isn’t the sort of heroine to take things lying down. She gets to her feet and shouts back at him and when John raises his hand to strike her, she makes to defend herself. We’re well and truly on her side by now – but what will happen next? John is so much bigger than she is ...
It’s then that the author delivers her master-stroke. The door bangs open and in walks Jane’s Aunt Reed, a woman who we know already from what Jane tells us, refuses to blame her beloved son, John for any of his many crimes. Who calls him her ‘own darling’ and believes he can do no wrong. Jane’s troubles have clearly gone from bad to worse. We are compelled to stay with her, to find out what might be in store, though we have a nasty feeling already that it will not end well.
And of course, it doesn’t. Things become worse still. Jane is accused of starting the fight and on her aunt’s orders, the servants cart her away and lock her in for the night in the dreaded ‘Red Room’, a place Jane believes to be haunted by the ghost of her long-dead uncle. She falls down in a faint and ... Well, if you don’t know the story already, the author will surely have done more than enough by now to encourage you to read on.
I was lucky enough to have the chance to do
my own
retelling of ‘Jane Eyre’ for schools
Jane Eyre was first published in 1847. It is a book of its time – the many credibility-stretching coincidences of plot, the unsympathetic portrayal of Mr Rochester’s mentally-ill wife, Bertha Mason, and the final third of the novel in which Jane comes perilously close to becoming the missionary wife of her devoutly religious cousin, St. John Rivers, are a serious test for our credulity and modern sensibilities. But all that withstanding, it is deservedly a classic, not least because of its brilliant opening pages, which for me, ensured that it did indeed have me at hello ...
This week's YouTube writing challenge is available to watch here.
Ally Sherrick is the author of books full of history, mystery and adventure including Black Powder, winner of the Historical Association’s Young Quills Award 2017, The Buried Crown and Tudor-Set adventure, The Queen’s Fool. She is published by Chicken House Books and her books are widely available in bookshops and online. You can find out more about her and her books at www.allysherrick.com and follow her on Twitter: @ally_sherrick
