Howl's Moving Castle: retelling of Jane Eyre?
It recently occurred to me that Howl’s Moving Castle is kind of another retelling of Jane Eyre. No wonder I love it.
HMC is of course in the fantasy genre and is more whimsical, not gothic and set in the real world like Jane Eyre or other novels that also retell it (e.g., Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, or Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden- ( Read more... )
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I love the comparisons!
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Thanks, Darlene! They're fun to discover.
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So I’ll accept that they’re the same story, but if so Howl’s Moving Castle (the movie, it sounds like, but the comparisons work for the book too) is the story done right.
And now I’ve exposed my wildly unpopular opinion about Jane Eyre…
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Hasn't anyone ever told you not to yuck someone else's yum?? Just rude. Anyway - I already know your opinion of Jane Eyre, so you don't ever have to tell me again, and in fact it's not wildly unpopular. I find myself defending liking this book wherever I go, which REALLY gets me down, so could you all just LET PEOPLE ENJOY THEIR STUFF?
All that said: I think if I read Jane Eyre for the first time right now, I'd be much more put off by the various details that did not age well. But I first read it as a teen, and all the cultural/political/social distastefulness went right over my head, and in fact, as a weird and feral girl myself, I bonded deeply with the weirdness and ferality of the book. People forget that it's *Gothic* fiction - it's meant to be twisted and fever-dream-ish and not something you'd want to actually live! It is not a model for proper human interactions AT ALL, any more than Beauty and the Beast is. It's a melodramatic story with lots of total freak behavior, and I have to admit I love those features in stories, when ( ... )
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