Charlotte Brontë and Jane Eyre: some 'coincidences' revisited

The 'coincidence' of Charlotte Brontë's childhood obsession with Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington and the subsequent appearance in her life of Arthur Bell Nichols was first mentioned in an article about being careful what you dwell on and again in an article featuring Jean Rhys.  

Another 'coincidence' in Charlotte Brontë's life that is worth highlighting and was also mentioned earlier is her accident involving a horse that echoes something that happened in Jane Eyre, which was published seven years before the event. 

Other people have noticed these connections. While they may assume that they are just interesting, but not particularly significant, coincidences, I thought at the time that certain unseen influences were at work, and I still think so.

Many years have passed since I first mentioned these two 'coincidences'. Since then, I have come across other examples of such coincidences and accidents. 

Something I recently read in Carole Angier's biography of Jean Rhys inspired me to take another look at the two incidents involving horses in the light of some of the later discoveries and produce an updated and enhanced version of events and my ideas about them.

Jane Eyre and the horse incident
The incident involving Jane Eyre and a horse occurs when she first encounters Mr Rochester. 

On the way to post a letter on a freezing winter's day, she sits on a stile for a while. She hears the sound of approaching hooves, then Mr Rochester comes into view on his black horse. Just as they are passing her, the horse slips on the ice and comes crashing down. Mr Rochester is hurt, so he asks Jane to catch the horse for him. This is not an easy task:

“I...went up to the tall steed; I endeavoured to catch the bridle, but it was a spirited thing, and would not let me come near its head; I made effort on effort, though in vain: meantime, I was mortally afraid of its trampling fore-feet.”

From Jane Eyre

The future of public libraries

This is the final article in the series that was originally inspired by a comment made by Terry Pratchett and contains some recycled and enhanced material from a thread on the old Conservative Conspiracy Forum.

I visited my local library recently for the first time in many months. The rules have been relaxed: there was no doorkeeper making sure that people wore masks and used the hand sanitiser and no requirement to leave contact details. 

I noticed some changes: the coffee machine has gone, where there were three machines for scanning borrowed and returned books and paying fees there is now only one, and the trolley where reserved books wait to be picked up was almost empty. These are not good signs. It could be that it will take a few more weeks before demand is back to what it was before the COVID virus appeared, or it could be that things will never be the same.

What will happen to this and other libraries in the future?

Key amenity or waste of public money?
I have seen a lot of information and many discussions about library-associated issues online.

Having to live without many library services because of  the COVID restrictions has provided a further reason for both dedicated library suporters and critics of the system to publish and reassess their views on topics such as the value or otherwise of public libraries to the community, the alarming number of closures – and not just barely-used rural branches - for budgetary reasons, how libraries could adapt to changes in society and whether or not they should still be publicly funded. 

I have already mentioned some specific criticisms of public libraries. Many of the general objections in the old discussion thread were based on politics and principles. 

Some members thought that library services should not be free, that there are better and higher-priority uses for taxpayers' money, and in any case there are better options available for people who want books to read:

“...people don't need libraries, they need communal spaces where they can build relationships with others in the community.”

Why not have both? Anyway, some people enjoy reading much more than they do spending a lot of time with people!

“It's also important to bear in mind that I'm not denigrating reading books at all; I'm merely criticising the ideas that a) having free access to books is a right; and b) it really makes a marked difference in anyone's life. If local governments want to run libraries, fine, but make them pay for themselves, with subscription fees. I don't particularly want to pay money into non-essential propaganda services.”

There is plenty of evidence that libraries do change people's lives! 

In my – biased – opinion, the supporters of public libraries make a much better case for their cause than the antis do.

Jean Rhys, Isaac Asimov, and some nightmare scenarios

Carole Angier's biography Jean Rhys: Life and Work mentions two incidents in one of Jean Rhys's novels that could be classed as small-scale nightmare scenarios.

I was reminded of this recently by something I read about tunnels in Isaac Asimov's memoirs; I decided to follow up Carole Angier's leads and look at the novel; the material I found has inspired a few comments.

Sasha's first nightmare 
Carole Angier refers to a horrible dream that Sasha, the main character in Jean Rhys's very depressing autobiographical novel Good Morning Midnight (1939), has on her return to Paris. This is the relevant extract from the novel:

“I am in the passage of a tube station in London. Many people are in front of me; many people are behind me. Everywhere there are placards printed in red letters: This Way to the Exhibition, This Way to the Exhibition. But I don't want the way to the exhibition -I want the way out. There are passages to the right and passages to the left, but no exit sign. Everywhere the fingers point and the placards read: This Way to the Exhibition...The steel finger points along a long stone passage. This Way - This Way - This Way to the Exhibition....”

This is uncannily similar to my own experiences in one or two huge tube stations in London. I still remember the crowds of people in the underground passages walking along like zombies, the long tunnel-like corridors, the flights of stairs, the inadequate and misleading signage and how it all became more and more stressful.

I followed the signs up some steps, along some corridors, round some corners and ended up where I started! I remember thinking to myself, “I don't want the Northern Line, I want the way out”! 

Being unable to find the exit can easily turn into a nightmare. It can feel like being trapped in Hell with no way out. I think that Jean Rhys was remembering her own experience of the London tube system when she described Sasha's bad dream.

Sasha's second nightmare 
The second nightmare incident that Carole Angier mentions happens when Sasha's boss asks her to take a letter to a certain place in the building where she works. She doesn't understand where she has to go but accepts the errand anyway. 

Sasha immediately does the wrong thing:

“I turn and walk blindly through a door. It is a lavatory. They look sarcastic as they watch me going out by the right door.“