Adele: Jane Eyre's Hidden Story - Hardcover

Tennant, Emma

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060004541 ISBN 13: 9780060004545

Publisher: William Morrow, 2002

Synopsis

The daughter of the celebrated Parisian actress Céline Varens, Adèle is a homesick, forlorn eight-year-old when she is first brought to Thornfield Hall by Edward Fairfax Rochester, her mother's former lover and -- though the grand estate's brooding lord refuses to acknowledge it -- quite possibly Adèle's father. Lonely and ill at ease in the cold, unfamiliar English countryside, the sad, precocious child longs to return to the glitter of Paris ... and to the arms of the mother who has been lost to her. But a small ray of sunshine brightens her eternal gloom when a stranger arrives to school and care for her: a mousy and serious yet intensely loving young governess named Jane Eyre.

As the years pass, Adèle watches with wonder as an unexpected romance blossoms between her governess and her guardian -- even as her curiosity leads her deeper into the shadowy manor, toward the dark and terrible secret that is locked away in a high garret. And on Jane and Rochester's planned wedding day, it is Adèle who is instrumental in bringing about the fiery catastrophe that shatters her "family" and sends her fleeing, frightened and alone, back to France.

But Paris is no longer the glamorous ideal she remembers. Intent on finding her mother, Adèle is soon lost in a world of sham sparkle and ruthless exploiters. Yet her will remains strong as she grows and learns, determined to follow her solitary odyssey to its inevitable conclusion, as she -- like Jane Eyre and the tormented Edward Rochester -- searches for salvation and love amid the ruins of misfortune.

A novel of wondrous imagination and vivid intensity, Emma Tennant's Adèle brilliantly captures the nuances and spirit of the cherished classic that inspired it, while being a bold and original literary work that stands firmly and gloriously on its own.

About this title

About the Author:

Emma Tennant was born in London and spent her childhood in Scotland. Her previous novels include The Bad Sister, Faustine, and Pemberley. She has three grown children and lives in London.

From Publishers Weekly:

Seasoned sequel-writer Tennant (Pemberley; Sylvia and Ted; etc.) offers not so much a follow-up to Jane Eyre as a new perspective on its plot. She retells Bronte's romance from the perspective of the pampered but neglected Adele, Rochester's "ward" and Jane's pupil. Only eight years old when the novel opens, Adele is living blissfully in Paris with her mother, the celebrated trapeze artist and actress Celine Varens. Their cozy-if somewhat depraved-life is threatened by the sudden arrival of Rochester, an explosive alcoholic whispered to be her father. Rochester kills Celine's lover in a duel, then flees to England, while Celine flees to Italy, abandoning her daughter. Adele is sent to stay with Rochester at Thornfield Hall, where she is befriended by the witchy "etrangere" Antoinette (also known as Bertha). Soon Jane Eyre arrives, but the bratty Adele, still plotting the marriage of Maman and Papa, rejects her governess's "persistent banality." Adele's narration is an awkward attempt at Victorian prose ("That she had had affection for me, I cannot gainsay; but I had been for her a conduit to the greater profit of her master's love, and little more") sprinkled with occasional, mostly gratuitous French words ("I was dismissed without even trying on the robe of organdy"). But the real problem is Adele herself, whose haughtiness is merely unpleasant; she has none of the charm of Bronte's imp, let alone the charisma to anchor a whole book. Some diehard Jane Eyre fans may enjoy this variation, but purists are warned to stay away.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060004541
• ISBN 13: 9780060004545
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240