Jane & Edward: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Eyre is exactly what it says on the tin—but that doesn’t convey the utter brilliance and remarkable competence with which debut author Melodie Edwards pulls off this retelling. Charlotte Brontë’s most popular novel has been adapted numerous times for various audiences, some hewing more closely to the source material than others which merely use it as loose inspiration, but Jane & Edward is truly a masterpiece that will set the bar impossibly high for other future retellings.
The titular characters are transplanted into our modern day society, and their surnames, occupations and backgrounds are updated by necessity, but it’s done in a most elegant fashion that still believably moulds them into recognisable representations of their counterparts from the classic story. At a tender young age, Jane is left an orphan at the mercy of the foster care system after the premature passing of her father, a gifted professor renowned in academic circles, but absentminded and careless when it came to providing for his daughter. The author outlines Jane’s growth from her teenage years to her early 20s with a focus on how alone and neglected Jane is, bereft of all company and comfort, but without giving in to any need for tawdry embellishment or heavy-handed melodrama. It is enough to witness how frugal Jane must be to stretch her limited funds as a waitress, the compromises and indignities she must shrug off just to barely remain above the poverty line. But finally Jane is done with her grey, dreary existence of just making do and pushes herself outside her comfort zone to pursue a new career as a legal assistant which is how she winds up at the illustrious law firm Rosen, Haythe & Thornfield.
It’s an opportunity that seems too good to be true for someone brand new to the industry until Jane realises that she’s landed this plum position as assistant to majority stakeholder Edward Rosen not out of any sterling qualities that HR may have recognised in her, but out of sheer desperation and a lack of options given the way that Edward has terrorised and scared off all his previous assistants. He’s notoriously ill-tempered, loud and abrasive with no patience or manners to spare and one might think that his moody and volatile personality would be too much for Jane to handle. One would be wrong, however.
With her many years in customer service, Jane is composed and unflappable, meeting his gruff, high-handed manner with calm, stoic professionalism. While she initially is unswervingly mild and polite, retreating behind the safety of ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, sir’, Edward’s lively and colourful personality eventually coaxes out a hidden wry wit she never had the chance to indulge in before. Jane’s occasional tart response is amusing and intriguing to Edward, and as his respect for and reliance upon his new assistant grows, so does an unexpected but sweetly wholesome rapport between them.
Given the vast disparity between their respective roles in the company, not to mention their social and economic status, this is a tricky combination of dynamics to navigate, however the author does it masterfully. In her foreward, Edwards mentions that she contemplated jettisoning the employer/employee dynamic to avoid the thorny implications in a post-#MeToo world, but thankfully she elected to retain this crucial element which adds so much depth and a delightful ambivalence to the developing relationship between Edward and Jane.
After years of being solely responsible for her own well-being and a deep-seated fear of being left with nothing, Jane is not going to pursue an office romance that could jeopardise her position. As for Edward, he may be seen as a fearsome ogre by his employees, but he is intensely principled when it comes to ensuring zero tolerance for harassment towards any of his staff and that includes making a romantic overture to his own assistant when she may fear the outcome of rejecting him. Their slow-burn romance is pitch-perfect and utterly swoonworthy with not a single misstep in its execution; we’re treated to witty banter, delicious chemistry and a heartfelt yearning that is drawn out just long enough before being soothed and satiated.
Of course, just because the obvious personal obstacles to embarking on their relationship have been overcome doesn’t mean smooth sailing to a happy ending. Readers familiar with Jane Eyre will be aware of the major obstacle yet to come and the way this character is incorporated into Jane & Edward is perhaps the biggest change to the original novel, but satisfyingly done in the way it honours the source while twisting it in a way that best suits this new story. While there is no need to have read Jane Eyre as this works perfectly well as a standalone, there are the occasional sly references that will tickle a reader in the know.
A deft and clever retelling that effortlessly retains the traits of the classic characters loved for generations while positioning them in a realistic modern context. Jane & Edward continues to explore the timeless themes of social inequality, the struggle for financial security and the innately human desire for love and a place to belong that Charlotte Brontë originally raised in Jane Eyre. With a quietly capable, charming and resilient heroine following the difficult path of learning to value herself and stand firm on what she believes in plus a prickly, blustering yet hopelessly endearing love interest, this is a beautifully heart-warming and enchanting story destined to be a comfort read for countless bookworms.
Jane & Edward is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of March 21st.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
This powerful reimagining of Jane Eyre, set in a modern-day law firm, is full of romance and hope as it follows the echoing heartbeats of the classic story.
A former foster kid, Jane has led a solitary life as a waitress in the suburbs, working hard to get by. Tired of years of barely scraping together a living, Jane takes classes to become a legal assistant and shortly after graduating accepts a job offer at a distinguished law firm in downtown Toronto. Everyone at the firm thinks she is destined for failure because her boss is the notoriously difficult Edward Rosen, the majority stakeholder of Rosen, Haythe & Thornfield LLP. But Jane has known far worse trials and refuses to back down when economic freedom is so close at hand.
Edward has never been able to keep an assistant–he’s too loud, too messy, too ill-tempered. There’s something about the quietly competent, delightfully sharp-witted Jane that intrigues him though. As their orbits overlap, their feelings begin to develop–first comes fondness and then something more. But when Edward’s secrets put Jane’s independence in jeopardy, she must face long-ignored ghosts from her past and decide if opening her heart is a risk worth taking.
