About
A novel better than likely.
A fanlisting is just that, a list of fans of a certain thing. Quoth TFL, "A fanlisting is an online list of fans of a subject, such as a TV show, actor, or musician, that is created by an individual and open for fans from around the world to join."
The following is from the introduction from my copy of Jane Eyre which is a 1950 copy from Modern Library Classics. I include it because I think it's a charming anectdote and a good introduction to the novel. The introduciton was written by William Peden.
In the early winter of 1847, a young woman hesitantl approached her elderly father. "Papa," the young woman began, "I've been writing a book."
"Have you, my dear?"
"Yes, and I want you to read it."
"I'm afraid it will try my eyes too much."
"But it is not in manuscript: it is printed."
"My dear! You've never thought of the expesne it will be! It will be almost sure to be a loss, for how can you get a book sold? No one knows you or your name."
"But, papa, I don't think it will be a loss; no more will you, if you will just let me read you a review or two, and tell you more about it."
Later, when the father joined his daughter and her two younger sisters for tea, the Reverend Patrick Brontë, curate of Haworth in Yorkshire, is said to have stated, "Girls, do you know Charlotte has been writing a book, and it is much better than likely?"
Mr. Brontë was quite correct. The "better than likely" book, Jane Eyre, was becoming a literary sensation. The Westminster Review described it as the best novel of the season; its love passages made Thackeray cry; J. G. Lockhart "loved" it and thought it worth "fifty Trollopes and Martineaus." Time has not reversed these opinions. Jane Eyre, more than a century since its publication, is one of the most widely read and best loved English novels.
I picked up Jane Eyre while I was travelling up and down the foreign East Coast, visiting relatives and colleges. After finally finishing Tender is the Night after two months hard effort, I turned my attention to Charlotte Brontë's creation. I read it in record speed: I did not want to put it down. The story and the characters have a way of catching you, drawing you in, and the romance between Jane and Mr. Rochester is probably my favorite in all of literature. I am not a romantic, at least in that sense, but in the greater sense of this novel, in its vision and scope and heroine, I am among the most hopleless.