Guest Author: Libby Sternberg – Rewriting Jane Eyre

 Today author Libby Sternberg is here to talk about Sloane Hall, her Old-Hollywood retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s class, Jane Eyre.


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In 1920s Hollywood, young John Doyle learns the craft of cinematography when a stupid mistake costs him his job. On a tip, he heads to Sloane Hall, the estate of a famous silent screen actress, Pauline Sloane, where he lands a position as chauffeur. Sloane Hall first offers him peace as he enjoys the bounty of the luxurious home, then unrest as its beautiful namesake returns and starts preparing for her first talking picture. Despite his best efforts to resist, John falls hopelessly in love with his employer. His future brightens, however, when she appears to return his affection, leading to plans for a secret wedding—until other awful secrets intrude, leading to heartbreak and separation. A story of obsession and forgiveness, Libby Sternberg’s Sloane Hall was inspired by Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

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Although my book, Sloane Hall, is inspired by Jane Eyre, I made some substantial changes to the story so that fans of the original would be able to experience this classic tale anew, as if they’d never encountered it before. I adore Jane Eyre, and my goal in writing a book based on it was to experience all its deliciously emotional moments again.

I realized, however, that once you’ve experienced those emotional moments, they no longer surprise. So I really had to think through how to make Sloane Hall fresh while still triggering those same reader reactions for Jane fans.

I changed the time and place to 1929 Hollywood. But the biggest change I made was shifting the genders of the characters. In this way, I hoped readers would come to the story not really knowing what to expect.

In Sloane Hall, John Doyle is the protagonist who tells the story, a lowly worker at a great starlet’s estate who falls in love with his beautiful employer. She is the Rochester character in the book, but, unlike in the original, she is not much older than John.

Despite this huge shift, John, in my first versions of the book, was very much like Jane–gentle, intelligent, plain, forthright and from a hard background.

As I thought through how to make the story feel new, though, I realized that John needed to be someone other than just a male version of Jane. He needed to be…himself. I asked myself this question–how would a guy, who shares Jane’s frankness and unvarnished view of herself and the world, react to similar situations that Jane faced?

My answer was….he’d probably come out swinging. He’d be a fighter, someone who inwardly and outwardly raged against the injustices he saw in the world and the injustices done to him. This would be a constant battle for him, something that lands him in trouble even before the novel begins when he loses his lodgings due to a fistfight with one of the other boys at a boarding house.

This new John might be as plain and eager and–deep down–as loving as Jane. But he is haunted by demons he has to conquer by story’s end in order to find happiness. He will have to learn how to forgive, something that came more easily to Jane. This new John set the tone for the emotional journey throughout the story.

What fun it was to write him, once I’d figured out who he really was! This one change set in motion other shifts in the story that allowed it to be a truly new tale, rather than just a revamping of Bronte’s wonderful novel. With this different approach, I believed I was on track to creating the reading experience I’d envisioned at the outset, one where readers of the original book would find themselves “strangers in a strange land,” meeting these characters and circumstances as if they’d never encountered them before.

If you buy the book, I hope you enjoy it, whether you’re a Jane Eyre fan or have never read the original. If you comment on this post within the next 24 hours, you’ll be eligible to be chosen in a random drawing for a free copy of my novel.

For more on Sloane Hall, Jane Eyre, and old Hollywood, please visit my blog at www.LibbysBooks.wordpress.com! My website is www.LibbysBooks.com. At both sites, you can read the first two chapters for free. Friend me on Facebook at Libby Sternberg. And do let me know what you think of the book by emailing me at Libby488 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Libby Malin Sternberg was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and is still in love with the city of crabcakes, steamy summers, and ethnic neighborhoods. (What’s not to love about a city that names its football team after an Edgar Allan Poe character?) 
For many years, she and her family lived in Vermont, where she worked as an education reform advocate, contributed occasional commentaries to Vermont Public Radio and was a member of the Vermont Commission on Women.
She is married, with three children, and now resides in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
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Libby is offering a free copy of Sloane Hall to one of our readers. Leave a comment here for a chance to win. Contest ends Oct 4, 2010 at 11:59 p.m.

This book is available from Five Star. You can buy it here.

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