I would like to thank Netgalley and headline for a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The author is trying to redeem a man that is not redeemable. I don’t think this has aged well in the 5 years that is has been out.

I approach spin-offs with a healthy amount of caution but yet somehow, no matter how many times I am disappointed, I do keep on trying.  Every so often, you do get a Wild Sargasso Sea or a Longbourn.  The story of Jane Eyre has been expanded from every possible or conceivable angle.  Mrs Fairfax got her turn in Thornfield Hall, Jane herself became serial killer in Jane Steele and even a kidnap victim in The Eyre Affair.  What would Sarah Shoemaker do with this attempt, a retelling of the story from the perspective of Mr Rochester himself?  Was it time for Mr R to take on centre stage?  What could he possibly have to say?  

Shoemaker launches us straight into the story with very little preamble; the eight year-old Edward Fairfax Rochester wanders the corridors of Thornfield, ignored by his father and bullied by his elder brother, his only friends are the servants.  His mother passed away in childbirth and although the child likes to look upon her portrait, when his father notices this, it is removed.  Then the day comes when, almost without warning, young Edward is packed off to school.  We are clearly intended to notice parallels between the sufferings of the infant Rochester and his future bride, with great emphasis on how his early life is lacking in love, but yet somehow it fails to convince.

Edward's father and brother travel to Jamaica to review their property there, years pass and Edward becomes close to his school-fellows Carrot and Touch.  Then at twelve, he is uprooted from the school and sent to assist in the management of a factory under Mr Wilson.  Once Mr Wilson falls ill and the factory has to be sold, the now-adult Edward finally sees his father again and learns that his own fortune, both financial and marital, must be sought in Jamaica.

I was reminded strongly of Ronald Frame's Havisham here, particularly the difficulties in constructing a novel based on a story already so familiar.  In Havisham, the reader watches as Catherine plans her wedding and believes herself to be about to marry the man she loves.  We not only know better but it is impossible for us to be surprised when it all goes wrong.  In the same way, as Edward arrives in Jamaica and is introduced to the Mason family, we can hardly feel astonished when it transpires that the beautiful Bertha Antoinetta has a past.  We all know that this is heading towards the attic of Thornfield Hall.

I couldn't help but think that it was a bold move on Shoemaker's part to write a novel justifying Mr Rochester's position.  In the wake of the #Metoo and #TimesUp accusations, attempting to defend a man who imprisoned one woman and attempted to marry another under false pretences is hardly fashionable and even if you accept his explanation, Mr Rochester remains pretty problematic.  He is a man who attempted to court Jane Eyre's jealousy by flirting outrageously with Blanche Ingram under her nose.  He admits that he travelled round Europe using women for sex.  Even back in the 1960s, Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea makes the case that he is culpable for his wife's descent into madness.  Can Shoemaker make us feel a genuine sympathy for him?

I found Shoemaker's Rochester a difficult character to connect with.  Interestingly, the most effective part of the novel was the pre-Jamaica section, which exists independent of Jane Eyre.  His boyhood connections are full of affection and there was pathos in how he longed for his Thornfield home, only for his father to tell him roughly that Thornfield is for his brother Rowland, not for him and that Edward will have to make his own way in the world.  There was some real creative potential there for conflict since we know that Rowland will die prematurely and allow Edward to inherit, but somehow Shoemaker never seems able to grasp the nettle.

One of the novel's main structural weaknesses is Shoemaker's tendency to dispose of characters offstage.  It is unsurprising that so many of those she has being close to Edward in childhood have to be killed off, since they cannot impinge on the later story which crosses over with Jane Eyre.  The early death of one of Edward's school-fellows is even handled quite skillfully, allowing for a real sense of loss.  That this becomes a pattern feels unfortunate with so many hanging threads inevitably leading to a frayed narrative.  The novel really needed some kind of confrontation between Edward and his father and yet we never got it.  We also never found out what exactly was the cause of Grace Poole's sorrows.  And given that Shoemaker is trying to put a positive spin on some of Rochester's more questionable behaviour, the idea that as a teenager he tried to force himself on a young factory-worker was a surprising choice.

Mr Rochester is an obvious piece of fan fiction in the most positive sense of the term - Shoemaker clearly knows Jane Eyre thoroughly and is a huge admirer of the novel.  She is imagining the inner life of the book's hero without any attempt to query his behaviour.  The bland way in which Bertha is referred to as 'mad' dismisses any attempt to truly explore what is happening to her - what are the 'childish games' she is playing?  What is driving her?  Shoemaker passes over it without a glimmer of curiousity.  There is a flatness to how Rochester appears to plod through the events of the novel, particularly in the section once he meets Jane Eyre.  Even the episode where he dresses up as a gypsy woman feels insipid - it is difficult to reconcile Shoemaker's apparently so ordinary creation with such a strange trick.  I thought of how EL James has lately been retelling Fifty Shades from the perspective of Mr Grey and how the success of this has been limited because the whole point of that character has been the mystery they held for the heroine.  Mr Rochester is an infinitely more nuanced and complex character than anyone out of the Fifty Shades factory but he does share that purpose.  He is the man who Jane Eyre marries, she famously marries him rather than vice versa.  Attempting to spin the focus was always going to be mired in difficulty.

There are occasional glimpses within Mr Rochester of what could have offered an intriguing perspective.  I enjoyed the idea of Mr Rochester coming close to freeing himself from marriage in the days leading up to his infamous wedding.  The suggestion of a sinister motivation for Edward's father pushing him towards marriage with Bertha also held promise, but unfortunately it was under-explored.  Most successful was perhaps the episode where Rochester claims Adele, recognising that if he does not do so, the child will end up being forced early into selling herself.  That did have the ring of truth about it, even if it is not something Charlotte Brontë could ever have addressed directly herself.

I am currently reading Juliet Barker's The Brontës, probably the most comprehensive biography of the family ever written, and I have just read a chapter critiquing Charlotte Brontë's early juvenilia.  For much of her teens and twenties, she was fascinated and indeed almost transfixed by her creation the Duke of Zamorna, a clear early fore-runner for Mr Rochester.  However, Barker notes that her writing only really gained maturity when she moved away from him and began writing from the female perspective.  These dark and compelling male anti-heroes may have a death-grip over our imaginations, but in truth they are best appreciated from afar rather than up close.  In attempting to uncover their secrets, they lose their true appeal - so it was for Charlotte Brontë herself and so it appears to be for Sarah Shoemaker too.

I absolutely loved Jane Eyre, and so when I saw this I knew I had to read it. It definitely didn't disappoint. It told the story of Mr Rochester's life amazingly well, and gave details that I never knew I wanted from his backstory. It was also great to finally see just what he was thinking when he met Jane Eyre.
If you love Jane Eyre, you'll love this book.

I think the plot of this needs no explanation, if you don't know the plot if Jane Eyre you must have been living in bubble. What does need explanation is how this book kept me up til 1am when I knew EXACTLY what was going to happen? After a week with little reading time I demolished 70% of this in one evening and fell in love with Edward Rochester all over again. Sarah Shoesmith has weaved a heart wrenching, entrancing and faithful tale, that follows Mr Rochester through his young life and education, his time in Jamaica and marriage to Bertha and then of course to his meeting and falling for Jane Eyre. This version of Mr Rochester is as tragic a figure in some ways as Jane was, he starts as a pitifully lonely and unloved little boy who only really starts to find himself when he is sent away from Thornfield. But despite his lonely years at that house the one prevailing emotion is his longing for his childhood home. Which makes some of his decisions in this version all the more poignant. A sumptuous and respectful retelling of a classic close to many people's heart.... I just need to find time to read Jane Eyre again!

My first “fan fiction”. A book about the character of Edward Fairfax Rochester, protagonist of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre”. Part one deals with Rochester’s childhood, youth and education, part two with his time in Jamaica and part three with his return to England. Loved part one, liked part two, felt uncomfortable with part three. In fact, reading it felt like being in a funnel: at first there is the wide part with beautiful swirling eddies of prose - Rochester’s life at the hands of his cold father and cruel brother was fabulously narrated.
Then a narrowing, the concentration and inevitability of his Jamaican life - the turmoil of his fateful marriage. Unfortunately, after that, the constraints of the original book seem to have constricted the author somewhat. Rochester, at times, becomes a simpering weakling, a picture I just cannot reconcile with the character in “Jane Eyre”. Also, the post-fire storyline seemed comparatively rushed.
Still, I found it a very enjoyable read!

Edward Fairfax Rochester is the neglected younger son of an absent father and a dead mother. His brother, Rowland, is the one who is groomed to be the heir to the estate whilst Edward is destined to make his own way in business in the Caribbean. Proving adept at commerce Edward takes over his father's interests in Jamaica and comes into contact with the Mason family, neighbours and family friends. When Edward falls for the charms of Bertha and rapidly marries her he doesn't realise the legacy that he has inherited and how it will scar and shape his own life.

This is a fictional imagining of the life of Edward Rochester based on the hints contained within Jane Eyre. Shoemaker has stayed closely within the writing style of the 19th Century novel, first person and reflective, and the book works for that. Edward suffers loss at many stages and his later brusqueness is explained by the betrayals by his father. This is a readable and entertaining book - definitely far superior to most 'fan fiction'.

As I’m not usually a fan of sequels, prequels or retellings of classic novels, I wondered if I was making a mistake in reading Mr Rochester, a book which, as you have probably guessed, is inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. However, I’ve always found Mr Rochester an interesting character and the premise of this novel was intriguing enough to tempt me. And I enjoyed it more than I thought I would; the first few sections of the book are excellent – but the last part doesn’t work as well, for reasons I’ll explain shortly.

In Jane Eyre, we meet Edward Fairfax Rochester at his home, Thornfield Hall, where Jane has come to take up a position as governess. We do learn a little bit about his family background and his life before Jane, but is it enough for us to fully understand what made him the man he is? I’ve never thought so and clearly Sarah Shoemaker didn’t either because in Mr Rochester she takes us back to Edward’s childhood to explore the people and events that may have shaped his character and formed the man who will eventually fall in love with Jane Eyre.

At the beginning of Shoemaker’s novel, Edward is a lonely little boy who is largely ignored and neglected by his father and older brother Rowland. At the age of eight he is sent away to be educated, along with two other boys, at the home of his tutor, and although at first he is heartbroken at having to leave his beloved Thornfield Hall the friendships he forms at school will have a big influence on his life. On the rare occasions when he is reunited with his family, he receives no love or affection at all, yet it is clear that his father has not forgotten him and has his future all mapped out. Edward ends up in Jamaica where he takes over the management of the Rochester plantation, Valley View – and is pushed into marriage with the beautiful Bertha Mason, the woman who will become Brontë’s famous ‘madwoman in the attic’.

I really enjoyed the first two thirds of the book, covering the period described in my previous paragraph. This is the part of Rochester’s life Charlotte Brontë didn’t tell us about – at least not in any detail – so Shoemaker is free to use her imagination. I loved reading about Edward’s early childhood, his schooldays and his apprenticeship in a mill; this could have been the basis of an interesting piece of Victorian historical fiction in itself, even without the Jane Eyre connection. The Jamaican chapters are compelling too. There are some similarities with Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, but this time our sympathies are intended to be with Mr Rochester as well as with Bertha. Shoemaker’s Rochester does his best for Bertha under difficult circumstances and I found him a more likeable character than both Rhys’s Rochester and Brontë’s…until the point where he returns to Thornfield and meets Jane Eyre.

The rest of the novel – about a third of the book – is a fairly straightforward retelling of Jane Eyre, written from Rochester’s perspective instead of Jane’s. This is where things start to fall apart, in my opinion. Shoemaker puts Brontë’s words directly into the mouths of Rochester and Jane rather than her own – and although she has written in a suitably ‘Victorian’ style throughout the novel, her writing is obviously not the same as Brontë’s, which means the sudden change in the dialogue feels unnatural and uncomfortable. I think I would have preferred her to have simply followed the broad outline of the Jane Eyre plot instead of trying to stick to it rigidly.

The Mr Rochester for whom I’d gained so much sympathy earlier in the book, the quiet, lonely, obedient little boy whose life paralleled Jane’s in so many ways, the insecure man pushed into a career and a marriage not of his own choosing and who longed for nothing more than to go home to Thornfield Hall – that man is gone and I had trouble believing that Shoemaker’s Rochester would behave the way he does in the final section of the book; the whole Blanche Ingram storyline feels out of character, for example.

In other words, if this had just been an original novel inspired by Jane Eyre and set in the Victorian period I would probably have loved it; it was the retelling of the familiar Brontë plot that I didn’t find entirely successful. I didn’t feel that this book really added to or changed my feelings about Jane and Mr Rochester, but there were enough things that I liked about it to make it an enjoyable read anyway

It was really interesting to see the events of Jayne Eyre through a different character's eyes and now I need to read Jane Eyre again! This book is definitely worth a read for any Jayne Eyre fan

I do this to myself. It’s my own fault. I love 19th C literature and Jane Eyre has been a favourite since I was 13 yrs old. So it’s just not in my best interests to read Jane Eyre spin offs because 90% of the time I will be enraged and disappointed. And yet I can’t stop myself from indulging my curiosity every time someone writes another Jane Eyre book. In no way is this book to blame for this knee jerk reaction of mine. That said, this is one of the better examples in the Jane Eyre fan fic arena. There’s rich historical detail, decent prose and a genuine love and understanding of the original. For me it just doesn’t ring quite true but I firmly believe that is my problem. Otherwise I did find this a bit dull and slow paced. Part of the problem of course is that Rochester becomes an interesting character when he overthrows all his previously held convictions, his pride and his tendency to be domineering, to fall in love with the woman he employs as a governess – a woman who does not fit with what he always believed he wanted. We might sympathise with Rochester but ultimately he then behaves appallingly to the woman he falls in love with, attempting to manipulate her at every turn. Jane Eyre has romance but it isn’t about romance. It’s about learning self sufficiency, strength and having the courage of your convictions, not just against your enemies but against your friends. Anything that looks at purely the romance, even a prequel, just isn’t going to have the same impact. And Rochester is a bog standard wealthy Victorian gent until he is changed by contact with Jane – he’s just not interesting on his own. Still this is a decent book. If you love Jane Eyre for the romance angle, you’ll probably really enjoy it. It’s definitely my problem that I couldn’t enjoy it more so don’t let my feelings on the matter put you off.

As a huge fan of Charlotte Bronte, I am wary of reading other interpretations of Jane Eyre. And so with much trepidation I decided to give Mr Rochester a go. This weighty novel spends 2 thirds of it's time on Rochester's early life, Shoemaker creates characters some of whom will actually affect how the novel plays out later when Jane appears in Fairfax Rochester's life. She has tried to create something new and fresh with Mr Rochester but unfortunately doesn't pull it off. Rochester and Jane's characters are pale in comparison to the originals and in fact the new characters seem to be more alive. Unfortunately for Shoemaker Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre didn't need rewriting and additions to the plotting and to understand Rochester and Bertha there is always Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea to look to.

I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
This retelling of Jane Eyre from the perspective of Mr Rochester is certainly an entertaining journey. Instead of just the time he spends with Jane it covers his life up to the beginning of the novel as well.
I found that the sections away from the setting of the novel were actually stronger than the ones which were forced to follow its constraints. The section about Rochester as an unhappy child, with a dead mother and deprived of love from his ghastly father and brother, is very moving. His education and move to Jamaica and subsequent marriage to Bertha Mason, all orchestrated by his Machiavellian father, have a vivid quality to them that make for fascinating reading. The emotional journey Rochester goes on from little boy desperate to gain his absent father’s love to grown man who realises he has been betrayed by that same father into marrying a madwoman is well conveyed. There was clearly a lot more freedom to these sections. When we finally catch up with the novel in the last quarter of the book, the narrative feels a lot more forced. The author tries to work in some of the dialogue from Jane Eyre and has a running commentary on the events of the novel which flows far less than the earlier scenes in Mr Rochester. I also think it would have been improved by skipping the Gerald Rochester storyline, which felt unnecessary and tacked on. However, all in all, this was an enjoyable read.