Work procrastination, comp-lit remix!

[tenlittlebullets]

Fuck. I should be working on root-finding programs for some of the approximation functions I've been working with, instead I'm shooting longing glances at my library copy of La Comtesse de Rudolstadt and pondering the similarities between Jane Eyre and the whole Consuelo/Comtesse de Rudolstadt saga. I'm actually really surprised that I can't find any juicy literary analysis on the subject online, because Consuelo is a French Romantic Jane Eyre (or is Jane Eyre an English Consuelo?) I mean, come on, Bildungsroman by a female author about a "plain" female protagonist trying to find her way in a world that doesn't have a place for her, strong themes of integrity and self-determination, eventual love with an equally odd and outcast man under downright Gothic circumstances that's initially rejected because it's not on the heroine's own terms. You'd think comp-lit people would be jumping all over it but I can't find anything online besides offhand references putting them both in the category of "19th century female protagonist, written by female author." (Often tossing Mme de Stael's Corinne in with them in the same sentence, so maybe I should try to find a copy of that too.)

In any case, if you like Jane Eyre and can find a copy of Consuelo in translation, I do encourage you to read it because they're very similar in some ways. And very different in others--Consuelo is huge and sprawling in the grand tradition of French Romanticism, not to mention a good bit more colorful what with opera-house intrigue and echoes of Czech religious conflicts and secret societies plotting the French Revolution and all sorts of crazy stuff. It has shades of epic and isn't as tightly focused on introspection as Jane Eyre, but damn, I think Jane and Consuelo would get along splendidly.