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Jane and her Master by Stephen Rawlings (1996)

Book review: Jane and her Master by Stephen Rawlings (Silver Moon Books, 2002 [1996])

‘Jane and her Master’ is a classic in all senses of the word. Stephen Rawlings brings his unique talent to bear on a re-working of ‘Jane Eyre’ and creates an SM tale of truly searing intensity.

And in the category “Books I would never have read in a million years even if you paid me”, meet a torture porn take on Jane Eyre, which I’ve only read because I set myself the task of reading everything Jane Eyre. Books like this make me wish I hadn’t.

A kind word of warning: If you’re of a young and/or sensitive disposition, you might want to give this review a miss.

No, really. Spoilers ahoy.

The author was (according to the preface) inspired by P.N. Dedeaux’s An English Education, but felt like it “whetted our appetites” and “cruelly left us suspended in limbo, hungry for a feast that was never served”. So he took it upon himself to rectify that. Without being able to spell “Haworth” properly. (Howarth? Seriously?)

First things first: If you’re not into sadomasochism, this book is NOT for you. Let me make that perfectly clear, and repeat it: NOT for you. I had an inkling S&M wasn’t for me, but have never willingly submitted myself (pun not intended) to reading anything that would actually make me find out. Well, now I know. And I dread having to suffer read endure An English Education as well.

The first sentence of chapter one instantly sets the tone: “I was to be whipped, then inseminated.” Erm, yeah. At least the first few chapters were blissfully short. They got longer.

Plot Summary: It starts with Jane Rochester on some sort of correctional torture device at Thornfield, and then she recounts the story so far, by summing up her time at Lowood and how she got a good caning before leaving for Thornfield, where there is more caning to be had and measured out on the other servants. And then the Master shows up and there is yet more caning. The Master takes a shine to Jane and invites a house party, and Blanche Ingram gets up to some more caning. Jane leaves for Gateshead (more caning), Jane returns to marry the Master (more caning), Bertha is revealed, Jane flees to Morton (and gets raped at Whitcross by the coach driver), where she is deemed to be a wanton prostitute (more caning), ends up at the Rivers’ house (more than caning) and eventually goes back to her injured Master and marries him. As she can’t be caned by her symbolically castrated Master, and takes “liberties” (read: grows a backbone), she goes back to Lowood (!) to be thoroughly corrected (read: tortured half to death), before she gets taken back home so she can crawl to her Master and live miserably ever after.

For the most part, the story follows the original disturbingly well, if you disregard all the mindless, demeaning violence. The characters are laughable and the story gets very samey very quickly. Most chapters read: “a woman gets her behind caned until she bleeds” but unfortunately, in many more words. For the most part, this woman is a Jane, who (thankfully?) bears no resemblance to Charlotte Brontë’s character. CB’s character had a backbone, she wasn’t a submissive victim who’d simper and ask a man to beat her up because she deserves a good spanking whenever she’s had the audacity to have a bad (read: independent) thought.

Occasionally, the repetitiveness of caning until someone’s bum and tender lady bits bleed and hurt, gets interrupted by sibling incest. The first is a chapter where Blanche Ingram tells the whole house party about how she let her brother take her as he liked, although not to make her “belly swell” – swelling bellies, we get told numerous times, is bad … especially not when the culprit is your brother. Oh yeah, here’s another gem for you: during the charades, Blanche totally gets it off with Rochester in front of everyone. (Face, meet palm.)

The second is going to Gateshead, where we learn John Reed had his wicked ways with his sisters, who bloody competed on being taken advantage of the most number of times. There’s also a chapter where one of the Reed girls recounts her private meeting with Mr Brocklehurst, who often came to “visit” Aunt Reed, oh yeah. And he also took Jane’s maidenhead, like he did all Lowood girls. (Face, palm, you meet again.) Third is at the Rivers’, but not with St John. No, he’s as stiff as usual. It’s his sisters that have it off with one another – and with Jane.

When I thought the story couldn’t get any worse, it suddenly did. The “punishments” get more and more brutal as the story progresses, and the Rivers even have some sort of metal clamp to put on a woman’s bits. But wait! There’s more! There’s a chapter where Jane recounts what she’s read in a book about what goes on over in India, where (thankfully) the author has had the “taste” to censor himself for a bit, but most of it is left in, and it’s stomach-churning. (Four words: “ground chilli peppers” and “orifices”. You do the maths. And that’s just for starters.) One of the worst parts of the book is at the Rivers’, where St John decides to make Jane a virgin again (!) … It requires scorching hot iron and stitches, and that’s all I’ll say. It very nearly made me throw up.

I mean, not to kink shame or anything but this is nothing to do with BDSM. There is no question of informed consent anywhere, it’s torture porn, plain and simple.

Back at Lowood, it’s not enough to just have Jane walking around naked and getting caned every day. No, there are weird contraptions to cause pain and injury both inside and out and I’m amazed Jane lives through it all, especially in a time well before the discovery of penicillin. Normal people would’ve been killed. (Speaking of which, the book has a tiny disclaimer on the title page: “This is fiction – In real life always practise safe sex!” No shit!)

It would have been a nice surprise to have Jane rise up and say “F**K THE LOT OF YOU, YOU SICK F***ING BASTARDS!!!” and then go ninja on them. Preferably half-way through the book, so I wouldn’t have had to suffer through the rest of it. But alas, she can’t, because heaven forbid she would be realistic and not someone you can just walk all over and treat like garbage just because she’s a woman.

Sometimes the descriptions are unintentionally (?) funny:

Ada was found /…/ bent over the kitchen table, while the young grocer’s assistant filled her larder with the rich cream from the monstrous Savaloy [sic] he kept between his legs, and now hers.

Am I meant to laugh or cry at such a thing? I chose to laugh, because I knew Ada would get caned very shortly and needed something to see me through it. And she was, of course. It got boring. Passages like the next one, however, is what rubs me the wrong way:

A woman’s hinds are well padded to absorb the blows, their sting being much concentrated on the surface and, furthermore, nature has so arranged our sensibilities, that we females can often mitigate our pain by translating it into more erotic sensations, when the seat of punishment is so close to our wombs.

Basically, excusing torture and abuse of women with the view that in reality, we get off on it. WHAT THE F**K IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?! There are so many examples of Jane (first person narrator, by the way) and even other characters harping on about how women need to be “corrected” and submissive and brain-dead and beaten and abused and that us women should just take it and be bloody GRATEFUL that a man shows us his “loving concern” in this way. I don’t normally get offended by the sexual content in books – occasionally in this one, I actually wished they’d have normal, enjoyable sex with one another just once, but no, it’s either caning or brutal sodomising that’s on the menu – unless it’s done by a woman’s brother, of course, then it’s ohhh so enjoyable – face, palm, I believe you’ve been introduced. It takes a bit to get me up in arms and start ranting about sexism, but seriously, this takes the proverbial biscuit.

The original story of Jane Eyre was way ahead of its time with regards to women and feminism, and what does Stephen Rawlings reduce this wonderful literary classic to? Some twaddle in the preface about young females struggling with their sexual submissive tendencies in their “womens studies” groups, in essence: “You know all you really want is to be dominated by a man and hearing that you have rights is confusing your tiny minds.” Sir, you should be locked up and the key thrown away. (If you are in fact a Madam and not a Sir at all, you need some serious help with your self-worth issues.)

I probably need counselling just to get over having read the bloody thing because brain bleach doesn’t actually exist.

Forget you ever heard about this book. It doesn’t get a rating, other than possibly “SQUICK!!!” because books that make me feel physically sick are not books I would ever recommend. Not even to people who I know don’t mind a bit of S&M. This isn’t a bit of S&M, this is porn for people who get off on depictions of torture; it’s cruel and makes light of abuse of women. If I didn’t think burning books was a crime, I would use this one for kindling, if only to feel like it might cleanse my spirit for having read the darn thing.

And if you, based on this review, now go “Sweet, I got to get me a copy!”, then I will judge you. Kink shaming or no.

0 out of 5 burned bras.

Traxy

An easily distracted and over-excited introvert who never learns to go to bed at a reasonable time. Enjoys traveling (when there's not a plague on), and taking photos of European architecture. Cares for cats, good coffee and Boardwalk Empire. A child of her time, she did media studies in school and still can't decide what she wants to be when she grows up.

11 thoughts on “Jane and her Master by Stephen Rawlings (1996)

  1. Wow, someone like him needs to be put on a watch list. That author sounds like he’s one step away from going all Human Centipede on a few women and then forcing them to do demeaning sexual acts for entertainment.

  2. Bravo, Traxy.

    You have some fortitude. I ended up skipping most of the Rivers section and Jane’s return to Lowood near the end cause I just couldn’t stomach it anymore.

    And how about Edward knocking up Mary and Diana while Jane was away? And with her permission no less!

    It cracks me up that there are so many good books that will never get published while this piece of crap (and I am being nice) was.

  3. This just sounds horrendous. I read “Reader, I Married Him” just out of curiosity, and it made me sort of shake my head and roll my eyes. But this makes me want to hurl. It really disturbs me that someone even has this kind of attitude. If you like that yourself, well, whatever blows your hair back. But this sounds scarily like something that could influence some sick freak to go out and try it on his own.

  4. I’m mostly offended by this because obviously, Jane is no masochist or she would have stayed with St.John. But she “did not love” her servitude. Obviously, she would want to whip Rochester, not vice versa.

  5. I’ve taken to re-reading Jasper Fforde and Eoin Colfer now for a bit. Maybe that’ll make me feel better again!

    @kristi/RAFrenzy: Yup, that’s pretty much my reaction too.

    @jpmel: I was seriously considering putting the book down and refusing to continue reading it on a number of occasions, but I thought “no, must persevere and take one for the team!” So glad I’ve finished it now. Never again! Couldn’t agree with you more – some books are wonderful but won’t find a publisher, and then THIS. I suppose it’s because it’s a publisher specialising in S&M “literature”. (Another disturbing thing: you can send in your own stories to a post box in NOTTINGHAM! Oh the humanity!)

    @Tara: Yeah, “Reader, I Married Him” was just a bit silly in comparison. I didn’t take it as the author meant it to be a serious attempt at a sequel to Jane Eyre. I think she just wrote it as a bit of fun, and that’s the way I took it. THIS, on the other hand, is another matter. RIMH wouldn’t really influence anyone to do anything, but the degrading tone of JaHM is atrocious and yes, could potentially inspire some pretty horrific acts of cruelty. 🙁

    @ifbyyes: Oh, you should see the foreword. It contains some quotes from the original as a way of justifying the whole S&M theme. Interesting how the author has chosen to neglect the whole point of the original novel – i.e. that Jane is NOT a woman who’ll be trampled on and take crap from people.

  6. I was laughing hard. You are so witty.Thank God I’m not masochist..
    only Erotoman(thanks to RA):D

  7. LOL Joanna! RA has made an erotomaniac out of many an otherwise sensible woman. I was just on YouTube watching the RA “Sexyback” video. My, my…..

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