¡Feliz Navidad a todos!
Hoy quiero aprovechar estas fechas para hacer una pequeña entrada con fragmentos de
Jane Eyre donde se menciona la Navidad. No son muchos, y tampoco son especialmente alegres o festivos, pero quería compartirlos con todos vosotros (y de paso poner un dibujo de Charlotte con toque festivo acompañando al texto).
November, December, and half of January passed away. Christmas and the New Year had been celebrated at Gateshead with the usual festive cheer; presents had been interchanged, dinners and evening parties given. From every enjoyment I was, of course, excluded: my share of the gaiety consisted in witnessing the daily apparelling of Eliza and Georgiana, and seeing them descend to the drawing-room, dressed out in thin muslin frocks and scarlet sashes, with hair elaborately ringletted; and afterwards, in listening to the sound of the piano or the harp played below, to the passing to and fro of the butler and footman, to the jingling of glass and china as refreshments were handed, to the broken hum of conversation as the drawing-room door opened and closed. When tired of this occupation, I would retire from the stairhead to the solitary and silent nursery: there, though somewhat sad, I was not miserable. (…) I then sat with my doll on my knee till the fire got low, glancing round occasionally to make sure that nothing worse than myself haunted the shadowy room.
Esta tristeza y soledad contrasta con otro fragmento navideño que tiene lugar mucho más adelante en la novela, cuando Jane está ya con los Rivers, junto a los que quiere intentar pasar una Navidad perfecta.
My first aim will be to clean down (do you comprehend the full force of the expression?)—to clean down Moor House from chamber to cellar; my next to rub it up with bees-wax, oil, and an indefinite number of cloths, till it glitters again; my third, to arrange every chair, table, bed, carpet, with mathematical precision; afterwards I shall go near to ruin you in coals and peat to keep up good fires in every room; and lastly, the two days preceding that on which your sisters are expected will be devoted by Hannah and me to such a beating of eggs, sorting of currants, grating of spices, compounding of Christmas cakes, chopping up of materials for mince-pies, and solemnising of other culinary rites, as words can convey but an inadequate notion of to the uninitiated like you. My purpose, in short, is to have all things in an absolutely perfect state of readiness for Diana and Mary before next Thursday; and my ambition is to give them a beau-ideal of a welcome when they come.
Dicho esto, espero que podáis pasar estas felices fiestas con vuestra familia y que Papá Noel y los Reyes Magos os dejen algún Brontë-libro debajo del árbol.
¡Nos vemos!
Jane Eyre's Library 