Wide Sargasso Sea

published	August 19th 1992 by W. W. Norton
first published	1966
binding	Paperback
isbn	0393308804 (isbn13: 9780393308808)
pages	192
description	In 1966 Jean Rhys reemerged after a long silence with a novel called Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys had enjoyed minor literary success in the 1920s an...more [close] In 1966 Jean Rhys reemerged after a long silence with a novel called Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys had enjoyed minor literary success in the 1920s and '30s with a series of evocative novels featuring women protagonists adrift in Europe, verging on poverty, hoping to be saved by men. By the '40s, however, her work was out of fashion, too sad for a world at war. And Rhys herself was often too sad for the world--she was suicidal, alcoholic, troubled by a vast loneliness. She was also a great writer, despite her powerful self-destructive impulses. Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress who grew up in the West Indies on a decaying plantation. When she comes of age she is married off to an Englishman, and he takes her away from the only place she has known--a house with a garden where "the paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the light was green. Orchids flourished out of reach or for some reason not to be touched." The novel is Rhys's answer to Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë's book had long haunted her, mostly for the story it did not tell--that of the madwoman in the attic, Rochester's terrible secret. Antoinette is Rhys's imagining of that locked-up woman, who in the end burns up the house and herself. Wide Sargasso Sea follows her voyage into the dark, both from her point of view and Rochester's. It is a voyage charged with soul-destroying lust. "I watched her die many times," observes the new husband. "In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candlelight. In the long afternoons when the house was empty." Rhys struggled over the book, enduring rejections and revisions, wrestling to bring this ruined woman out of the ashes. The slim volume was finally published when she was 70 years old. The critical adulation that followed, she said, "has come too late." Jean Rhys died a few years later, but with Wide Sargasso Sea she left behind a great legacy, a work of strange, scary loveliness. There has not been a book like it before or since. Believe me, I've been searching. --Emily White [close]
date added	03-28-07 edit book

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Melissa rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

07/05/08

bookshelves: master-s-exam

Read in July, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

(I've decided that I can't write this review without spoilers for not only Wide Sargasso Sea but also Jane Eyre. Lame.)

I've been avoiding reading Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea for a few years now. (My MA Exam list put an end to that.) I was certain that it would meddle with Jane Eyre and forever change that book for me. By the time I finished Book One, I felt safe. Rhys wasn't setting out to tear apart an evil imperialist book. (In fact, after reading some of her l...more (I've decided that I can't write this review without spoilers for not only Wide Sargasso Sea but also Jane Eyre. Lame.)

I've been avoiding reading Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea for a few years now. (My MA Exam list put an end to that.) I was certain that it would meddle with Jane Eyre and forever change that book for me. By the time I finished Book One, I felt safe. Rhys wasn't setting out to tear apart an evil imperialist book. (In fact, after reading some of her letters, I admire how she loved Jane Eyre, was ecstatic over the idea of writing about the First Mrs. Rochester, and struggled with writing a book that did not abuse Bronte's work.) Unfortunately, even though Rhys succeeded in winning my trust, I still didn't end up really liking the book.

Critics rave about Rhys' choice to have both Antoinette (dubbed "Bertha" by Rochester) and her husband (Rochester's name is actually never mentioned) narrate sections of the story. I liked the idea, but the narrations just didn't work for me. I never really understood the characters or their motivations. The characters make such extreme choices that they need explanation. For instance, I can understand husband receives letter claiming wife (he hardly knows that is of what he views as a different (strange) race) will go crazy and grows suspicious. I can't understand husband realizing wife gave him a love potion and thinking, I know, I'll have sex with another woman in the room next door so she'll hear! That'll show her! So often I just wanted to tell the two to sit down and talk. But instead one decides not to really speak any more and the other decides that a lifetime locked in the attic is the only way to go. The very structure of the narration suggests that the reasoning for their actions would lie in the text of the book, but, too often, I found myself alone in trying to justify their madness. (Which is the same thing Jane Eyre asked me to do--so then how is this book helpful?)

I'm tempted to say that the best part of this book is the idea of its conception, but I feel like that claim fails to acknowledge some really cool literary techniques that Rhys uses. She very effectively continues and expands on Bronte's use of mirroring, doubling, and bird symbolism. She breathes life into the character of Grace Poole. The way she ends the novel is superb and rather genius. The novel's greatest strength, I think, is that Rhys identifies, very forcibly, the marginalized space in which womanhood (in a patriarchal society) and imperialism forced her heroine to uncomfortably dwell. Poor Antoinette has no place of her own. She belongs no where. That's enough to make anyone's mind wander and not return.

So now that I've written the paragraph on stuff I liked, I guess I can no longer make the claim that I didn't like the book. Because some aspects were just fantastic. I suppose it's just the type of book that's better when you're not reading it and just thinking about it.

Anyone interested in further reading on Wide Sargasso Sea should read Sandra Drake's analysis: "All That Foolishness / That All Foolishness: Race and Caribbean Culture as Thematics of Liberation in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea." It rocked my world....less

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Xio rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

07/18/08

bookshelves: femaleauthors

I am still processing this short novel and am unwilling to say too much about it while under its influence.

Rhys is, was more than a talented storyteller, she had a very keen notion of in/justice and what kind of living narrative can drive a person to means and ends.

If wanting a comparison, I would be forced to point to Franz Fanon or the poetry of Aime Cesaire. The similarities are immediately evident, I suppose.
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So I've read much of the comme...more I am still processing this short novel and am unwilling to say too much about it while under its influence.

Rhys is, was more than a talented storyteller, she had a very keen notion of in/justice and what kind of living narrative can drive a person to means and ends.

If wanting a comparison, I would be forced to point to Franz Fanon or the poetry of Aime Cesaire. The similarities are immediately evident, I suppose.
-------------------------------------

So I've read much of the commentaries and essays from the end of the critical edition as well as begun to reread J. Eyre. The similarities (to me) between Jane and Antoinette are plain and striking but for me not the source of interest. What I think is worth looking at is how they are articulated as individuals. I have these (brief) scattered thoughts to offer:

Jane felt utterly alone in the world until she found solace in Christianity though the example of her schoolmate. This example is (necessarily) one of complacent obedience to the Christian god. (I won't tell you how, specifically) Jane seems to gain from this an ability to differentiate herself from her outsider status in society rather than keen after acceptance and grow distraught from her lack of "true" agency--which can only come from the possession of money.. I agree with Michael Thorpe, who suggested Jane is not at all indicative of 'feminist' thinking, rather she is acting from
"religious imperative" ("The Other Side" Jane Eyre and The Wide Sargasso Sea- M. Thorpe). Religion lends Jane her apparent strength to resist her desire to stay after the denouement.

(And this too I may not correctly grasp: how is it 'feminist' in any case to resist one's desires? Is it so because Rochester is-a-man? Because he has done what he had done (trying to avoid spoilers)?

Antoinette on the other hand, though she went to a convent school, has no religion. The girl she fixed upon was more a model of ideals: beauty, grace, and so on. But Antoinette never seems to gain friends let alone confidantes and neither does she manage to internalize these skills. Why?

Unlike Jane, who finds a way into a coherent society via one very acceptable path (religion), Antoinette's society no longer exists, not coherently and not for her. It seems that even should she want to (and she wants to, desperately) find her place there is no place left. She (her 'kind')is ostracized by all groups. There may be pity for her but there is never solace, not without oblivion (through Christophine's ministrations).

Of course, this is also about Edward Rochester and his situation: as the second-born male he inherits nothing. Historically these boys were found brides from a wealthy family (and many of these if not most were found in colonies) to assure their standing. Rhys writes him as a more sympathetic character than he could possibly be in J. Eyre. Not forgivable, not acceptable, but comprehensible. I suppose I mean to say that what Edward Rochester does within the scope of Sargasso is not Romantic (or Gothic) it is a Tragedy and so the action cannot be turned on its head to seem justifiable. ...less

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Nathaniel rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

07/05/08

Read in May, 2008

It is always a risky thing to create a narrative voice far below your own intelligence level. I find that authors less skillful than, say, Faulkner, end up producing poor quality, simple prose without managing to evoke youthfulness or naivety. The first portion of "Wide Sargasso Sea", suffers from the young teenage voice of Antoinette. I find it easy to scoff at passages like, "I woke next morning knowing that nothing would be the same. It would change and go on changing" or ...more It is always a risky thing to create a narrative voice far below your own intelligence level. I find that authors less skillful than, say, Faulkner, end up producing poor quality, simple prose without managing to evoke youthfulness or naivety. The first portion of "Wide Sargasso Sea", suffers from the young teenage voice of Antoinette. I find it easy to scoff at passages like, "I woke next morning knowing that nothing would be the same. It would change and go on changing" or "I prayed for a long time to be dead. Then remembered that this was a sin. It's presumption or despair, I forget which, but a mortal sin. So I prayed for a long time about that too, but the thought came, so many things are sins, why? Another sin, to think that." What's wrong with those passages (aside from their over-convenient simplifications)? They are sandwiched between passages like, "if we were never envious, they never seemed vain. Helene and Germain, a little disdainful, aloof perhaps, but Louise, not even that." and "This remark is made in a casual and perfunctory voice and she slides on to order and chastity, that flawless crystal that, once broken, can never be mended." It's unreasonable to expect readers to receive these four utterances as if they all occurred naturally to the same teenage girl. Narrative consistency matters.

The second part of the book is stronger and almost convinced me to forgive the first part of the novel (which had altogether lost my sympathy) on the basis of the strong contrast set up between them. We are all prepared to notice the shortcomings of Mr. Rochester's perspective. Rhys does not have to be terribly overt about his jealousy, his pride, his fear and his ignorance; these are clear to the reader because of how Mr. Rochester narrates and what he chooses to focus on. The second part is strong and entertaining and the show-down between Christophine (the book's most memorable character) and Mr. Rochester is very well done. While the Iago-like, lurking half-brother of Antoinette with his obnoxious letters, bribery and intrigue was a bit tedious and overdone, the second part of "Wide Sargasso Sea" still commands and rewards attention.

For better or for worse, I have not read "Jane Eyre"; so, the interplay between "Wide Sargasso Sea" and Bronte's novel is completely lost on me. As a result, I have no reason to forgive or accept the disappointing and forced third and final "part" of the novel. To make a novel so dependent on its relationship to another novel is also, somewhat of a risky decision. If I ever get around to "Jane Eyre", I may come back and give this review a second look. But, for now, I wouldn't recommend this particular take on wealthy-white-person-undone-by-tropics to anyone who is not a junky of this particular sub-genre.

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Kelly rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

03/01/08

bookshelves: brit-lit, fiction

recommends it for: people who loved Jane Eyre or love the gothic genre

The entire point and purpose of this novel is the atmosphere and the mood that it creates both in the minds of the character and the reader. That's really what I felt was the most accomplished thing here. It was very gothic, but managed not to feel antiquated or like all we needed was a few vampires and we had an Anne Rice novel. Rhys makes you feel the scents, the breezes and the raging emotions of the west indies that she is presenting, and I always love that in a novel.

The narrative poin...more The entire point and purpose of this novel is the atmosphere and the mood that it creates both in the minds of the character and the reader. That's really what I felt was the most accomplished thing here. It was very gothic, but managed not to feel antiquated or like all we needed was a few vampires and we had an Anne Rice novel. Rhys makes you feel the scents, the breezes and the raging emotions of the west indies that she is presenting, and I always love that in a novel.

The narrative point is to convey the other side of the story of Bertha, the madwoman in the attic from Jane Eyre. I thought she did a fairly good job of explaining to us how the woman ended up the way she was, and showing her slow descent into madness due to isolation and rejection that slowly breaks her down over the course of her life. For a slim volume, it manages to deal with a lot of issues, including virulent racism, colonial relations, sexual relations, and a post-slavery society. The idea of covering what things were like just after the abolition of slavery was especially interesting to me- how things didn't /really/ change, but just enough to make the society there an uncertain, toxic place to live.

The major problems I had with the piece relate to characterization and motivation. I have no idea why Rochester acted the way he did to his bride. We don't see enough of his thought process, except right at the very end, when he's already made his decision about her and we're moving into the Rochester and Bertha of the Jane Eyre we know, or right at the beginning, when the two of them were happy. I don't get why he starts to be the way he is to her, and the book doesn't explain it. It just happens. If you accept it, fine, but his character to that point doesn't explain that. He's not believable in that crucial middle section that drives his wife mad. She is, and so are the rest of the characters (though I'm uncertain about using almost the entire cast of black characters as a substitute for gothic monsters- with the exception of the terrifying Christophine.)

I just have to say too... I am so over these drowning Ophelia characters, who are so incredibly fragile and need saving all the time, and cannot possibly fend for themselves. The novel does explain how she got that way, but that rather annoyed me too. She got every excuse in the world to be helpless, and then didn't overcome that. This doesn't detract from how beautifully Jean Rhys paints a mind slowly succumbing to insanity, its just a personal thing that I've grown tired of.

Overall though, I'd recommend it. It won't take more than an afternoon or two to read, and its a very well done example of a mood piece. ...less

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Capitu rated it:

(review of isbn 0140189831)

02/11/08

bookshelves: 2008, chick-bookclub

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Capitu by: chicklit.com bookclub

Wide Sargasso Sea was such a pleasant surprise. It was a bookclub choice from an internet forum I enjoy, and I picked it up without much knowledge of what it was about, other than the notorious Jane Eyre connection. Fan fiction is a much older concept than many of us had previously considered. But, calling it fanfiction is too narrow a definition.
Jean Rhys novella – it is quite a short book – wrestles with the human necessity of belonging, and the dire cost of not belonging. The l...more Wide Sargasso Sea was such a pleasant surprise. It was a bookclub choice from an internet forum I enjoy, and I picked it up without much knowledge of what it was about, other than the notorious Jane Eyre connection. Fan fiction is a much older concept than many of us had previously considered. But, calling it fanfiction is too narrow a definition.
Jean Rhys novella – it is quite a short book – wrestles with the human necessity of belonging, and the dire cost of not belonging. The luxuriant vegetation and climate of the Caribbean, the economic turmoil brought up by the abolition of slavery, and the distrust between European and Creole, white and black in a time ripe with revenge from past wrongs is all brought together as we follow “Antoinette/Bertha” from childhood to marriage, madness and death.
In a strange coincidence, I read “Bury the Chains”, by Adam Hochschild just a few weeks ago. In this account of the civil movement to abolish slavery in the British Empire, a few chapters are devoted to the atrocities perpetrated by slave owners in the Caribbean. And so, I read with even more interest about the relationship between former slave owners and the newly freed population.
Jean Rhys was born in the island of Dominica 60 years after the time when the events in the book take place, but her descriptions carry such depth and understanding that I can only wonder that distress must have permeated all interaction between the two communities for many generations to follow – how could it be any different after all?
But, this book is not only about the relationship dynamics within the islanders. It makes us question madness, cultural crash, colonization, machismo, sexuality and fear of sexuality, superstitions…
I did feel torn between 4 or 5 stars, because as beautiful as the prose is, the sequence of events left me feeling lost a couple of times. I had to turn back a few pages, wondering that I must had skipped a page or two, just to find out that the narration had “jumped”. But, I wonder, in a book where the characters are going mad, could the narrative be simple and linear? Also, the third part of the book – Bertha locked in an attic in England – seemed a bit contrived. It makes me speculate how the book would be like without the Jane Eyre connection. Would it had been a stronger book if we followed this character without the knowledge of where she was heading? At the end I decided on the 5 stars because its small shortcomings - if I can call them that - were greatly overshadowed by its strengths, and because it is a book that will remain with me for a long time…
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Jessica rated it:

05/29/07

bookshelves: 1001, bookclub, fiction

Read in July, 2002

I have read several books over the past year that were inspired by or offered different viewpoints on other books and stories. These included "The Red Tent", "Wicked", "The Hours", and most recently "Wide Sargasso Sea." I have enjoyed reading all of them and love seeing new perspectives on classic tales. "Wide Sargasso Sea" is Jean Rhys' take on Bronte's "Jane Eyre". However, instead of focusing on Jane Eyre, Ryhs instead turns the lens...more I have read several books over the past year that were inspired by or offered different viewpoints on other books and stories. These included "The Red Tent", "Wicked", "The Hours", and most recently "Wide Sargasso Sea." I have enjoyed reading all of them and love seeing new perspectives on classic tales. "Wide Sargasso Sea" is Jean Rhys' take on Bronte's "Jane Eyre". However, instead of focusing on Jane Eyre, Ryhs instead turns the lens onto the life of Bertha, the mad woman who is locked in the attic of Mr. Rochester's house. The story takes place in Jamaica and Dominica in the mid-1800's. It is a time of unrest between the English colonizers, the recently freed slaves, and the Creoles. Antoinette Cosway (Bertha) is the Creole daughter of former slave owners and an heiress. Rhys relays Antoinette's lonely childhood and her misfortunes with friendship and love. Antoinette's family arranges a marriage for her with a young English gentleman, Mr. Rochester. The book sheds a new, completely different light on the character of Mr. Rochester than what we saw in "Jane Eyre".
"Wide Sargasso Sea" is narrated in several different voices including Antoinette and Mr. Rochester. These voices switch throughout the novel with little warning. Some may find this hard to follow. The novel also creates a great sense of place. Rhys does an excellent job of evoking the hot, humid atmosphere of the Caribbean.

"Wide Sargasso Sea" was a recent selection in my book group. We enjoyed discussing it while dining on Caribbean fare. The discussion focused on topics such as colonialism, rich vs. poor, slavery, love, and of course madness. This was a good book for a discussion group since there were many themes to cover and also since it was inspired by "Jane Eyre", the group could also compare both books. I read the Norton Critical Edition of "Wide Sargasso Sea" which contained footnotes and an Appendix of essays and articles written about the book. The footnotes helped to deepen my understanding of the book since there were many references (literary and otherwise) that I may've missed.

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Laura rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

12/05/07

While doing some research on fan fiction, I came upon a comment that while it is widely derided as non-literary work, there does exist recognized literary writing that is, in essence, fan fiction. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys was one of these examples.

The story is that of Antoinette Cosway, also known as Bertha Mason. If you think you’ve heard that name before, Bertha is the mad wife in the attic from Jane Eyre. Rhys tells Antoinette’s story from her childhood in Jamaica to her hasty m...more

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Doria rated it:

(review of isbn 0393960129)

04/26/08

Read in April, 2008

I've just started reading this book, which I've been wanting to read for so long. I'm very excited about this particular edition, because it has footnotes (I LOVE books with footnotes, I'm such a nerd) and all sorts of interesting historical details about the author and the setting (Jamaica, Dominica, Caribbean). Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to read this one!!

Okay, I just finished it yesterday - wow, what a fast read! I was surprised by how short it was, and yet how much it contai...more

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Ginnie rated it:

(review of isbn 0393960129)

05/16/08

bookshelves: fiction, women

Few books have affected me this deeply. It is a very moving account of Antoinette/Bertha's spiral into madness. As a reader you become absorbed; feel her pain as she realises that happiness will always elude her. You really do not have to have read Jane Eyre, in order to enjoy this but having it in your reading memory will give Wide Sargasso Sea an added dimension. Bronte does not give a voice to the mad woman in the attic, leaving us little possibility to understand her. Rhys give...more

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T.J. rated it:

05/13/08

bookshelves: colonial-post-colonial, mo-shelf

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: post-colonial scholars, angry people of color, Bronte-fans

Dear God, what an audacious and inconsistent book. It takes some bold spirit to write a prequel to [Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, but Dominican author Jean Rhys takes a strike at it. What you end up with is a novel that definitely bears the imprint of the post-colonialism that was wildly popular in 1966, but still has striking relevance in ...more

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Alison rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

01/27/08

bookshelves: alltime100novel, contemporaryfiction, modernlibrary100best

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: anyone interested in West Indies culture/politics; Jane Eyreites

This is a must-read for anyone who's read and enjoyed "Jane Eyre." It's the story of Bertha...Mr. Rochester's first wife. This short novel (around 100 pages) is divided into three parts.

Part I tells the story of Bertha's childhood in the West Indies from her own point of view. It outlines her relationship to her mother, her few aquaintances, and her homeland.

Part II is from the point of view of Bertha's new husband (an unnamed Mr. Rochester) and details his reaction to dis...more

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Siria rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

04/26/08

bookshelves: 20th-century, british-fiction, historical-fiction

Read in October, 2004

I greatly enjoyed Wide Sargasso Sea. There is the draw of looking at what is, essentially, a piece of published fanfiction (one which was written in response to the colonialism and racism which Rhys saw in Brontë's text), but even leaving that aside, it is a very well-written piece of work. Her prose is lush and descriptive, without ever becoming overly florid, and I thought she used first person POV remarkably well. Plenty of insight into the characters, but always the reminder that the...more

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leighcia rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

01/30/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in January, 2008

I was drawn to this book when I heard about its premise—it is about Bertha, the crazy wife of Mr. Rochester who is held captive in the attic in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The novel explores her life in the Carribean and her subsequent existence in England, as a way of uncovering untold narratives. As fascinating the premise was, the book was disappointing. The prose was very lyrical, with a dreamy and dazed tone, which made it beautiful but also very confusing to follow. Despite the stren...more

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Sera rated it:

03/05/08

bookshelves: literary-fiction

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Sera by: RGBC
recommends it for: People who have read Jane Eyre

This review is a difficult one for me, because I thought that the book was "ok", but once I realized when it had been written, I gained more appreciation for it. The book reads as contemporary literature and reminds me of books that have been published more recently.

The story itself moved a little slowly for me, even though the overall book was short. For those of you who aren't familiar, the story is about how Mr. Rochester and Bertha from Jane Eyre met and became married. The...more

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Thu rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

06/25/08

bookshelves: fiction

This book may not be ideal for people who idolized the original novel as little girls and wanted to read a fan-fiction about how Rochester met his first wife. Of course, if you belong in this category you could still definitely enjoy this well-written book, but keep your mind open and don't expect the writing to resemble Bronte's.

I've never read Jane Eyre, so the complete effect may have been lost on me, but this novel still made a great impression on me. Wide Sargasso Sea isn't really a cri...more

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Gail rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

04/07/08

Read in April, 2008

And now for something completely different...
At first I disliked this book intensely because it wasn't what I thought it was. I'd built up some sort of idea that the book was a close reworking of "Jane Eyre".
Well.
It isn't, and I was ticked (can you say immmature?) because I was surprised and felt let down. In my anal way, I didn't just pitch the book, but kept on reading, and I'm mightily glad that I did.
"Wide Sargasso Sea" is a great book about life in the Caribbe...more

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Tegan rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

04/02/08

bookshelves: school

Read in March, 2008

This book was just gorgeous. Sadly, I must admit that I haven't read Jane Eyre, but I know the story well enough (There was a summer when my mom became obsessed with the book and watched every movie version of it ever made.) and I definitely am interested in reading it after this novel. The writing style is a bit difficult to get into, but after a while the words began to flow beautifully and I just fell into the story. The imagery was very vivid and intense. Watching how completely Rochester ...more

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Jacey rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

09/28/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in September, 2007

The story of the mad woman in the attic from jane eyre. A lovely story with gorgeous settings and lyrical language. however, being a lover of jane eyre, it was a little hard to wrap my head around, another side of the same story but not in the same way wicked is. It was also a bit hard for me to get into it because I knew the ending already (having read Jane eyre) and her ending is not pretty. Sometimes this works for stories -- like star wars, right? knowing the ending made the firs...more

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Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0140274219)

10/18/07

bookshelves: booksofthepast

recommends it for: people who enjoy elaboration on minor characters

This book is an elaboration on the character of Bertha, the first wife on Mr. Rochester in the novel "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. Set in Jamaica and ripe with metaphors of colonialism and gender-based oppression, this novel breathes life into the character that "Jane Eyre" readers know only as a madwoman in the attic. It forces readers of both (and even those who haven't read "Jane Eyre" but are familiar with the story) to question the information they are giv...more

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