Wide Sargasso Sea in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jun 30, 2020 Jennifer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, owned

This book had been on my shelves for years before I finally picked it up for the Read Caribbean challenge. I expected it to be heartbreaking, part of why I kept putting it off, but I didn't know the half of it. I am not sure if I can ever read Jane Eyre again. When I finished this I sat there feeling like my heart had been ripped from my chest, so it was difficult to have the distance to think more critically about it. Given a little more distance, I remain impressed by the richness of the writi ...more

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Mar 04, 2011 jenn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, 1001

This book didn't ruin Jane Eyre for me, because Charlotte Bronte ruined Jane Eyre for me. But anyone who isn't effing traumatized and turned off by the fact that Rochester has his mentally ill wife imprisoned in an attic while pursuing a teenager perhaps deserves to have the original ruined.

Yeah, I said it.

So why only three stars? Well, it's pretty inscrutable. And, sorry to have an emotional reading, but, it kinda sucks that Antionette/Bertha is straight-up crazy. There are reasons for that, o ...more

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May 01, 2011 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Wide Sargasso Sea invents a history for the woman in the attic in Jane Eyre, and it was an interesting and enjoyable take. I wasn't completely sold on the way the story kept changing voices between Antoinette and Mr. Rochester, though. Worth reading for taking a minor and easily hated character and turning her into someone human and sympathetic even in her later destructive actions. ...more

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Jun 28, 2018 Richard rated it liked it

This book was lovely, but I don’t think I really appreciated it. I should come back to it later. I really appreciated the Jane Eyre connections, but I was expecting a little more of an emotional ride. I felt like I was supposed to sympathize a lot more with Antoinette, but I had a hard time following her thinking and motivations. I don’t think I was supposed to feel so much for Rochester, but I did. I think it will be a good plane reread sometime in the future.

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Oct 02, 2010 Shayla rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bbc-book-club

I read this after reading Jane Eyre and this book is Rhys interpreation of Bertha and Rochester's point of view.

I was intersted in Bertha's backstory, when I learned she was a Creole, and had had a mad mother. But I didn't feel like I heard enough from Bertha. Part one and part three are in Bertha's voice, but so much of part two, which is the bulk of the novel, is not in her voice!

And I felt more mystery surrounded her than before I read the book. ...more

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Mar 27, 2008 Rae rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: other-fiction

Set in Jamaica during the 1830s, this novel tells the story of Antoinette Cosway aka Bertha Mason, a Creole heiress and the mad Mrs. Rochester from Bronte's Jane Eyre...her childhood and how she came to marry the young Englishman. The last portion of the book takes place in the attic of Thornfield Hall, just before she burns the house down.

The book is earthy, with masterful depictions of the vibrant and sensual Caribbean landscape. It is partly the contrast between Jamaica and England that lead ...more

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