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Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys

Start date: May 1, 2015

Finish date: May 15, 2015

Discussion: Classics Corner

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What Members Thought

Apr 19, 2008 Inder rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2008, women, 1001-books, colonial-postcolonial, summer-reading, 20th-century, fiction, caribbean

*** This review contains spoilers for the book Jane Eyre, and because Wide Sargasso Sea is based on Jane Eyre, there are some spoilers for this book as well. However, I imagine that most readers, like me, know the basic premise of both books before they start reading. Thus, I am not hiding my review.***

Haunting and lovely and very dark. A troubling book about passion, obsession, lust, and deep loneliness, written by a woman who ought to know. This is "Caribbean gothic," and gorgeously done. Howe *** This review contains spoilers for the book Jane Eyre, and because Wide Sargasso Sea is based on Jane Eyre, there are some spoilers for this book as well. However, I imagine that most readers, like me, know the basic premise of both books before they start reading. Thus, I am not hiding my review.***

Haunting and lovely and very dark. A troubling book about passion, obsession, lust, and deep loneliness, written by a woman who ought to know. This is "Caribbean gothic," and gorgeously done. However (and this may sound cold, but the best part of this book is the intellectual experiment), I was more interested by the political/historical aspect of the novel ...

This should be required reading for anyone who has read (and especially, like me - loved) Jane Eyre. And to a lesser extent, for all lovers of 19th century English literature.

I have read Jane Eyre at least twice, and I have always had mixed feelings about Mr. Rochester and his mad wife in the attic. I could never completely trust Mr. Rochester, who is not only extremely grumpy and authoritarian, but shuts his wife up in the attic while seducing Jane as well as some rich girl, and then knowingly commits bigamy ... Not exactly great husband material, right?

Also, who isn't disturbed by Bronte's easy equation between "creole" and "insane"? Implicitly, the humanity of the mad woman in the attic can be dismissed, because she is alien, uncivilized, and "other." It's downright creepy, even if taken at face value (but especially when read in connection with St. John's missionary zeal).

Jane is such a feminist character, but her choice of husand belies deeply internalized patriarchy - she goes for a man who, at best, is deeply troubled and needs to be taken care of, nurtured, and soothed like a petulant child, and at worst, is an untrustworthy and controlling megalomaniac. The novel's "happy" ending never felt that happy to me. Don't get me wrong - I love the novel all the more for that dark and ambivalent ending. But it's disturbing.

Wide Sargasso Sea attempts to grapple with the questions about colonialism and patriarchy that Jane Eyre never fully addresses, skillfully exposing the dark underbelly of 19th century English prosperity and power. In this way, it is a necessary companion to all my favorite gothic and Victorian British novels, as well as being a beautiful novel in its own right.

Through this novel, the subaltern woman, firmly outside the hegemonic power systems of her day, driven to insanity and reduced to arson and suicide, literally speaks. ...more

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Jun 21, 2009 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novella, nanoreadmo-2013, around-the-world, location-jamaica, speed-date-3, read2013, location-dominica, modern-library-100-best-novels

When I read the description of this book, I misunderstood what it would be. I thought this was going to take the ideas of Jane Eyre and plop them down into the Caribbean. I didn't know how it would work, but this is far more intricate than that. This is the story of how the mad woman in Jane Eyre gets there, and it starts on two islands right as the emancipation of slaves.

I think of the Caribbean as warm, friendly, and beautiful. In the first part of the novella (of three), Antoinette is in her ...more

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Aug 24, 2011 Robert rated it liked it

Well, I thought it was a nicely written book for what it was. It's a slim volume and a quick read. I found the style effective for the character and setting, albeit not altogether aligned with my personal taste. The narrative is carried forward in three sections of first person voice. Antoinette Cosway, the "madwoman in the attic" in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" is the main character, and it is her voice in the first and third sections. Mr. Rochester's voice carries the middle section, but the ...more

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Apr 07, 2008 Gail rated it liked it · review of another edition

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 Caribbean, relations between the ra ...more

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Aug 07, 2008 Joe Mossa rated it liked it · review of another edition

this book is listed as one of the best 100 of the 20th century by random house. i was collecting this list. got to 88 and got discouraged cause there were so many i didn t like especially anything by henry james. i can t remember what SEA is about. i do remember that my daughter bought it for me as a present . i will read other reviews to see if i remember what it is about. i may re read it. i have been known to do that.

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Feb 22, 2008 Kecia rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, times_100_best

Was this a dream or book? The story of Mr. Rochester's first wife is a dreamy tale of colonialism and reminded me in many way of Doris Lessing's The Grass is Singing. Do all women in colonial cultures find unhappiness in marriage and go mad???

I loved Rhys' use of language and flow was like a dreamy day on a Carribean beach. Her language worked for the creole people but when she tried to tell Mr. Rochester's side of the story using the same flow it did not hold up for me.

Overall it's a lovely s ...more

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Sep 03, 2007 Dottie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, 1967-1997, classic-addendas, 1001-read, 2008

While I normally find much more to dislike than to like about books written to extend either fore or aft a classic -- Wide Sargasso Sea and its connection with Jane Eyre are spot on in my opinion. I think the setting and the connections are well-woven into a whole with those of Bronte's classic work. At the same time this book stand on its own quite well -- plenty of action and angst and a well-laid out story.

Just finished a re-read 18FEB2008. ...more

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