From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys

Start date: May 1, 2015

Finish date: May 15, 2015

Discussion: Classics Corner

Discussion leader: Deborah

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What Members Thought

Jan 21, 2008 Rosana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, chick-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 luxuriant veget 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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Feb 11, 2018 Happyreader rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A tale of the karmic aftermath of slavery. Antoinette’s family loses its fortune after emancipation. Everyone is awaiting reparations. When it never officially appears, all seek to extract their due by any means necessary, from stealing a dress to marrying for fortune to blackmail. Antoinette’s only moments of serenity are being hidden away in a convent. She's exploited by all including her step-brother who gives her and her inheritance away with no settlement for her to a British second son who ...more

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Aug 27, 2010 Laura rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, read-2010, audio-books, victorians

Fresh from England, Rochester weds Creole heiress Antoinette and takes her to Dominica. Read by Adam Godley.

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Mar 12, 2009 Kathy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: x-feb-09-thru-jan-10, read-non-mystery-fiction

Having read The Eyre Affair (q. v.), and already familiar with Jane Eyre, I felt compelled to venture into Rhys' "biography" of the first Mrs. Rochester. I do enjoy these behind-the-scenes explorations, like Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Gildenstern..., and the inclusion of several critical essays in this edition gave the novel additional depth that I surely would have missed. ...more

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Mar 14, 2008 Marian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

There are probably people who read "Jane Eyre" & don't wonder about the first Mrs. Rochester. Is she really mad? What happened to her?
Wide Sargasso Sea gives an explaination, which is logical, in its way, but for me it was very hard to connect the lost woman of Wide Sargasso Sea with the mysterious Bertha. Even the setting, the lush tropics have little connection to England's cold & damp. It still seems like 2 different people, but a good story, none the less. ...more

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Dec 17, 2007 Anna rated it liked it · review of another edition

Well, it shows what little I knew about this novella...I thought it was a full-blown novel! Turns out over half the book was criticism and excerpts from Jane Eyre.

The book was good. I definitely would not consider it great or well developed. I wanted to see more into her mind toward the end and I felt as if it just ended.

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