Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

[meg-reads]

"Brilliant. A tale of dislocation and dispossession, which Rhys writes with a kind of romantic cynicism, desperate and pungent" - The Times

Did you love Jane Eyre? Did you hate Jane Eyre but loved the crazy wife? If either of these are true, Wide Sargasso Sea is a good read for you!

I would give Wide Sargasso Sea 3/5 stars. It took some time to decide whether to give the book a 3 or 4 out of 5 rating, but I’ll tell you why I chose the lesser.

This 150 (or so) page novel is the story of Antoinette Cosway (AKA Bertha Mason), a young woman living in 1830s Jamaica. The novel begins when Antoinette is a child. It is written from Antoinette’s perspective, but in the third person (which becomes troublesome later!). Antoinette’s parents are ex-slave owners, and the Emancipation Act has recently passed - so you can guess that they aren’t the most favoured family in Jamaica. Antoinette’s father has died and her mother has married Mr. Mason.

I don’t want to ruin any of the plot for you, so I will just say that some crazy stuff happens and Antoinette’s mom goes insane (surprise, surprise - if you’ve read Jane Eyre). Antoinette is sent away to live in a convent as her mother does not take care of her. When Antoinette is seventeen, Mr. Mason stops by to tell her that some friends of his from England will be visiting and he hopes to present Antoinette as an eligible bachelorette. However, Antoinette has been having some weird dreams (probably the most interesting part of the novel) that make her fear for her future.

Anyways she gets married, of course, to Rochester (but we never actually see his name in the book). Then, the story is told from Rochester’s perspective which is okay because basically the big conflict about Jane Eyre is that there are two sides to every story but we never hear Bertha’s… If Wide Sargasso Sea did the same thing, it would be sort of hypocritical… that’s what I’m going to go with. Anyways, Rochester starts telling his side and basically he hates Jamaica. He hates that he was “tricked” into marrying Antoinette and he’s ready to go back to England. The narrative sort of switches back and forth from Antoinette’s perspective to Rochester’s which becomes a little bit difficult to follow.

I personally think Antoinette is crazy even in this novel, but some people disagree - I guess you’ll have to see for yourself. Rochester is kind of annoyed with his new wife because she acts childish and she bores him. However, he is very possessive and does not want to leave her behind in Jamaica when he returns to England.

It all comes together SO PERFECTLY at the end. I absolutely love the ending of this story after reading Jane Eyre. So great.

Over-all, a good read - finished it very quickly - there are just some writing techniques, etc. that I wish were different. Don’t be discouraged by my mediocre rating, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who has read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre!

[daniya__shah3]

I have read both the books and they are absolutely amazing. There are some critical comments which compelled me to read Wide Sargasso Sea. The one which describes Bertha as Jane's 'truest darkest double' is what urged me to read it. Definitely worth reading.