Wide Sargasso Sea (Bloomsbury Classic) (Textplus) (Penguin Student Editions)

by Jean Rhys

Andrea Ashworth (Introduction)

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'

'Rhys took one of the works of genius of the 19th Century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the 20th Century' Michele Roberts

Jean Rhys's masterpiece tells the story of Jane Eyre's 'madwoman in the attic', Bertha Rochester.

Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another novel's heroine. This classic study of betrayal, a seminal work of postcolonial literature, is Jean Rhys's brief, beautiful masterpiece.

Edited with an introduction and notes by Angela Smith

• ISBN10: 0141182857
• ISBN13: 9780141182858
• Publish Date: 30 March 2000 (first published October 1966)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 192
• Language: English

Reviews

[kerrydarkeyes]

An intriguing glimpse into the mind of Jane Eyre's "Bertha" - but at points I felt lost by the narration, which was appropriate for Antoinetta's perspective, as her mind fractures further and further, but even in Rochester's POV, some of the dialogue or references made me work harder than I expected to try and understand what was being said or happening. Still, worth the read and confirms Rochester as a real piece of shit.

[brokentune]

I put off reading Wide Sargasso Sea because all the reviews I read – mostly before joining GR – only focused on this book being a prequel to Jane Eyre, and I was afraid this might be another piece of fan fiction.
Man, was I wrong!

I’m not sure if knowing the story of Jane E. actually helps reading this book. It might help with the ending - if you don't like cliffhangers, that is.

WSS does work perfectly well as a stand-alone book. I thought the connection with Jane Eyre enabled Rhys to focus on the characters and develop the atmosphere and emotional development of Antoinette and Mr. Rochester rather than having to spend much time on developing a captivating plot. And the creation of an atmosphere is what Rhys manages - in a way not dissimilar to Daphne DuMaurier - perfectly. It drew me right into the story.

There also is one observation about Wide Sargasso Sea I just can't get out of my mind: The use of alcohol - in what seems to be quite large amounts - as a sedative for the troubled minds of both Antoinette and Rochester seems to be ubiquitous, and I cannot help but wonder if this was a description of Rhys' own coping mechanisms that led to her alcoholism.