Scan barcode
mariebrunelm's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I don't read a lot of classics. School has clearly put me off reading them, and I don't see why I would relate more to a book written a hundred years ago than one written ten years ago. Yet from time to time I'm intrigued, like with Wide Sargasso Sea, which retells the story of Bertha, Mr Rochester's first wife in Jane Eyre.
First of all, the introduction to this book was really well written and helped me make the most of my reading by highlighting a few important themes and setting the scene. It helped me because I have to admit I struggled a bit with the narration to begin with. It feels very much like a dream - I didn't always knew where or when I was, or what was happening. But there was a beauty to the language, and a life, that kept me going. Jean Rhys was from Dominica, and she drew from her culture elements of language which makes the whole prose sing, even though I didn't find it always easy to grasp. As a result, I felt a little detached from the story, but at the same time I felt how necessary it was. This is clearly about flawed and unreliable narrators (we get the story from a few different characters's points of view) trapped in a flawed and unsatisfying relationship.
Rep: white Creole main character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Colonisation
Moderate: Confinement and Toxic relationship
Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Death of parent
loxeletters's review against another edition
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Alcohol
Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent
Minor: Animal death
kclark's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Mental illness and Abandonment
malloryfitz's review against another edition
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Infidelity
caribbeangirlreading's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
You have most probably read the coming-of-age story about the second Mrs. Rochester, Jane Eyre. But have you ever stopped to think about the first Mrs. Rochester? Who was she? What is her story? And, more importantly, was she really mad? In the original 19th century classic, Bertha Mason, the mad woman in the attic, was just a plot device. In Wide Sargasso Sea, however, Jean Rhys gives her life in this short but powerful novella that acts as a prequel, and post-colonial response, to Jane Eyre.
Bertha Mason (nee Antoinette Cosway) was born in Jamaica to a British father and a Creole mother of French descent. The novel opens with Antoinette describing her childhood, and the social and political reality of Jamaica at the time – the racial violence following emancipation, the disgust bordering on hatred that the British-born society had toward whites born in the Caribbean, the trauma she endured as a child following her father’s death. We then meet the young man to whom Antoinette is married off. (We assume he is Mr. Rochester, but he is never named.) We see the demise of an arranged marriage that barely took flight, and the decline of Antoinette’s mental health. And in between, we are treated to descriptions of the lush tropical setting by an author, who unlike Mr. Rochester, loved the Caribbean.
For a book that is only 177 pages long, WSS packs quite a punch. It tackles, among other themes, post-colonialism and British Victorian attitudes towards women and mental illness. As soon as I finished WSS, I ran to re-read the passages in Jane Eyre in which Jane and Mr. Rochester describe Bertha Mason and I will never again look at Jane Eyre as a strictly coming-of-age Victorian feminist novel. There is so much I didn’t see that I now do, which is exactly what Jean Rhys wanted us to do.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Child death, Death, Suicide, and Forced institutionalization
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Colonisation
ejb44's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Wide Sargossa Sea by Jean Rhys is an adaption of Charlotte Bronte’s infamous Jane Eyre, cantering itself on the ‘mad wife’ of Rochester. Through the little information readers were given regarding this character, Rhys managed to extrapolate it and create a backstory for this character, adding a postcolonial and feminist feel to the somewhat outdated narrative that is Jane Eyre.
As a feminist and colonial historian, I was dying to read this book. I think the way Bronte dealt with mental illness in the book was expected for the time but obviously slightly negative and victim-blaming, again, understandably. The thought that Rhys might be able to spin the narrative on its head and give the ‘mad wife’, named Antoinette (and Bertha) in Rhys’ adaption, the perspective and respect she deserved. Sadly, I think the book failed to deliver exactly what the book aimed for.
Firstly, the writing style is rather jarring, and I can’t seem to pinpoint why – it’s not colloquial, but its also not a smooth reading experience. It was often really difficult to figure out what was being said, and in the first 20 to 30% there was a multitude of characters introduced which confused me even more. It’s a shame because I think this is one of the main failings of the book as it feels like there’s a wall between the authors intentions and the reader.
To add to this, the book didn’t deliver in what it said it would be – a postcolonial and feminist adaption. Perhaps because Rhys had to have her ending tied to what happens in Jane Eyre, it still didn’t feel like the mental health aspect was fully explored – we find out her mum was driven to madness because of the loss of her land and her son and then Antoinette seems to go mad within a matter of pages towards the end. This was a huge let down for me because I don’t think Antoinette ever really gains the appreciation she should.
Following on from this, the way Rochester is written allows for more sympathy towards his character, which isn’t necessarily a bad point, but when paired with the fact that Antoinette’s mental healthy is never really fully fleshed out and explored in a way that makes the reader figure out what has happened to her rapidly declining mental health, the readers might find themselves sympathising with Rochester instead of Antoinette, whom in my eyes is the main orchestrator of her madness. Ultimately, because Rochester agrees to return to England with Antoinette, which by this point he is repeatedly calling her Bertha, her dead mothers name, we see him as not that bad of a guy because he would rather, she come back with him then leave her with an obeah, someone who engages in spiritual practice, either for evil or good. This just reinforces our idea that he isn’t too bad of a person. Also, when Rhys hints that he cheated on Rochester during her marriage, it all feels like an amalgamation to reduce Antoinette reliability as a character.
The one thing I did love about the book was the Rashomon Effect, or the questioning of reliability amongst the characters. The fact that we hear from both Rochester’s and Antoinette perspective allows the reader to come to their own conclusions, even though it feels like Rhys has a strong hand in our views of the characters. This ‘unreliable narrator’ aspect was by far the most intriguing aspect of the book because it covered the span of the book and was actually fully formed.
Overall, I think if you read Jane Eyre this might be an interesting short read just to see how culturally impactful the book is 200 years later, and the ever-growing shift in the importance of discussing mental health and marrying someone of a different country and culture to you. However, I think the writing let the book down massively, and the ending that I didn’t feel too comfortable with damped the overall experience.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation
manarnia's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book was a very confusing and challenging read, but I appreciated the perspectives that it offered.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Moderate: Ableism, Death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Slavery
Minor: Blood and Death of parent
More...