Scan barcode
A review by blackest_eyes
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
3.0
This is a novel that I really enjoyed while reading, but then upon finishing was retrospectively more critical of.
Rhys' beautiful descriptions and blending of reality with magic and ghost tales creates a rich, vivid scene that it is easy to get lost in.
Filled with madness, unreliable narrators and secrets, it's an easy story to romanticise and has many very quotable lines. However, this novel keeps secrets not only from its characters, but also from the reader. Part One is told from Antoinette's (our protagonist, later to become Jane Eyre's Mrs Rochester) perspective as a child, so the sense of mystery and unanswered questions are fitting, but by the end of the novel when they still haven't been answered, it comes to feel convoluted. Characters are introduced during Antoinette's time in a convent who seem to be important but are then forgotten, whereas Sandi, a black man who Antoinette is rumoured by many to have had an affair with and who she later confirms to have loved, is only actually present in one very small scene. I actually forgot who the character was and it makes it seem quite bizarre that by the end of the novel this affair is supposedly a big part of the breakdown of Antoinette's marriage to Mr. Rochester and, consequently, her sanity. It feels thrown in rather than developed. The same can be said for much of Antoinette's madness. I enjoyed the foreshadowing role played by her mother, with Antoinette mirroring much of the behaviour that frightened her in her mother, but the climax is so sudden.
There are many conflicting voices around what drove Antoinette to madness - was it hereditary, was it Christophine's (a black servant who has been with her since birth and is regarded as a witch) spells, or Mr. Rochester's distrust of her and his own affair? I like how the characters disagree on what the cause was, but the beauty of this is lost when Antoinette seems to switch from troubled but strong to raving mad in the course of one page.
I couldn't make up my mind on Mr. Rochester, just as he himself seems very unclear on the events of his marriage. At times he speaks very fondly of Antoinette and reflects happily on much of their time, but is just as quick to say he never loved or felt any fondness for her. Even in her madness, he swears to do his best by her and wishes to show her how gentle he can be, but this quickly also turns to hate and is not reflected by his locking her in the attic of his England home. For the voice of sanity in the novel, his narrative is surprisingly confused.
It is implied throughout that there is a secret or some kind of haunting around the estate, but this secret is never revealed.
I did enjoy the novel overall and I think it is beautifully written, but I'm not sure how much justice it did Mrs. Rochester, nor does it always feel as if the novel itself knows what secrets it is claiming to have.
Rhys' beautiful descriptions and blending of reality with magic and ghost tales creates a rich, vivid scene that it is easy to get lost in.
Filled with madness, unreliable narrators and secrets, it's an easy story to romanticise and has many very quotable lines. However, this novel keeps secrets not only from its characters, but also from the reader. Part One is told from Antoinette's (our protagonist, later to become Jane Eyre's Mrs Rochester) perspective as a child, so the sense of mystery and unanswered questions are fitting, but by the end of the novel when they still haven't been answered, it comes to feel convoluted. Characters are introduced during Antoinette's time in a convent who seem to be important but are then forgotten, whereas Sandi, a black man who Antoinette is rumoured by many to have had an affair with and who she later confirms to have loved, is only actually present in one very small scene. I actually forgot who the character was and it makes it seem quite bizarre that by the end of the novel this affair is supposedly a big part of the breakdown of Antoinette's marriage to Mr. Rochester and, consequently, her sanity. It feels thrown in rather than developed. The same can be said for much of Antoinette's madness. I enjoyed the foreshadowing role played by her mother, with Antoinette mirroring much of the behaviour that frightened her in her mother, but the climax is so sudden.
There are many conflicting voices around what drove Antoinette to madness - was it hereditary, was it Christophine's (a black servant who has been with her since birth and is regarded as a witch) spells, or Mr. Rochester's distrust of her and his own affair? I like how the characters disagree on what the cause was, but the beauty of this is lost when Antoinette seems to switch from troubled but strong to raving mad in the course of one page.
I couldn't make up my mind on Mr. Rochester, just as he himself seems very unclear on the events of his marriage. At times he speaks very fondly of Antoinette and reflects happily on much of their time, but is just as quick to say he never loved or felt any fondness for her. Even in her madness, he swears to do his best by her and wishes to show her how gentle he can be, but this quickly also turns to hate and is not reflected by his locking her in the attic of his England home. For the voice of sanity in the novel, his narrative is surprisingly confused.
It is implied throughout that there is a secret or some kind of haunting around the estate, but this secret is never revealed.
I did enjoy the novel overall and I think it is beautifully written, but I'm not sure how much justice it did Mrs. Rochester, nor does it always feel as if the novel itself knows what secrets it is claiming to have.