Pros: Well writte, good characterization, good ending, etc.
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: An incredibly worthwhile novel that will have the reader glued to the pages and will satisfy fans of Jane Eyre by recreating, not rehashing, a beloved classic.
countess_eva's Full Review: Jean Rhys and Charlotte Bronte - Wide Sargasso Sea...
Many an author and ardent bibliophile has been intrigued by the brooding gothic tone of Charlotte Bronte’s immortal Jane Eyre, most especially Jean Rhys who dedicated twenty-one years to make the prefect prequel concentrating on the mad Jamaican pyromaniac in Thornfield’s gloomy attic. Having been anthologized, movie-ized, criticized, and rampantly overanalyzed, Wide Sargasso Sea has become a testament to the Jane Eyre fan-fictioncult and, finally accepted as a modern classic itself. Of course, a reading of Wide Sargasso Sea cannot commence without a great deal of rumination on the original classic that started it all, and with this immortal predecessor to live up to, Rhys does a surprisingly captivating job of retaining Bronte’s original tone while adding a little magical something of her own.
Filled with the saucy sounds of the Caribbean and the racial and gender conflicts of colonial days, Rhys transports the reader into the mind of Bertha, a woman who will later become the mad denizen of Rochester’s grim mansion. Growing up Creole, watching the devastating aftermath of colonialism, and the fall of her family from power and wealth to hard times, Bertha becomes a victim of an “arranged marriage” with a grim Englishman, Rochester, who discovers himself encumbered with an unwanted wife due to family obligations. Strife ignites, as fans of Bronte’s work know, and Rhys takes a presumably predictable outcome and adds some surprising character twists taking a pre-existing drama and truly making it her own creation.
So many elements of Wide Sargasso Sea stand out as complimentary, yet separate, from Jane Eyre that it is hard to know where to begin. Months after having practically ingested the tale, the gothic tone flavored by the almost mystical aura of the Caribbean and heaps of ominous foreboding leap out painting lush pictures of island intrigue in my imagination. The language mirrors Bronte’s own style of descriptive tension overlapped, but not overpowered, by wordy adjectives and an almost Bram Stoker-like diction. Rhys respects Bronte’s powerful language, and emulates it satisfactorily yet still manages to make the tone something uniquely her own.
What remains distinctly separate from Jane Eyre is the presentation of Rochester. The empathetic, put upon, brooding romantic male figure from Bronte’s world, is a veritable monster in Wide Sargasso Sea for whom the reader develops a lasting loathing. Fans of Jane Eyre, however, will note that Rhys is careful in her presentation of Rochester to route his evil actions in previously established character facts. In an essence, she makes the character shift from misguided to malevolent actually work while still maintaining an objective, humanizing view of a man that she has just categorized as a monster. In other words, Rhys gets away with it and, in so doing, makes the concept her own creation drawing fans of Jane Eyre into a new side of a treasured character.
Likewise, Bertha, the mad wife in the attic, is fleshed out nicely, taking a woman who was a villain in Jane Eyre and making her into an empathetic protagonist. Bertha, backed by her voodoo practicing servant Christophine, remains lost yet hopeful in her new marriage. Deeply in love with Rochester, Bertha seeks to do everything possible to make herself into the perfect English wife, but tides of evil she cannot understand soon engulf her and Rhys presents her emotions in such a visceral, viable manner that the reader cannot help but become enmeshed in what can only be described as a tear-jerking narrative. Just as emotionally unsettling and viscerally impacting as Jane Eyre, Rhys keeps the gothic tone of despair continually running throughout her prequel and, in so doing, dramatically sets up a conclusion to die, or go mad, for.
Of course, fans of Bronte, know exactly how Wide Sargasso Sea will end, yet Rhys manages to keep the suspense and the tension of an excellently crafted, multi-layered plot going full speed ahead making up for a predictable ending by delivering an unpredictable, heart wrenching, emotionally tumultuous showdown between Rochester and Bertha. Readers who exulted in the strife of Jane Eyre will enjoy that satisfyingly miserable conclusion of Wide Sargasso Sea and will, no doubt, consume just as many Kleenex boxes as they did at the conclusion of Jane Eyre.
Ah, yes, but what of those poor unfortunates who have not yet indulged in Bronte’s Jane Eyre? Actually, they too will be able to follow the tale and perhaps enjoy it even more since the necessarily predictable conclusion will not be predictable to them. I managed to read this book aloud to my parents, neither of whom has yet read Jane Eyre, and they both became riveted by the storyline and the continual atmosphere of the macabre. It is certainly a rare prequel that can please both long-time fans and new audiences.
And yes, here comes the annoying portion of the review, the ubiquitous “note on edition” section that pedantic reviewers like myself feel necessary to include when reviewing classics. I have the Norton Critical Edition and, for those of you out there who like books with extra stuff, it has the following sections:
Illustrations
Preface
The actually text (with Introduction by Francis Wyndham)
Backgrounds (on the cultural and the history of the Caribbean and important scenes/sequences/themes from Jane Eyre)
Criticisms
Jean Rhys: A Chronology
So, basically, tons of useless crap that most readers won’t even glance at. I was forced to read some of this since my professor assigned this wonderful tale and then ruined my euphoria by making me read cynical critics that saw only the mechanical side or, even worse, the psyco-social, psyco-sexual, psyco-babble critics who, as far as I was concerned, were purely interpolating rubbish not in the text to make themselves seem relevant. However, on the good side, this edition does include footnotes throughout the text that help to clear up Creole phrases and other confusing historical/political references, and therefore makes the ridiculously overpriced Norton edition worth it. Mainly though, this edition just looks nice on my shelf.
Overall, an incredibly worthwhile novel that will have the reader glued to the pages far into the early AM’s and will satisfy fans of Jane Eyre by recreating, not rehashing, a beloved classic. Non-fans will also enjoy the dramatic emotionalism and the exotic locale. Unequivocally recommended.
A sensual and protected young woman, Antoinette Cosway grows up in the lush, natural world of the Caribbean. She is sold into marriage to the coldhear...More at HotBookSale
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