Wide Sargasso Sea
Ratings77
Average rating3.4
Jean Rhys's reputation was made upon publication of this passionate and heartbreaking novel, in which she brings into the light one of citsion's most mysterious characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre".
A sensual and protected young woman, the narrator grows up in the lush, natural world of the Caribbean. She is sold into marriage to the cold-hearted and prideful Rochester, who succumbs to his need for money and his lust. Yet he will make her pay for her ancestors' sins of slaveholding, excessive drinking and nihilistic despair by enslaving her as a prisoner in his bleak British home.
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This is the story of “Bertha”, Rochester's wife in [b:Jane Eyre 10210 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557343311l/10210.SY75.jpg 2977639]. It helps to have read Jane Eyre first.This is painful. Horribly painful. I have to say that I didn't like Rochester much in Jane Eyre. Now I hate him. I feel sort of bad for Jane, but I believe she is good enough to stand up to that POS.
For the Read Harder “A book of colonial or postcolonial literature” category. So much packed into a small novel–symbolism, hate, history. The introduction by Edwidge Danticat is terrific and helpful.
It was more of a standalone piece when solely looking into the lines of this book. It was purely about colonialism, racism, and perhaps even about feminism in the early days, being shaded as madness. But the whole thing is flat, and the language is just so, making the narrative seemingly so bland and lack of colour in the sense which not much sentiment could be aroused, as so did the independency of women simmered down under the light of the societal background. This makes the book completely unpalpable to me.
