Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea

1966 • 189 pages

Ratings95

Average rating3.4

15

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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Popular Reviews

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April 3, 2023

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.

October 12, 2018
February 18, 2023

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