Wide Sargasso Sea

I always had a feeling that I am missing something in Jane Eyre and I have never liked reading Jane Eyre that much JANE EYRE SPOILER BEWARE mostly Rochester and Jane's relationship, along with the lack of clarification of Bertha's actual circumstances but reading this made many things super clear not to mention the racial dynamics among former slave traders and recently liberated coloured people and how Racism and slavery made both of these miserable is different sense
3.75/5

OK, I was disappointed. This was a profound description of a descent into madness - or was it a growing into ones inheritance of madness or was it an Obeah curse? Mr. Rochester's first wife's tale is told in an inherently confusing set of dialogues. Confusing, because the characters speaking are named only sporadically and the threads of identity are easily confused. The character of the 'mad' wife in Jane Eyre was well developed, to the exclusion of all the others. This was, perhaps the most disappointing component of the book for me. I wanted to see Christophine and Rochester as more than 2 dimensional props, at the very least.

I've read Jane Eyre but did so as a senior in high school, which was more or less a million years ago. I remember enough of it to be useful, but I don't think it would be necessary to have read it to understand this book. Perhaps Part III would have been a bit more confusing, but it was written as a disoriented state anyway so perhaps not.

I actually quite liked the writing in this. It was lyrical and as beautiful yet wild as the place in which our story takes place.

I left this feeling a little feverish, as if I had accompanied this descent into madness. The difference is that I felt no lust towards Mr. Rochester. Instead my blood boiled with contempt for him. There could be a deeper meaning to this where I would be somewhat sympathizing with him, but I can't bring myself to do it. Not now. Maybe not ever.

I do know that if I went back and read Jane Eyre again now, my view would be tainted. Probably better to avoid doing that.

I'm glad to be out of that world. I think I was suffocating.

3.5 Stars

Picked this up at a Little Free Library and was finally inspired to read it after finishing the Upstairs Wife (a modern reinterpretation of Jane Eyre, far more entertaining but less ambitious than this). Wide Sargasso Sea is the backstory behind Rochester’s wife Bertha, the madwoman in the attic. Told in first person stream of consciousness it follows Bertha/Antoinette from her childhood, to the early days of her marriage to Rochester (told from both of their points of view) to a short third part taking place in the attic in England. The stream of consciousness makes it very hard to follow - likely deliberately so - added to which the narration is highly unreliable. The result is a thought-provoking but challenging to read exercise.