Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys REVIEW
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- čas přidán 15. 05. 2020
- The "all novels are sequels" quote from Chabon comes from the very end of his essay "Fan Fictions: On Sherlock Holmes," collected in Maps & Legends.
Jonathan Lethem's "The Ecstasy of Influence:"
harpers.org/archive/2007/02/t...
The first passage I read in the review appears early in Part II, page 58 in the clothbound Penguin Classics edition I'm waving around, and goes:
"Her mind was already made up. Some romantic novel, a stray remark never forgotten, a sketch, a picture, a song, a waltz, some note of music, and her ideas were fixed. About England and about Europe. I could not change them and probably nothing would. Reality might disconcert her, bewilder her, hurt her, but it would not be reality. It would be only a mistake, a misfortune, a wrong path taken, her fixed ideas would never change.
Nothing that I told her influenced her at all."
The second passage comes from the last pages of Part II, page 111 in my edition:
"I was tired of these people. I disliked their laughter and their tears, their flattery and envy, conceit and deceit. And I hated the place.
I hated the mountains and the hills, the rivers and the rain. I hated the sunsets of whatever colour, I hated its beauty and its magic and the secret I would never know. I hated its indifference and the cruelty which was part of its loveliness. About all I hated her. For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it.
US readers, buy Wide Sargasso Sea on IndieBound (yep I'm an affiliate):
www.indiebound.org/book/97803...
UK & other European readers, buy it on Blackwell's (also an affiliate):
blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/pro...
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Wide Sargasso Sea is one of the most beautifully, magically written texts I’ve read. I loved the character, Christophine, who embodies the spiritual belief of Obeah in Caribbean culture. I also love how she distrusted Rochester from the very beginning lol. Excellent story. Jean Rhys hated the way Rochester’s first wife was portrayed in Jane Eyre and sought to dignify her by cultivating such a narrative. Absolute must read!
I read Wide Sargasso Sea without knowing the story of Jane Eyre and I just loved it. It's so fascinating the way Rhys depicts how a person can be driven into madness! And poor Antoinette, she suffers so much. It can be read independently from Jane Eyre. However, after WSS I, watched one of Jane Eyre's films and once you know both narratives, you just cannot disattach them. I found this quite interesting.
Finished devouring Wide Sargasso Sea last night. I'll read it again at some point. Such a hypnotic narrative. Now I'm going to have to read Jane Eyre.
I finished this novel just a few hours before you posted this review. Rad coincidence. Long time viewer. Got tiny Roger Mexico whiffs from Antoinette, as I just read GR with your help. 'Say die and I will die. You don't believe me? Then try, try, say die and watch me die!' Knowing the happiness will end, the 'lover' will soon abandon. Enjoyed this book without having read Jane Eyre. Thanks for all the content.
"just beyond his comprehension." Mr. Rochester was shown to be a man who could not bend, who could not live beyond the box. Great review.
What I also find interesting about Wide Sargasso Sea is the fact that after reading it (for me, at least), I find it hard to separate the story from Jane Eyre, and vice versa. So, in a way, the happy ending of Jane Eyre has been tainted for me, since every time I think back to the book, Rhys's version of Rochester comes back to haunt me and I realize he is, in fact, quite a horrible person.
This is not to say it's a bad book, or people shouldn't read it. I think it's an amazing novel but if you love Jane Eyre, read it at your own risk.
My thought was that the connection to Jane Eyre was a "twist", that you were supposed to be jolted by that realisation later in the book. Of course it is difficult to approach the novel without that knowledge these days. The other thought about Wide Sargasso Sea and all Jean Rhys's books is how autobiographical they are. In fact her unfinished biography reads like her novels in both style and subject matter. She seems to be an author whose story is particularly intimately bound up with her writing. It's always about her.
I read Jane Eyre for the first time recently and Wide Sargasso Sea right afterwards :)
I just finished reading Wide Sargasso Sea for my book group and thoroughly enjoyed it! I have not read Jane Eyre but knew WSS was crafted as a prequel for Bertha’s/Antoinette’s story. I’m curious, based on your mention, which other characters besides Antoinette and Rochester appear in Jane Eyre. Thanks for your insight & review!
Part 3 of WWS is essentially a re-write of part of Jane Eyre, so all of the characters in that part are in Jane Eyre - Grace Pool, Richard Mason, Leah and Mrs. Eff aka Mrs. Fairfax. Mr. Mason Sr. and the real Bertha are also briefly mentioned by Mr. Rochester when he tells the story of his marriage
@@collicou Excellent! Thank you for the information!
while it reads as a prequel, I think it's actually a sequel. You should read Jane Eyre first, because you'll have so much greater appreciation of WSS if you know where it's going from the start. It's so much more nuanced than the source work, which was really just kind of a juvenile novel. I can imagine reading this first would make you pretty disappointed with the original, but I can't say because I read Jane Eyre in my teens and this book last week. Thanks for the review!
Great review!
Recently finished reading it. Going by the other comments - I seem to be in the minority in coming to this book not from Jane Eyre, but from doing a bit of a deep dive into how the Sargasso Sea is potrayed in different texts lol
I’m very interested in your question about reading WSS first. Like most people I read JE first, and I didn’t enjoy WSS because I was disturbed by the instances when it doesn’t match JE. I think WSS would have been better on its own. They are very different. I haven’t read JE for about 40 years so I think I will try WSS again.
It casts Mr Rochester in a different light. In Jane Eyre I thought that he really thought he was doing the most humane thing by keeping Antoinette in his attic rather than committing her to an asylum, which were notoriously cruel back in those days. But in WSS it becomes evident that it was his cruel treatment of her from the beginning that caused her madness.
thank you for this review, i subscribed, you captivated my attention so thank you. I would've appreciated a move broader overview of the characters and your thoughts on them however this is a review and not a full on analysis. thanks, regardless.
Fine discussion Mattia, hope you're staying safe, cool and collected in these crazy times.
Thanks man :) I hope you are well too!
It broke my heart and i started hating Rochester and after reading Jane Eyre I even hated Jane but not until bbc world’s article I understood why it is like this I thought both book were related 😜😋
I admit it: I read Jane Eyre just to read this one :D
Thanks for this review
I liked this book better than "Jane Eyre"; I'm probably one of the few people who read Charlotte Bronte's most famous novel and wasn't charmed by it. I never liked Rochester, and was hoping Jane would choose the clergyman instead.
Rochester is, actually, really terrible (although I found the clergyman really awful too :P )
@@TheBookchemistCome to think of it, Jane would have been better of without either one of them.
@@luciafalce9478 women’s choices were limited at the time. Jane could have stayed single, and kept working as a governess. But she would never have a house of her own and would be something of an object of pity or ridicule, as an old spinster governess.
@@luciafalce9478 So, certainly, would have been Antoinette from the get-go.
1:07 Most of Coetzee fits this mold as well.
I just read it before Jane eyre. Stands up great on its own for the first two parts but once they get back to England it becomes harder to understand the nuisance and deeper meanings. But before you get a great novel about cultural disconnect, effects of racism and slavery, and more.
Rochester could also be reflecting his relationship with Antoinette. I do agree that hate could come from a lack of understanding, however he does become somewhat comfortable with the setting before he read the letter concerning Antoinette. Only from there she became unattractive.
I had to read this book for uni and I really did not like it lol: idk just the way the story is told, the story etc... I preferred Jane Eyre which I absolutely loved.
I had to read it at university too, after already having read Jane Eyre. I love both novels, in different ways. It was fascinating the way WSS shifted my view of Jane Eyre. It’s like the ground moving under your feet, simply by viewing the same story through someone else’s eyes. A great lesson for life in general as well as literature. I also loved the sensuality and imagery of WSS.
@@sopyleecrypt6899 Well said.
Jane Eyre is slightly silly and melodramatic, she just happened to end up with her cousins.
Really great review of the work. I've just uploaded a first impressions look at the first 50% which may be of interest (czcams.com/video/hJzYVOx_rtk/video.html). Thanks again for your excellent review. Do let me know if you'd like to share any of your thoughts to part 2.
Post modern?
No thanks. I’m out.