Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Student Editions) [Paperback]

Jean Rhys (Author), Hilary Jenkins (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Penguin Student Editions | Publication Date: November 2006

Jean Rhys' late, literary masterpiece "Wide Sargasso Sea" was inspired by Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and is set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent sensuality and beauty. After their marriage the rumours begin, poisoning her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is driven towards madness.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jean Rhys was born in Dominica in 1894. Coming to England aged 16, she drifted into various jobs before starting to write in Paris in the late 1920's. QUARTET was first published as 'Postures' in 1928. Her novels, often portraying women as underdogsout to exploit their sexualities, were ahead of their time and only modestly successful. From 1939 she lived reclusively, and was largely forgotten when she made a sensational comeback with 'Wide Sargasso Sea' in 1966. She died in 1979.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books, Limited (UK) (November 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140818030
• ISBN-13: 978-0140818031
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, October 24, 2005

By 

Nancy (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Student Editions) (Paperback)

Wide Sargasso Sea is the prequel to Jane Eyre, following Antoinette Cosway from childhood to her marriage to Rochester. They don't care for each other, but must accept the match, Rochester because he has no other prospects, and Antoinette because her family has a history of madness and Rochester doesn't know the stories.

The book itself is very different from Jane Eyre. It begins from Antoinette's point of view, focusing heavily on Antoinette's mother, a troubled--eventually insane--widow. Then perspective shifts to Rochester and his preoccupied young wife, Antoinette.

Anyone who has read Jane Eyre (and probably many others besides) will know what's coming, and this contributes to the spooky tone of the book. Antoinette from her own perspective feels so justified and normal, but from Rochester's she is oddly detached and her behavior grows to mirror her mother's eerily. The book keeps you thinking long after the ending...it's one of the most amazing things I've ever read. Please, please read it.

18 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting tale...but what does this have to do with "Jane Eyre"?, August 7, 2008

By 

Green Gal (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Student Editions) (Paperback)

I've been reading the book reviews, many of which are glowing beyond measure...and I can respect the author's past and why she felt so strongly about writing this novel. In and of itself, the Wide Sargasso Sea story, while incredibly depressing, and not altogether perfect, is interesting on several levels (historically, women's issues, Creole women's issues, etc.). Indeed, the latest film version is well acted especially by the heroine, and you do like her, feel sorry for her and wonder why she's thought mad, since she doesn't seem at all insane.

But I have to ask: Have any of these people actually READ the Jane Eyre novel? Because if they had, they'd see that this author, who's chosen to write her book based on the classic, doesn't even keep to the specific details in the book, about Rochester, about Bertha Mason, about her family--mother, brother, etc. Antoinette is certainly not the crude, loose, bad-tempered, whorish, insane, mean and nasty character she's described in Jane Eyre. In Sargasso Sea, Rochester is portrayed as a thoroughly nasty, mean, selfish brute, while in the original, Jane Eyre, despite all his faults, he's actually likeable and lovable and has a heart. I realize there are some diehards out there who love Sargasso Sea, but it is such a different tale, and doesn't bother even to conform to the details described in Jane Eyre, that it seems morally wrong to attach itself to the Jane Eyre novel, which is one of hope, love, redemption, and yes, even humor at times. I felt insulted that this novel could claim to be the prequel to Jane Eyre. It's a story, alright, but I don't think it's the one that would have preceded Jane Eyre. Don't believe me? Re-read (or even read) Jane Eyre.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterful work is spellbinding, October 21, 2008

By 

Quickhappy "quickhappy" (Big city, big country) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Student Editions) (Paperback)

I came upon this book raw: I didn't know anything about it, didn't know of its fame, did not know that it has become canonical. To me, it was only a dusty book on the library shelf. But when I began reading the book, it was clear that I had stumbled upon something of great value.

The "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys is well-deserving of its newfound stature. The book is beautiful and haunting from start to finish. It is dreamlike in its tone. The tale becomes nightmarish, though, as Rhys masterfully overlays the confused rationalism of Rochester, the jungle of Jamaica, the troubled youth of Antoinette, and the maddening backdrop of newly outlawed slavery.

Rochester is a man of reason and masculinity: things are to be known, owned, measured, and governed. He can scarcely fathom a world which resists his ideas about rationality, and poses its own rejoinders. And what of this mad world he despises? It is the seething confusion of enslavement and empire: the black magic and savagery Rochester fears are products of his own elite brand of Englishness.

The narrative, which changes between the minds of Rochester and Antoinette, is deeply fair to both. Contrary the remarks of other reviewers, Rochester is not a "pig" until he falls into his own kind of madness: Rhys is straightforward and even sympathetic with the Englishman's ethics and perspective. Each voice in fact humanizes: this is a book about paradigmatic collisions and the legacy of violence. Rhys has not taken a cheap shot at Eurocentric masculinist culture. This is no mere political commentary of cardboard dramatists: this is a work of literature, all the more haunting because the characters are so believable.

Although originally unaware of the novel's recent accolades, I was bowled over by this remarkable work. "Wide Sargasso Sea" is a great work of art, not only for its beautiful language and compelling story, but for its penetration of repression and rationality. I agree with those who have placed this work on this lists of great novels. May it be discovered for generations to come.