Haunting look at the story behind the mad woman in the attic in Jane Eyre. Beautifully written. ( )

I had no idea that this novel had anything to do with Jane Eyre. **If you've never read Jane Eyre and are planning to, you might want to stop reading here. **I happened to see it the other day at the library and picked it up. So here we go.

Wide Sargasso Sea imagines the background of "Bertha" the first wife of Rochester from Jane Eyre. It's supposed to clear up the mystery of why she ending up being the crazy lady in the attic.

And I say "supposed" because it didn't really clear up anything to me. At the end of the book, I still feel that "Bertha" a.k.a. Antoinette Cosway, the wealthy Creole girl from the Caribbean, is still such a mystery.

Let's be honest. I didn't really like this book. Classic literature it may be but here's why I had problems with it.

1) Rochester doesn't really seem like the Rochester from Jane Eyre. That said, if he's supposed to come off as an evil man who enslaves her in his attic....it kind of failed. You could see where he seemed just as stuck in having to marry her as she was to him. And there was no logical reason for him to start calling her "Bertha", it was out of character, and it just bugged me. (A large portion in the middle of the book is written from Rochester's perspective. I DID like that.)

2) The book jacket made it seem as if she had no choice in marrying him. As if against her will she was forced. But I didn't really see that in the book either. I couldn't really see WHY she had to marry him or why she did.

3) She remains a complete mystery. If she's supposed to be strong-willed, I don't see it. If she was supposed to be an innocent who was manipulated, I don't see it. I'm just not sure where the author was wanting to take this character.

4) The characters were confusing, the writing was confusing...I'll just leave it at that.

What I did like about this book:

1) The very beginning is very vivid. It's the part where Antoinette is a child, growing up as a Creole without a father, and the social changes that happen on the island where she lives. I'd tag this as "classic" just from that small section. Then the book just goes down-hill from there.

2) In a weird way, I could never get a picture of what Antoinette looked like. Maybe it was purposeful since Antoinette was caught between worlds, not fitting into either one. I thought that was a really powerful writing tool she used.

3) I did like the parallel between Jane's upbringing and Antoinette's. Lots of similarities.

4) Jean Rhys. I am kind of fascinated about the author herself. I'd love to read a book just on her. ( )

I don't know from Jane Eyre, but Wide Sargasso Sea is a gorgeous dream of a short novel. I was most impressed by Rhys' ability to evoke the sensual details of the island setting using concise language. Rhys manages to immerse the reader in the post-colonial Caribbean setting without resorting to wordy descriptions. Comparable to a David Lynch flick. ( )

This was a wonderful book, a deceptively simple narrative that holds a remarkable complexity within its few words. The book operates on many levels -- beginning, most obviously perhaps, with its transformation of characters from Jane Eyre. Essentially a prequel to Bronte's novel, Wide Sargasso Sea gives us Bronte's characters in an unflinching, postmodern light, stripped of sentimentality and endowed with all the depth and contradictoriness of realism.

The postcolonial world Rhys presents is powerfully reminiscent of Edward P. Jones's The Known World: in both novels, slavery is a complex phenomenon linked to both class and race. The relations between Antoinette and Mr. Rochester embody those of the colonialized and the colonizer, as Rochester's initial consuming passion for Antoinette subverts itself into a poisonous state of incomprehension, suspicion, and mental and physical domination. ( )

I have long admired Jean Rhys' novel, for the voice she gives to 'Bertha', the madwoman in the attic in Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre'. As Antoinette Cosway, a creole heiress from the Windward Islands, the literary device becomes a vibrant, beautiful character, adding a fresh perspective to the original story. How successful Rhys is probably depends on the reader's awareness of the original Rochester in 'Jane Eyre', although it is possible to read this brief narrative as a stand-alone piece.

The language, particularly in the first half of the book about Antoinette's childhood in a decaying paradise, is poetic and and sensual, based on Rhys' own heritage. The colours and aromas bring the exotic location to life, and create a world far apart from England and Thornfield. Antoinette's deceased father was a slave owner, and her troubled mother the daughter of a slave owner - old money on the islands, and mistrusted by the newly emancipated islanders. Both women are left behind in the faded glory of their station, with only a handful of 'faithful' servants as family. Rhys' description of the poverty, confusion and antagonism of this old world is very evocative, and the strongest part of the story.

Merging new characters with old once again proves unsatisfying, though. Rochester is allowed a say in the middle of what should be Antoinette's story, and although his voice is distinct from hers, his introspection is far from convincing or necessary. His role is to explain the marriage between a creole and an Englishman - her money - and why he brought his mad bride with him to England, but the abstract introspection he lapses into makes Rochester sound just as unbalanced as 'Bertha'. If Rhys had spent more time building Antoinette's character - her lack of identity, the fear that she might suffer a breakdown like her mother, her relationship with Christophine and the other servants - and less trying to work in Charlotte Bronte's creations, then there would be no need to make such comparisons at all. ( )