Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3747 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-30
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended.
This is a morose, but beautifully written novel. Definitely lives up to expectations. I read it through twice for full appreciation, and recommend this idea to others. I rate this 6 stars!

Dark and Delicious
This is a macabre book with a true sense of gothicism to it. I first read it as a teenager after being blown away by Jane Eyre, and hated it. Its difference from Bronte's writing and its harsh treatment of Rochester didn't sit well with me at all. Having had to read it again as part of a course recently I have to say I wasn't relishing the experience, but how wrong I was. Reading it again, with no expectation of kinship with Bronte made such a difference. This is a brilliant book, densely layered, symbolic and evocative of the tropical landscape, madness and imprisonment. It has some of the wonderful internal dialogue moments of Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, swooping through the narrative and Rhys' eye for detail and dialogue is superb. Its brooding menace is chilling and the use of imagery is stupendous. A fantastic book.

Had to read it
...for a course. I wouldn't of picked this book otherwise. I am glad we had to read it though as it introduced me to an interesting book that I wouldn't have read otherwise.
I'm not saying it is the best and most enjoying book that I have ever read but it was very interesting and well written and really worth reading.