Wide Sargasso Sea (Norton Paperback Fiction)

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and profound
Review: This book is one of the most beautifully written works I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Jean Rhys transforms the words to experience. It's almost as if the reader is able to smell the island flowers, feel the breeze, hear the sounds. Not only is the writing superb, but the message is profound, drawing paralells between the subjection of women and colonialization which leave the reader thinking long after the reading is complete.

Rating:
Summary: An exposure
Review: this book is truly an exposure to the mad woman's character in Jane Eyre. An enjoyable work and truly Rhy's greatest contribution to readers of Jane Eyre.

Rating:
Summary: A tale of dispossession and dislocation
Review: This brilliant novel primarily deals with contradictions and ambiguity. Written as a prelude to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Jean Rhys creates an identity for the otherwise shadowy figure of Bertha Mason, (Rochester's mad creole wife), through Antoinette a beautiful lonely Creole woman. Wide Sargasso Sea deals with contradictions and not just with feminist "rag issues" as other reviewers suggest, rather tending to deal with gender reversal. Christophine the freed black slave from another Caribbean Island, is a strong female character who displays masculine traits standing up to the bullying unnamed Englishman, (Rochester) who tries to use oppressive colonialist tactics to control the inhabitants of an exotic Island which cannot be controlled. Both are wild and unruly compared to his staid English persona, something which he cannot relate to. Antoinette is the weak female figure who is finally destroyed by the Enlgishman, driven to madness, through a combination of his desire for her and his distate and hate for everything that she represents. An intriguing tale full of ambiguity Wide Sargasso Sea is a sad tale of disposession and dislocation.

Rating:
Summary: A.P Should make us read more books this great
Review: This is the first book I have had to read for Senior A.P English, and I couldn't have been happier. This book is the sequel to Jane Eyre. The reader gets to hear of Bertha's story, whom they meet in Jane Eyre. The book has a slower narrative pace, yet it continously flows. The novel is a quick read and well-written.