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Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by Jean Rhys (Author) "They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did ..." (more)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Customers buy this book with Jane Eyre (Wordsworth Classics) by Charlotte Bronte

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Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (30 Mar 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141182857
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141182858
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,175 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > R > Rhys, Jean
    #3 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Literary Studies > 20th Century
    #3 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Novels & Novelists > 20th Century

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Product Description

Product Description

Jean Rhys's late, literary masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea was inspired by Charlotte Brontë'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.


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 '20s. After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie was written in 1930. Her early novels, often portraying women as underdogs out to exploit their sexualities, were ahead of their time and only modestly successful. From 1939 onwards she lived reclusively, and was largely forgotten when she made a sensational comeback with Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966. She died in 1979.
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They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonder if Jane and Rochester ever lived happily ever after?, 9 Feb 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)
'Wide Sargasso Sea' tells the story that 'Jane Eyre' omitted to tell - that of Rochester's first marriage to a beautiful and sensual but 'mentally unstable' Creole woman. Finally Bertha (or Antoinette as she is known here)has been given a voice to tell her side; no longer is she the mad wife forever confined to the attic. Rhys uses the tale of one woman's corruption by her misguided husband to emphasis the forgotten consequences of colonialism. The gap that exists between Antoinette and Rochester is as wide as the ocean that lies between their respective homelands. Rhys has purposely set the action a little earlier than it should logically take place, presumably to incorporate the end of slavery in the islands. Antoinette is the embodiment of the ambiguous position faced by the Creole population after the Emancipation Act. 'Wide Sargasso Sea' rescues both Antoinette from her attic imprisonment and her past from its obscurity.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Creole side of Mrs Rochester, 21 Sep 2003
Jean Rhys at her best and written in the darkest hours of her life. Drawn from experiences from own her past in the West Indies as a child, she assembles the last jigsaw pieces of the mystery of Mrs Rochester from Jane Eyre, by describing the road that led to her madness. Where did she come from?
In turn this makes each book not only stand alone favourite reads, but compliment each other in such a way that is perfect to the story construction of each book. Jean Rhys has the ability to draw the reader into the construct of the characters emotions, and at the same time feel the vivid shapes of the surrounding settings, with her evocative descriptions of the lushness and isolation of the Creole lifestyle at the turn of the century.
If you are at all interested in Jean Rhys and live in London I would throughly recommend seeing the play "After Mrs Rochester" which is drawn heavily from this book. Great stuff.
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50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving, 25 May 2001
By A Customer
Antoinette, like most of Jean Rhys's other female characters, is a woman that hovers between two worlds: black and white, English coldness and tropical warmth,sanity (accepted behaviour) and madness. Although given a poignant voice, she is helpless because she doesn't know how to use it. She goes mad insofar as madness is silencing her voice and retreating more and more inside herself - and letting others speak for her. She is the perfect victim, as she doesn't distinguish the boundary between love and madness anymore. Unlike Bertha Mason in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, to which I think this novel is an answer, this woman has loved deeply and has suffered a great deal on account of that love through no fault of hers. Madness is the result of prolonged emotional distress, and comes as the only outcome when she ceases struggling against her bleak reality and can't face it anymore. Having read this book after Jane Eyre, I can't help but feel that at least Antoinette had the chance to have the voice she never had in Charlotte Bronte's novel. At last, the story told on the silenced madwoman's point of view!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Prequel to Jane Eyre
'Wide Sargasso Sea' is basically a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre' which tells the madwoman in the attic's story. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Katherine Radcliff

5.0 out of 5 stars It grows on you - give it a chance and you will be rewarded
Read it once, quickly, as you may an 'ordinary' novel and you might struggle to finish it, at best maybe give it three stars. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Cardiff Reader

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth a try for curious readers
'Jane Eyre' is probably one of my favourite novels of all time, and when a family member lent me this prequel, I was quick to devour it. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Nicola Jarvis

5.0 out of 5 stars 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. Read more
Published 22 months ago by LJW

5.0 out of 5 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. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley

3.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more
Published on 30 Jan 2007 by M. C. Batson

4.0 out of 5 stars What sort of fellow keeps his wife locked up?
The recent BBC adaptation of 'Jane Eyre', and the accompanying one-off adaptation of this novel, should help to bring Rhys's most well-known work to a new audience. Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2006 by Ichabod J

3.0 out of 5 stars A good short read
An interesting prequel to Jane Eyre. Very short, telling the story of the woman in the attic. Not brilliant, but not bad either. Worth reading but don't expect great things.
Published on 30 Jul 2006 by Cee-Gee

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my all-time favourite novels
This is a short, passionate book re-telling the story of Antoinette, the first Mrs Rochester from Jane Eyre. Read more
Published on 29 Jul 2006 by Roman Clodia

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful companion to Jane Eyre
Having read Jane Eyre for GCSE English, I was intrigued to hear of another novel detailing the life of Bertha, the "mad woman in the attic" of Bronte's novel. Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2006 by ruthie_uk2001

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