“Wide Sargasso Sea: A Novel” by Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso Sea: A Novel by Jean Rhys is a lovely tale all on its own though it also serves as a prequel to Bronte's Jane Eyre.
Rhys relays the story of the first Mrs. Rochester, poor Antoinette, married off by a step-brother to a cold-hearted man who gladly assumes ownership of her wealth and her heart, caring only for the former and breaking the latter before moving her away from her sunny Jamaica to dreary England. By the time she sets fire to the mansion, you'll be rooting for her; I was.
“"A considerable tour de force by any standard."―?New York Times Book Review
Jean Rhys's reputation was made upon the publication of this passionate and heartbreaking novel, in which she brings into the light one of fiction's most mysterious characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Set in the Caribbean, its heroine is Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Rochester. In this best-selling novel, Rhys portrays a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind” (Amazon).
