![]() ![]() It's a brief, but stunning tale (much more than just a pre-quel to "Jane Eyre) that manages to touch on everything from the consequences of slavery, to the crushing force of social conventions and even the effects of climate upon character. It's certainly one of the great historical novels, given its lush, unsettling evocation of the early 19th century in the West Indies, constrasting the physical splendor with the human squalor, but it's also one of the best "studies" of repressed sexuality I've ever read. Perhaps it was best to wait, since I'm not sure an eighteen-year-old could fully appreciate the novel's piercing beauty and emotional resonance. This book was recommended to me in 1970, and I finally read it in 2000. May it be discovered for generations to come. I agree with those who have placed this work on this lists of great novels. ![]() "Wide Sargasso Sea" is a great work of art, not only for its beautiful language and compelling story, but for its penetration of repression and rationality. Although originally unaware of the novel's recent accolades, I was bowled over by this remarkable work. This is no mere political commentary of cardboard dramatists: this is a work of literature, all the more haunting because the characters are so believable. Rhys has not taken a cheap shot at Eurocentric masculinist culture. Each voice in fact humanizes: this is a book about paradigmatic collisions and the legacy of violence. Contrary the remarks of other reviewers, Rochester is not a "pig" until he falls into his own kind of madness: Rhys is straightforward and even sympathetic with the Englishman's ethics and perspective. The narrative, which changes between the minds of Rochester and Antoinette, is deeply fair to both. And what of this mad world he despises? It is the seething confusion of enslavement and empire: the black magic and savagery Rochester fears are products of his own elite brand of Englishness. He can scarcely fathom a world which resists his ideas about rationality, and poses its own rejoinders. ![]() Rochester is a man of reason and masculinity: things are to be known, owned, measured, and governed. The tale becomes nightmarish, though, as Rhys masterfully overlays the confused rationalism of Rochester, the jungle of Jamaica, the troubled youth of Antoinette, and the maddening backdrop of newly outlawed slavery. The book is beautiful and haunting from start to finish. The "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys is well-deserving of its newfound stature. But when I began reading the book, it was clear that I had stumbled upon something of great value. To me, it was only a dusty book on the library shelf. I came upon this book raw: I didn't know anything about it, didn't know of its fame, did not know that it has become canonical. ![]()
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