Wide Sargasso Sea By Jean Rhys

Sonoma Curated Books hosted their first movie/book discussion event focused on Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Those who have enjoyed this classic novel over many decades are well familiar with the main characters, Jane, the penniless orphan under the employ of Mr. Rochester, the aloof, brusque, isolated English gentleman living with a secret torment later revealed in the book. And then there is Bertha.

Key to the entire story, Bertha is an unsettling surprise. She is one to be pitied, feared by some, deemed “crazy” by others, threatening others’ lives by her mere existence, and then some.

When I first read Jane Eyre years ago, I was left with so many questions about poor Bertha. What happened to her to cause her current state and situation? What horrors and tragedies has she faced to be molded into what she has become? What is her story?

Years after I first read Jane Eyre, I discovered a book that reveals a remarkable narrative shedding light on Bertha’s life and circumstances and her unintended influence on the main characters of Jane Eyre. This book is Wide Sargasso Sea, first published in 1966.

Some may refer to this book as a prequel to Jane Eyre, but is so much more, and it is not merely a slapped-together answer to a lingering question. A book that can certainly stand on its own, it is set in Jamaica, Dominica (an island in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean Sea) and England between 1839 and 1845, a turbulent time in the island nations. Steeped in colonialism, Caribbean culture, race, the emancipation of slaves, changing power relations, and sexual power, we learn about a young “white Creole” woman named Antoinette, her life, her struggles and ultimate destiny. She knows Bertha and her story well and you will learn her story too.

Written by Jean Rhys, herself a “white Creole”, Wide Sargasso Sea is a fascinating look at a different world and provides some revealing answers to long-standing questions. There are interesting parallels between Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre to stimulate group discussions. I highly recommend this intelligent book.

Review submitted by Patricia Wilder