Wide Sargasso Sea
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| First edition cover | |
| Author | Jean Rhys |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Postmodern Novel |
| Publisher | Deutsch (UK) & W. W. Norton (USA) |
| Released | October 1966 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 192 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-233-95866-5 (first edition, hardback) |
Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 novel, by Jean Rhys, which acts as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's famous 1847 novel Jane Eyre. It is clearly the story of the first Mrs. Rochester, Antoinette (Bertha) Mason, but the name Rochester does not appear in the book.
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[edit] Plot summary
The novel is set a short while after the emancipation of the slaves in British-owned Jamaica. The protagonist Antoinette conveys the story of her life from childhood to her arranged marriage to Mr. Rochester. As she realizes that Mr. Rochester does not love her, Antoinette (whom he renames Bertha) descends into madness. The novel ends in England, with Bertha's fateful decision to burn down the estate and jump off the roof.
[edit] Major themes
Wide Sargasso Sea is usually taught as a postmodern and postcolonial response to Jane Eyre [1],[2]. One particularly postmodern innovation is the use of multiple voices (Antoinette's and Mr. Rochester's) to tell the story; another is the novel's dense intertextual relationship to Jane Eyre. In addition, Rhys makes a postcolonial argument when she ties Mr. Rochester's eventual rejection of Antoinette to her Creole heritage (a large factor in Antoinette's descent into madness). As postmodern and postcolonial literature have taken a greater place in university curricula, the novel has been taught to literature students more and more in recent years.
[edit] Awards and nominations
It won the WH Smith Literary Award in 1967, which brought Rhys to public attention after decades of obscurity. It was also named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923 [3].
[edit] Film and television adaptations
- 2006: Wide Sargasso Sea, directed by Brendan Maher and starring Rebecca Hall as Antoinette.
- 1993: Wide Sargasso Sea, directed by John Duigan and starring Karina Lombard and Nathaniel Parker.
