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I mislaid Fahrenheit 451, so I have read Wide Sargasso Sea. Bewitching book - I thought as I wasn't a Jane Eyre fan, that this would fall flat for me. Au contraire - Jean Rhys' descriptions conjure not only the Jamaican landscape, but the decline of the western colonial rule and the tensions between the indigenous population and the white Creole. Displaced and conflicted, the culture has an impact upon the already-established fragility of Antoinette's family and their weakened mental state. It is told in three parts via Antoinette, her new, unnamed husband (who is presumed to be Rochester) and the eventual return to England.
It is but an imagined prequel; it could be argued that Bronte's Jane Eyre is a Gothic novel, the Wide Sargasso Sea could be seen as a post modern portrayal of a much-maligned woman's life from a wholly different angle. Countless Literary Theory documents have been written about this, mostly fem-lib, but it is an interesting plot twist on an old story. Well worth the read - I will resume Fahrenheit 451 (recently reclaimed from a pile of office junk).
