A prequel to Jane Eyre, it tells the story of how Rochester's first wife went mad.  This book sucked.  I can not imagine how it made the Top 100.  Maybe it's just such a chick book that it's inexplicable to men.

If you liked Wide Sargasso Sea, please leave this website.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (F-) Orrin C. Judd

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Jean Rhys Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Jean Rhys
    -ESSAY: Jean Rhys’ Women on the Margins: On the Perpetual Resonance of Voyage in the Dark: Imogen Crimp on the Intersection of Ambition, Power, Gender and Money (Imogen Crimp, February 8, 2022, LitHub)
    -REVIEW: of I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys By Miranda Seymour (CLAUDIA FITZHERBERT, Literary Review)
    -REVIEW: of I Used to Live Here (Anna Leszkiewicz, New Statesman)
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Book-related and General Links:
    -ESSAY: Iris Murdoch's Go(o)d (Allen Jacobs, First Things)
    -REVIEW: of Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature. By Iris Murdoch (Alan Jacobs, First Things)

This is a mediocre novel; it's not like I don't feel somewhat sorry for Antoinette, but that's the whole point; you just *feel sorry for her*. In 1966 writing a postcolonial book might have been somewhat interesting; now, this stuff just reads like dated, vague, modernist stuff for navel gazing college students. There's never been that much to gain from reading laments, has there?

- Horoscho

- Dec-30-2006, 14:42

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I think it's funny when people say that someone doesn't have a right to think/write something they liked is bad. I think it's even funnier when they call names. The internet is a great anonymizer, bringing out the worst in people...both in comments and in writers.

You know what? It's a free internet, and you're free to go wherever you want. If you don't like the reviews, then read someone else's. If you don't like the reviewing method, that's fine, don't waste your time commenting. All he's going to do is mock you or laugh at you (and after reading some of these comments, I'm mocking and laughing at you, too).

And, since it is a free internet, and it is Orrin's site, I feel that it'd be perfectly within his rights to delete any comments he doesn't like. But he doesn't, 'cause they are there for him to mock, now.

So you see, if you don't agree with him, just move away... because any discussion on a comment board is going to degenerate rapidly into incoherant name-calling.

- Lon

- Feb-17-2005, 17:30

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Right on,man.You're like, my hero. I didna understannn (drunken snore) one word that chick wus sayin. (Start)what? O yeh. Keep it up.(Hiccup)

- Terrance

- Oct-22-2003, 16:00

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For your info, Mr. Hotshot, I happen to love that book, and so do millions of others. Just because you can't read doesn't give you the right to criticize one of the finest pieces of literature ever written, or those who like it. Oh yeah, one more thing- I'm a man.

- Allister

- Oct-22-2003, 15:56

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My goodness rednecks let loose in a library. Stick to comic books and literary works that do not challenge one's psyche or inherent philosophies. Your review was a waste of space, not interesting enough to be Dada.

- rebecca

- Jun-24-2003, 12:22

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Yep you're really keeping the great literary imaginations on their toes with comments like it "sucked." Obviously you're an intellectual genius who has really grasped the inner complexities of Wide Sargasso Sea and more importantly its place within modern literature. In future why don't you just stick to reviewing books with plenty of pretty pictures and small words so as to not embarrass yourself again. No please... comments like that are painful to read.

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- May-13-2003, 12:29

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how can you say that? you give no purpose as to why you hate it so much, except for the fact that it's a 'chick' book. that's sexist. and people wonder why rochester's such a bastard... all you have to do is look in the mirror... which you can do by the way, as that does not require a lot of intellectual stimulation (in the same way as your review did not require a lot of intellectual stimulation).

imho, wide sargasso sea is a beautifully written novel, and painfully tragic - portraying the emotional consequences of forced dehumanisation - and it DESERVES its place in the top 100.

- unnamed

- May-11-2003, 02:06

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