Book Review: Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys (1966)

Original cover of Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, 1966.

Ella Williams, who wrote under the pen name Jean Rhys, 1970's.

Jean Rhys’ most famous novel is probably her last one: Wide Sargasso Sea, published in 1966 to much acclaim. There was a 27-year gap between her fourth novel, Good Morning, Midnight and Wide Sargasso Sea. What happened in between? As John Lennon wrote, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

Rhys was a perfectionist in her writing, and she asked her publisher Diana Athill, in reference to Wide Sargasso Sea, “Why did you let me publish that book?” This was five years after the novel had been released. Rhys said, “It was not finished,” and proceeded to point out two words that she thought should have been removed from the text. One was “then,” and the other word was “quite.” Writers are an odd bunch. (Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography, by Jean Rhys, p.8)

Wide Sargasso Sea tells the story of the first wife of Rochester from Jane Eyre, the 1847 novel by Charlotte Bronte. Don’t worry, you don’t need to read Jane Eyre first. (I still haven’t read Jane Eyre.) That being said, I have no doubt that there are connections between the two novels that I missed, not being familiar with Jane Eyre.

It's difficult to compare Wide Sargasso Sea with Rhys’ other novels, since it is so different from them. Rhys’ previous four novels, Quartet, After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, Voyage in the Dark, and Good Morning, Midnight are all similar in tone and subject matter—they could easily be read together as a quartet examining the life of the same main character. But the mood of Wide Sargasso Sea is markedly different—in part because the narrator shifts between Part One and Part Two of the novel, a brilliant idea.

Jean Rhys was the pen name of Ella Williams, who was born on the island of Dominica, then called the British Leeward Islands. (Fun fact: Dominica is one of only two countries that have purple on their flag. The other is Nicaragua.) She was sent to school in England at the age of 16, and she well understood the push and pull between two cultures that is an integral part of the plot of Wide Sargasso Sea.

I read the bulk of Wide Sargasso Sea in one day, and it’s a superb novel, and a testament to the talent and skill of Jean Rhys.