192 pages
Published April 26, 2001 by Penguin Classics.
Jean Rhys's reputation was made upon publication of this passionate and heartbreaking novel, in which she brings into the light one of citsion's most mysterious characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre". A sensual and protected young woman, the narrator grows up in the lush, natural world of the Caribbean. She is sold into marriage to the cold-hearted and prideful Rochester, who succumbs to his need for money and his lust. Yet he will make her pay for her ancestors' sins of slaveholding, excessive drinking and nihilistic despair by enslaving her as a prisoner in his bleak British home.
I liked the prose. I haven’t read Jane Eyre so maybe that’s why the rest (characters, story) wasn’t super compelling to me.
Jeg skjønner når jeg leser det at det er viktig og leseverdig litteratur, men noen ganger står leseren i veien for litteraturen, noe som er tilfelle denne gangen. Uansett: En Goodreads-stjerne sier ikke noe om boken, bare om dens møte med meg som sitter på den andre siden, og denne gangen var møtet bare helt greit.
Es fängt ganz interessant an, aber in der zweiten Hälfte wird nur noch dramatisch gelitten aus unklaren Gründen, die vermutlich mit dem 19. Jahrhundert zu tun haben. Immerhin war es kurz.
One more on the Modern Library list of the 100 best American works of fiction in the 20th century that I hadn't read. It is usually reviewed as the story of the first Mrs. Rochester in Jane Eyre, and that may have been some stimulus to the author, but it is not a necessary element of the story. The protagonist cracks up slowly during the course of the events depicted and in a lush tropical Caribbean background replete with racism, continental vs island social clashes, voodoo and various human short-comings. Some reviewers have complained that these things are not a cause of insanity, but it is a work of art, not a medical text - and I think there must be some autobiographical component.
