Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

 

Summary Wide Sargasso Sea was written in 1966 by Jean Rhys, who lived on the Caribbean island of Dominica when growing up, then England after the age of 16. Her novel is set in a post-slavery Jamaica and tells the story of a young Creole (a White descendant of European colonizers) girl, Antoinette, as she grows up and eventually marries an Englishman. As a child, Antoinette is attention-starved and isolated due to her widowed mother leaving her to her own devices and the racial tension of the surrounding area and its inhabitants. She has few friends. These racial tensions eventually result in tragedy that drives her mother into madness. Antoinette is married off to an Englishman in need of money, who becomes increasingly mistrustful and hostile toward her. Antoinette, herself, is driven to madness through her husband’s lack of care, his inability to deal with her increasing loss of self, and her sometimes literal entrapment in the marriage.

Where does it come from? Wide Sargasso Sea was written as a prequel to Charlotte Brönte’s Jane Eyre. Brönte’s classic novel, which was written in 1847 tells the story of Jane, from her orphaned girlhood, to her adult life, in which she becomes a governess to a wealthy Englishman’s ward, eventually falling in love with the master of the house, Mr. Rochester. While living in his home, she discovers that there is a madwoman locked in the attic; Bertha, Mason, who is Mr. Rochester’s wife. Rhys’s novel tells Bertha’s story (Antoinette is her true name in Rhys’s novel).

What does it retain? Both novels have themes of class and money in common, though each have other themes that they do not share. Being a prequel, Wide Sargasso Sea naturally does not share any plot points with Jane Eyre, but there are some echoes. Young Antoinette attends a convent school just as Jane attends a boarding school. For both of them, this experience brings a certain amount of peace and stability. Each novel features a burning estate. Both novels deal with the limitations that were placed on the lives of women during the time periods that they were set in.

What new things does it bring? Wide Sargasso Sea offers a different perspective on Bertha/Antoinette. In Jane Eyre, she’s frightening and mysterious, but Rhys gives her a backstory and a reason for her madness. She becomes a wholly formed character. In an interview, Rhys says, “I was annoyed about the poor lunatic West Indian, she’s not a true character at all, unlike Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, so I wrote her life.” Rhys also offers a different lens through which to view Mr. Rochester. In Jane Eyre, he is a complex, Byronic character. He’s flawed, but he’s not meant to be seen as evil. In Wide Sargasso Sea, he is shown in a much less forgiving light. The novel also delves into a world that is only tangential in Jane Eyre: post-colonial Jamaica. It explores a world in which slavery has ended, but the wealthy colonizers and the formerly enslaved must coexist on the same island.

Is it worth it? Yes, the novel is worth reading. It is, at times, difficult to follow, but the disjointed-ness is a reflection of the narrative and the main character. It is a short rewarding read. 

You might like it if… you like to imagine the backstory of minor characters in famous works. You might like it if you like historical fiction. 

References:

Rhys, Jean. Interview with Peter Burton. “Jean Rhys: INTERVIEWED BY PETER BURTON.” The Transatlantic Review, no. 36, 1970, pp. 105–09. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41514293. Accessed 3 May 2025.

Vinegar Girl - Anne Tyler

Summary Kate, a woman with a blunt and straightforward, but not necessarily unpleasant personality, lives with her scientist father and fifteen year old sister, Bunny. Her father presents her with a request: that she marry his lab assistant, Pyotr, so that he can obtain a green card and thus remain in the U.S. and continue to be her father’s lab assistant. For some reason, she agrees to this and in the background her younger sister tries to date their neighbor, who is much too old for her.

Where does it come from? Vinegar Girl is based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. I needed to re-read the play in order to remember the plot, as I hadn’t read it since I was in junior high school. Will’s play is about a man, Batista, with two daughters. The eldest, Katherine, is a “scold” or a “shrew,” that is, she speaks her own mind and is seen as disagreeable and undesirable for marriage, while the younger, Bianca, is sweet and obedient. Batista declares that Bianca, who has numerous suitors, cannot marry until her older sister has married. Enter Petruchio, who wishes to marry Katherine and “tame” her. He woos her by means of simply declaring her to be in love with him, then sets about with the taming. Bianca’s various suitors adopt various disguises and deceptions to woo her as well. (Shakespeare is big on disguises, deceptions, and mistaken identities, but this play is really exceptional in that regard, to the point where following who is really who can get confusing.)

What does it retain? Tyler keeps many of the play’s plot points and characters, altering them for a more modern setting. Of course, fathers don’t marry off their daughters nowadays, or set them up with dowries, or even really have much say in their daughters’ love lives at all, so the green card set-up is a clever way of keeping the marriage idea centered around the father character. There were lots of other little nods to the play. Both Bianca’s and Bunny’s wooing involved tutoring. Both Petruchio and Pyotr have wedding wardrobe issues. And there’s a somewhat controversial Katherine/Kate speech at the end of both the play and the novel. These things, among others, are parallels that I find pleasing in a retelling and I can’t say I didn’t enjoy them. However, well… I’ll leave that for the sections below.

What new things does it bring? Unfortunately, beyond making Shakespeare a bit more accessible for modern audiences, I’m not sure this retelling brings much else to the story. The updated setting, language, and plot make for an acceptable door into the world of William Shakespeare. It helps that the book is published under the label of Hogarth Shakespeare; if you read it, you’re well aware that you’re reading an adaptation of a Shakespeare play. So, if you like it, it might lead to looking into other retellings or exploring the original play, which is a good thing.

Is it worth it? Meh. Tyler had an opportunity here to give Kate some more agency in her own life than what Katherine had in The Taming of the Shrew, and in my opinion, she fell pretty short on that count. That said, even though the original play seems to be pretty straightforwardly misogynistic (as would be expected for the time period), Katherine’s “taming” may not be as simple as it looks. As Emma Smith, a professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University puts it, “Sometimes we assume [...] scenarios which were quite unproblematic to early modern audiences have gained moral complexity because our attitudes to [...], in the case of The Taming of the Shrew, the relationship between the sexes, have changed since Shakespeare’s time.” But she argues that “The Taming of the Shrew was always ambiguous, right from the start.” She points out Shakespeare’s lack of stage direction and that many of the lines can be interpreted in different ways. For instance, that controversial speech from Katherine at the end of the play can be portrayed as that of a woman who has been subdued and cowed–or tamed, or it can be seen as a speech given sarcastically, from a woman who does not mean what she says, all depending on the way it is portrayed. But Tyler’s Kate’s speech has none of that ambiguity. It comes off as pandering and weak, detailing how bad men have it in this world. Tyler’s Kate is an enigma and not in a good way. Despite seeming to have an independent personality, she capitulates to her father’s needs without much of a fight and it’s hard to understand why.

You might like it if… This book read like a 90’s rom-com to me, so maybe if you like those, you’ll like this. 

References:

Smith, Emma. This is Shakespeare. New York, Pantheon Books, 2021.

Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine

Summary: Ella was given a “gift” by a fairy when she was born; the gift of obedience. That’s right, she is doomed to obey any command given to her by anyone, no matter how innocuous it might seem, from “eat your dinner” to “go to bed” to “stand on your head and recite the alphabet backwards,” she must obey. If she doesn’t, she experiences a range of bodily discomforts, from nausea to shaking and sweating. When Ella’s beloved mother dies and she is left with a father who has been largely absent in her life, she wonders how she will ever rid herself of her curse/gift, especially now that she seems to have fallen for the kind, handsome Prince Char, and doesn’t want her curse to put him in danger.  

Where does it come from? Ella Enchanted is, of course, based on the original Cinderella story. But mentioning “the original Cinderella story” opens up a whole new can of worms. Because the story we know as Cinderella goes way back in folktale history and has been retold in hundreds of different forms going back into time periods whose years only have two or three digits. The most recognizable form of the story in modern Western culture is based on the version written by Charles Perrault in 1637. This one contains all the familiar things; pumpkins, glass slippers, step-relatives, and balls that must be abandoned by the stroke of midnight. This is the version Levine is retelling.

What does it retain? Ella Enchanted is a modern retelling (written in 1997) that retains a setting similar to that of Perrault’s and one that we associate with the fairy tale; a setting that includes kings and princes, women in gowns, and fancy balls. Levine also keeps many familiar elements from the original tale; a fairy godmother, a stepmother and stepsisters, a pumpkin coach, and even glass slippers. As far as the major elements of the plot go–the father’s remarriage, the forcing of Ella into household labor, the ball, the loss of the slipper, the romance with the prince–all of those things are present and accounted for. All of these little pieces retained from the original story are like delightful little pings as you read them. It’s always fun to read a new story that has so much in it that one recognizes as old friends. 

What new things does it bring? Levine ramps up the supernatural elements of the fairy tale. Perrault’s version has a fairy godmother and magic, sure, but Levine takes it even further with ogres, centaurs, elves, and trolls. When it comes to the story’s magic, though, there are clearly limits. There’s Big Magic and Little Magic, and responsible fairies know to stay away from the big stuff. Ella’s gift of obedience was clearly some very irresponsible magic. As for updating the story of Cinderella, Ella Enchanted brings some agency to the main character. It’s no secret that Perrault’s (and Disney’s) Cinderella is a bit of a doormat. Her entire personality rests upon her kindness, which persists even when she is being treated like garbage. And of course, her only path to a happy life is through marrying well, a path that her stepmother and step-siblings do their best to deprive her of. Levine’s Ella is strong-willed and opinionated, as well as kind, though she doesn’t bestow her kindness on people who clearly don’t deserve it. In Levine’s story, Ella and the prince, whose name is Char(mont) instead of Charming, have a relationship that develops over time and is based on personalities that mesh and values that align as opposed to whatever it is when a man sees a beautiful mysterious woman in an amazing ball gown, falls in love at first sight, and later can’t recognize her when she’s not wearing that gown and has a little dirt on her face.

Is it worth it? Definitely! Ella Enchanted is a modern classic in middle-grade reads. It’s fun and entertaining and brings plenty of fresh insights to an old tale.

You might like this one if… you like fairy tale retellings, you appreciate children’s literature, or if you yourself are young or love someone young.