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ravenclaura's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
snowreo's review against another edition
3.0
just finished this and i've decided to pass along a message to mr. rochester
lameeya_'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
A book that I have been wanting to read for close to fifteen years can hardly live up to the expectations but I did really enjoy this perspective. I recently re-read Jane Eyre with the sole intention of reading this book. The character of the madwoman in the attic, Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester's first wife is woefully treated in the original work as just an obstacle for the Jane and Mr. Rochester to marry but this book expanded not only her backstory but made very interesting points about the colonial subject and agency. Antoinette, who was deprived of power and agency and love in her life becomes the victim of Mr. Rochester's colonial gaze where he is all too willing to believe her mad because she is strange to him. The writing is weirdly disjointed and I can't figure out if it's meant to represent the decline in Antoinette as we go through her life or just an artistic choice. Ultimately I'm glad I read this book even though I have nothing new to add to it's review. I would give this 4 stars but for the writing which did not flow very well for me, especially off the back of reading Jane Eyre which was written much earlier and so much easier to read.
__gungun__chakraborty___'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
savaging's review against another edition
4.0
For lit. classes I was asked to read Jane Eyre four or five times, but what a disservice that it was never coupled with this book, the story of the crazy woman in the attic and the gaslighting that got her there. Decades before this book, Ford Madox Ford wrote that Rhys had "a terrific -- an almost lurid! -- passion for stating the case of the underdog." How else would a person stop to think about that awful and ugly obstacle-to-love, Bertha, and feel the unspoken story there?
Rhys is a master at showing the subtlety behind polite and mannered cruelty. She diagnoses out all the symptoms of Rochester's ego-centrism -- his greed, possessiveness, and hatred for anything too wild or too happy or self-sustaining, like the people and the land his wife loves.
'I feel very much a stranger here,' I said. 'I feel that this place is my enemy and on your side.' 'You are quite mistaken,' she said. 'It is not for you and not for me. It has nothing to do with either of us. That is why you are afraid of it, because it is something else. I found that out long ago when I was a child. I loved it because I had nothing else to love, but it is as indifferent as this God you call on so often.'
Rhys is a master at showing the subtlety behind polite and mannered cruelty. She diagnoses out all the symptoms of Rochester's ego-centrism -- his greed, possessiveness, and hatred for anything too wild or too happy or self-sustaining, like the people and the land his wife loves.
'I feel very much a stranger here,' I said. 'I feel that this place is my enemy and on your side.' 'You are quite mistaken,' she said. 'It is not for you and not for me. It has nothing to do with either of us. That is why you are afraid of it, because it is something else. I found that out long ago when I was a child. I loved it because I had nothing else to love, but it is as indifferent as this God you call on so often.'