I have just finished Wide Sargasso Sea. Now I need my O-level English teacher to come and explain it to me.

[YunoYurbubson]

Or, if Mrs Viverson isn't available, could someone else give me a clue?

I'll start with, I don't think she went mad at all. I think he went a bit bonkers on the island - claustrophobic almost - and wanted to run away from it all. It suited him to label her mad, so he did. Which makes him an absolute monster. Which makes Jane Eyre a completely different book to me now.

But I actually didn't understand most of what happened in Part 2. I have no idea who the crying boy was at the end. I don't know where the servant man's loyalties lay. I don't know what to make of Christophene. I don't understand why A was all bruised. And did Mr R go blind, or did that come later (in Jane Eyre).

You are bringing back repressed high school memories of pouring over this book for my exam! It's been a long time since I've read it..

I always thought the crying boy was her disabled younger brother; whether actually him or just Antoinette hearing his voice in her head.

Part 2 is Mr R's narrative.

Mr R goes blind in Jane Eyre - but I believe in Part 3 of WSS it touches on this as it's back ro Antoinette narrating but this time as "Bertha" , locked in the attic as the mad women back in England.

As a bit of background to the book, I read a lot about Jean Rhys herself. And have to say, she was not the most stable of characters. if bits of the book don't make sense, in my opinion, it's because poor Jean was not well herself when writing it. The similarities actually between the author and character are quite striking.

Oooh, I thought there was an actual boy there crying, because people spoke to him, and the servant man (can't remember his name, book upstairs) pleased for MR R to take him with his. I thought I had just lost track of people in the book. There were a lot of staff. I definitely lost track of girls in the house in part 2.

I have just tried to read this for my book group and was really looking forward to finding out about the mad woman from Jane Eyre.But I just couldn't get on with it and gave up a third of the way through. Just finished a Joanna Trollop, good wholesome rubbish.

Yes, it's not quite a rip-roaring page turner is it.

Maybe I should have put this in the feminism topic.

God no - don't put it in there, I'll have to admit that my feminist credentials don't stretch as far as liking/enjoying this book. I don't like Jane Eyre either for that matter. Or Wuthering Heights. All the men in those books are wankers or wimps! One has to wonder about the environment those Bronte girls were brought up in.

The excellent BBC4 adaptation is on this week - Rafe Spall playing Mr R - can't remember what day

Adaption of JE or of WSS?

Wide Sargasso Sea