Wide Sargasso Sea (Norton Critical Editions)

by Rhys, Jean; Raiskin, Judith L.

• ISBN13: 9780393960129
• ISBN10: 0393960129
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-11-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

Written over the course of twenty-one years and published in 1966, Wide Sargasso Sea, based on Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, takes place in Jamaica and Dominica in 1839-45. Textual notes illuminate the novel's historical background, regional references, and the non-translated Creole and French phrases necessary to fully understand this powerful story. Backgrounds includes a wealth of material on the novel's long evolution, it connections to Jane Eyre, and Rhys's biographical impressions of growing up in Dominica. Criticism introduces readers to the critical debates inspired by the novel with a Derek Walcott poem and eleven essays.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii	(2)
Preface	ix
The Text of Wide Sargasso Sea	1	(112)
Introduction	3	(6)
Francis Wyndham
Wide Sargasso Sea	9	(104)
Backgrounds	113	(44)
Rachel L. Carson
[The Sargasso Sea]	117	(2)
Charlotte Bronte
From Jane Eyre	119	(13)
[Jane Eyre and Bertha]	119	(2)
[The Ruined Wedding]	121	(5)
[Rochester's Story]	126	(4)
[Fire at Thornfield Hall]	130	(2)
Jean Rhys
Selected Letters	132	(17)
To Peggy Kirkaldy (October 4, 1949)	132	(1)
To Maryvonne Moerman (November 9, 1949)	133	(1)
To Peggy Kirkaldy (December 6, 1949)	133	(1)
To Morchard Bishop (January 27, 1953)	134	(1)
To Francis Wyndham (March 29, 1958)	135	(1)
To Selma Vaz Dias (April 9, 1958)	136	(1)
To Francis Wyndham (September 27, 1959)	137	(1)
To Diana Athill (August 16, 1963)	137	(1)
To Francis Wyndham (March 7, 1964)	138	(1)
To Francis Wyndham (April 14, 1964)	138	(5)
To Francis Wyndham (1964)	143	(1)
To Diana Athill (1966)	144	(1)
To Diana Athill (March 9, 1966)	145	(1)
The Bible Is Modern	148	(1)
From Smile Please	149	(1)
Books	149	(6)
Meta	150	(1)
My Mother	151	(1)
Black/White	152	(2)
Facts of Life	154	(1)
From "Black Exercise Book"	155	(2)
Criticism	157	(102)
Derek Walcott
Jean Rhys	159	(2)
Mary Lou Emery
Modernist Crosscurrents	161	(12)
Michael Thorpe
"The Other Side": Wide Sargasso Sea and Jane Eyre	173	(8)
Kenneth Ramchand
[The Place of Jean Rhys and Wide Sargasso Sea]	181	(7)
Wilson Harris
Carnival of Psyche: Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea	188	(5)
Sandra Drake
Race and Caribbean Culture as Thematics of Liberation in Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea	193	(14)
Lee Erwin
[History and Narrative in Wide Sargasso Sea]	207	(10)
Caroline Rody
Burning Down the House: The Revisionary Paradigm of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea	217	(8)
Mona Fayad
Unquiet Ghosts: The Struggle for Representation in Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea	225	(15)
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
[Wide Sargasso Sea and a Critique of Imperialism]	240	(7)
Benita Parry
[Two Native Voices in Wide Sargasso Sea]	247	(3)
Judith Raiskin
England: Dream and Nightmare	250	(9)
Jean Rhys
A Chronology	259	(4)
Selected Bibliography	263