Jean Rhys

I first heard about Wide Sargasso Sea maybe five or six years ago. Some girl from my middle school was reading it, and when she introduced the concept to me, it seemed a little silly. As a rule, I don't hold with "in the same universe as" stories, or unofficial sequels, or what have you. This book, of course is a little different; it has a  lot more class than Peter Pan in Red or The Wheel of Time (yeah, I went there) or whatever. I think that if this book had been written by a new author, I'd be a little puzzled by it, because it's difficult to see why someone would have the arrogance to assume that they could... "add on"? I guess? To a great work of art like Jane Eyre and have their contribution also be great art. It's fanfiction, essentially.

The only way that such a novel could ever be pulled off is by a writer from the Lost Generation who retired to anonymity for forty years and then spent a decade working obsessively on it because of an actual and obvious connection to the part of the novel they were "expanding." Jean Rhys is legit. What can I say? The Mezzanine's goodness was hard to explain, but  not nearly so much as that of Wide Sargasso Sea.