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★ Jean Rhys 為夏洛特·勃朗特《簡愛》所著的前傳
Jean Rhys 的《夢迴藻海》是夏洛特·勃朗特(Charlotte Brontë) 的《簡愛》(Jane Eyre) 的前傳。故事以殖民社會中種植園經濟衰退作為背景，講述了19 世紀初牙買加克里奧爾人 Antoinette Cosway ──── 《簡愛》中的Rochester太太 ────的孤單童年與不幸的婚姻。
Antoinette從小時候就遇上種種困境，母親患有精神疾病、父親去世，而Antoinette長大後嫁給了一位英國紳士 ──── 《簡愛》中的Rochester先生 ──── 又經歷了另一段充滿動蕩的生活。文化衝突使得他們關係充斥著誤解與隔閡，而當時的社會期望和偏見又加劇了他們之間的衝突。Rochester試著深入Antoinette的內心，卻是透過自己的殖民偏見的視角來看待她，導致安托瓦內特的疏離感與日俱增。在小說的高潮，Rochester先生不再嘗試理解Antoinette，並將她孤立、囚禁在的桑菲爾德莊園的閣樓，而Antoinette陷入了瘋狂。
《夢迴藻海》讓讀者看到與聽到Antoinette在《簡愛》中彷彿被父權與殖民主義抹去的聲音，不僅僅探討了種族文化分歧的社會中混血兒身份的複雜性，也鼓勵讀者評判導致她悲劇命運的種種因素。
“There is no looking glass here and I don’t know what I am like now … Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?”
If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty and sensuality, he becomes increasingly frustrated by his inability to reach into her soul. He forces Antoinette to conform to his rigid Vicotrian ideals, unaware that in taking away her identity he is destroying a part of himself as well as pushing her towards madness.
Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Jean Rhys’s powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by the first Mrs. Rochester, the mad wife in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Jean Rhys's spell-binding novel Wide Sargasso Sea, inspired by Jane Eyre and winner of the Royal Society of Literature Award, is beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range.
“Brilliant. A Tale of dislocation and dispossession, which Rhys writes with akind of romantic cynicism, desperate and pungent” The Times
