Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

I read Jane Eyre when I was fourteen and didn't like it nearly as much as Wuthering Heights, which I had read right before. Jane was too timid and I didn't get what she saw in Rochester. The mad woman in the attic was the most interesting part of the book. Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of that mad woman in the attic - Antoinette Cosway, a white Creole from Jamaica. The story is told in three parts - first we see Antoinette's childhood in a Jamaica restructuring itself after the emancipation of the slaves, next we switch between Rochester and Antionette's povs during their honeymoon and finally, briefly, we see the mad woman in the attic.

It's a heartbreaking and beautifully atmospheric story - you can almost smell the flowers and feel the heat. Antoinette and Christophine are such vivid characters that Rochester, despite being one of the narrators, seems almost an afterthought. Which makes sense, as he seemed the same way in Jane Eyre. A fascinating read.