Thornfield Hall Page 28

Wide Sargasso Sea is a widely acclaimed prequel to Jane Eyre. It concentrates on Mr Rochester’s first marriage, which takes place in Jamaica. It made me think about Bertha as the person she might be, not just the stock figure of a raving mad woman.

  Jean Rhys explored much further from the original than I felt able to go. She changed names, she moved the location to Dominica and she wrote from Rochester’s point of view. The whole atmosphere of the book is tropical, mysterious and dripping with sensuality. It is a long way from the bracing air of Yorkshire.

  When I first read Wide Sargasso Sea I thought of writing a sequel. At the end of Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë tells us that Mr and Mrs Rochester have been blissfully happy for ten years. They have at least one son and Adele now lives with them. An English education has ‘corrected in great measure her French defects’. What a dull book that would be!

  Would you be tempted to retell any other Classics?

  Perhaps. I would like to stop Anna Karenina from throwing herself under a train; it is a very damaging form of suicide. It traumatises train drivers and causes disruption to thousands of people. I wish Tolstoy had made her take poison instead.

  READING GROUP QUESTIONS

  1.What did you think were the central themes of the book, and how did they resonate with you?

  2.Thinking about Alice’s mother’s obsession with gentility, how do you think perceptions of social class have changed over time?

  3.Bertha’s two nurses employ radically different approaches to mental illness. What did you feel about Grace Poole’s treatment of her patient? How progressive was she?

  4.How important is the idea of secrets in this novel?

  5.How did you feel the novel related to Jane Eyre on which it is based?

  6.What do you think of retold Classics as a whole? Do you think they add something new to a familiar work? Or do you feel that ‘the Classics’ should be left alone?

  7.What did you take away from the story? What point did you think Jane Stubbs was trying to make?

  OTHER CHARACTERS FROM THE CLASSICS THAT COULD HAVE THEIR STORY TOLD

  Far From the Madding Crowd

  Fanny Robin: poor Fanny meets a sad end after her failure to marry Sergeant Francis Troy leaves her pregnant and destitute.

  Pride and Prejudice

  Georgiana Darcy: sister of Mr Darcy. Her fortune meant that at one time she was the subject of George Wickham’s attention, and nearly his wife if their planned elopement had taken place.

  Anna Karenina

  Annie Karenina: the baby daughter of the ill-fated Anna and her lover, Captain Vronsky. What was life like growing up under the care of a man whom adopted her following her mother’s death?

  Great Expectations

  Mrs Joe Gargary: sister of Pip. How did she come to be married to gentle, loyal Joe and raising her orphaned brother?

  Sense and Sensibility

  Lucy Steele: the secret fiancée of Edward Ferrars is attractive and manipulative. Her scheming eventually brings about her marriage to Robert, brother of Edward, and wins her the approval of the boys’ mother.

  Little Women

  James Laurence: neighbour to the March family and grandfather of Laurie. What events led to him cutting his son out of the family, losing his beloved granddaughter and caring for his grandson?