on the nightstand | wide sargasso sea

i guess "on the nightstand" posts are where i blithely dismiss important works of literature and entire fields of criticism.

today i will blithely dismiss Wide Sargasso Sea.  this book is the prequel to Jane Eyre, written from the point of view of [spoiler alert] bertha antoinetta mason.  that wasn't really a spoiler.

i did not really enjoy this book.  i thought the idea was fantastic and the book was blah.  she gets lost part way through her own story.  on the other hand...  it is true that lostness is at the <3 of [spoiler alert] madness.  

the burning question for me was, which came first, Wide Sargasso Sea or Gilbert + Gubar's Madwoman in the Attic, a book of criticism named for bertha antoinetta mason? 

 i'm looking it up right now, and the answer is...  wow!  Wide Sargasso Sea, 1966!  Madwoman in the Attic, 1979.  That means it truly was a fantastic idea!