Journal Entry 1 by paulainen from Kuopio, Pohjois-Savo Finland on Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Journal Entry 2 by ritao from Helsinki, Uusimaa Finland on Thursday, March 31, 2005

Thank you paulainen, got the book yesterday! I will start reading it as soon as I've gotten through the last exams (tomorrow - "short" Spanish!). Wish me luck! :)

18.4.2005

Somehow I couldn't help the feeling that this was too difficult a book for me. I'm sure it is full of all kinds of hidden meanings that I just didn't get. But fascinating story anyway and paulainen's notes were interesting and helped me understand at least some parts of the story. In my opinion the third part of the book (the story is divided in three parts) is the most attention-grabbing if you're interested in the connection between the books Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea. 

Journal Entry 3 by iggi1812 from Glasgow, Scotland United Kingdom on Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Arrived safely this morning. Its next on the tbr pile! 

Journal Entry 4 by QueenSissi from Gouveia, Guarda Portugal on Monday, June 13, 2005

Received it today! Thank you! 

Journal Entry 5 by QueenSissi from Gouveia, Guarda Portugal on Sunday, July 24, 2005

Someone asked me if I were feeling depressed due to reading this book - I was at the beginning and didn't get it... Now I do! It was really interesting and one can easily find the resemblances specially as it was pointed out - the third part... Yet the whole book seemed like a masterpiece... 

Journal Entry 6 by quico from Coimbra (cidade), Coimbra Portugal on Thursday, August 18, 2005

Got it! I'll read it asap! 

Journal Entry 7 by quico from Coimbra (cidade), Coimbra Portugal on Sunday, August 21, 2005

Journal Entry 8 by quico from Coimbra (cidade), Coimbra Portugal on Wednesday, August 24, 2005

And here it goes to Canada! 

Journal Entry 9 by lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Friday, September 02, 2005

Arrived today. Feeling a bit pressured. I'm in the middle of a difficult book and I have a bookring in front of this one. Not to worry. I shall keep it moving. :) 

Journal Entry 10 by lauraloo29 from Edmonton, Alberta Canada on Monday, September 12, 2005

I found this a very difficult read. I've actually given up. Which is unfortunate, as it is a short book. I actually found the penciled in notes distracting. Asking questions I wouldn't have asked and then overtaking the story for me.

sqdancer and I live near each other, so we are arranging a pick up/drop off of the book.

Thank you for sharing. 

Journal Entry 11 by sqdancer on Saturday, September 24, 2005

found in my mailbox tonight (Friday, Sept 23). thank you for dropping it off lauraloo29.

 

Journal Entry 12 by sqdancer on Sunday, October 30, 2005

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I mailed this out yesterday.

 

Journal Entry 13 by affinity4books from Bryan, Texas USA on Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Recieved today! I am in the middle of another ring and then this is next. What a pretty little book. Thanks for the postcard! 

Journal Entry 14 by affinity4books from Bryan, Texas USA on Friday, December 02, 2005

I really enjoyed this novel- I wish we had studied it at school along with Jane Eyre. The first part of the novel was my favorite, exploring the culture and setting the atmosphere as well as telling Antoinette's backstory. I really felt for her and the very limited choices she had as a woman during that time. Once she was married, it seemed she was damned no matter what she did, as if she couldn't change her tragic destiny. And now I hate Rochester and his cold-heartedness and will have to go back to re-read Jane Eyre to see what she could have possibly seen in him! :) In general I really enjoy novels that play off of others or are written from a different character's perspective, etc., like Michael Cunningham's The Hours.

This review from Amazon captured a lot of what I wanted to say about the book's use of description:
"Rhys captures the unique world of Antoinette Cosway at once showing the beauty of Jamaica and also the corruption and rot at the heart of the culture which was based on slavery. Slavery--although a thing of the recent past in Antoinette's experience--taints everything. Entire estates are in decay, and the creole landowners are suspicious and live in fear. It is a land of great beauty, and the language of the novel conveys the sense of exquisite beauty. I really would argue for a 'scratch and sniff' version of this novel. At times, the descriptive language is so strong that I expected the fragrances of the exotic, lush setting to leap out from the book's pages. The matchless descriptions of the decayed mansions, the colours and lush fragrances of the vegetation, the "orchids that flourished out of reach" all create an atmosphere of impending doom, and Antoinette seems oblivious to it, but at the same time, she is part of it too. Rochester seems to realise that there is something inherently wrong with the situation, but even he is seduced by the evil elements at work. I particularly loved "Massacre"--a place whose name no longer has any meaning, and certainly holds no interest to those already poisoned, tainted, and seduced. Antoinette is a doomed character (and here is the similarity with other Rhys novels); she is doomed in Jamaica, and she will be doomed in the cold sterility of an English attic."

I will mail this out within the next week. Thanks for sharing! 

Journal Entry 15 by affinity4books at Bookray in By Mail, BookCrosser -- Controlled Releases on Monday, December 05, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (12/5/2005 UTC) at Bookray in By Mail, BookCrosser -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

put in the mail today to cyber-librarian 

Journal Entry 16 by cyber-librarian from Cary, North Carolina USA on Monday, December 12, 2005

I received this today from affinity4books in TX ... as part of this bookring.

c. 1966 -- 152 pages -- Paperback -- #81 on Radcliffe Publishing 100 Best Novels list -- #94 on Modern Library Board's 100 Best Novels list 

Journal Entry 17 by cyber-librarian from Cary, North Carolina USA on Wednesday, January 04, 2006

I finished reading this today. I agree it was a difficult read. I'm glad I recently read Jane Eyre or I think I would have been lost. It is interesting to take a somewhat minor character from a Classic and explain how that character developed into the mad lunatic portrayed. It can bring up the great nature vs. nurture debate. Did Antoinette inherit the madness from her mother ... or did she learn the behavior from how her mother responded to the events in their life? Or was it all caused by the slave Christophine and her wicked ways?!? "Book Lust" recommends reading "The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde after these two.

jenvince and busybooklover have asked to be skipped ... so I PMed Lisagt for her address. 

Journal Entry 18 by cyber-librarian at book ring in Mailed to fellow bookcrosser, Postal Release -- Controlled Releases on Saturday, January 07, 2006

Released 6 yrs ago (1/7/2006 UTC) at book ring in Mailed to fellow bookcrosser, Postal Release -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

I mailed this to Lisagt in Australia ... as part of the bookring. For 35 cents more ($4.40 instead of $4.05) I was able to send this Airmail (4-7 days) instead of surface (4-7 weeks). 

Journal Entry 19 by Lisagt from Holsworthy, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Thanx for sending this 'downunder' cyber-librarian. It's arrived in record time! I've got a few before it but I'll get to it ASAP. I've read 'The Eyre affair' but never 'Jane Eyre' although I know the story so hopefully I'll still GET this book... 

Journal Entry 20 by Lisagt from Holsworthy, New South Wales Australia on Friday, January 27, 2006

Thank goodness the author changed voices in part 2 as I was ready to give up! I really couldn't follow part 1 but found part 2 flowed and made sense of a lot I had missed. I much preferred the husband's point of view. Now I am inspired to read Jane Eyre and re-read The Eyre affair!
Thank you paulainen. I will now contact the next reader. 

Journal Entry 21 by Lisagt from Holsworthy, New South Wales Australia on Friday, January 27, 2006

Further to my previous journal entry...I got to thinking about the title of this book. Is it a real sea and if so, why did Jean Rhys use it in the title? A quick search on Google has enhanced my appreciation of this story. See for yourself:

The Sargasso sea is part of the North Atlantic Ocean, lying roughly between the West Indies and the Azores. Here, the heart of the Bermuda Triangle is covered by the strangest and most notorious sea on the planet -The Sargasso Sea so named because there is a kind of seaweed which lazily floats over its entire expanse called sargassum. Catching sight of these huge mats of seaweed have always marked the perimeter of this peculiar sea. Columbus himself made note of it. Thinking land was nearby, he fathomed the sea, only to find no bottom. The bottom is, in fact, miles below on the Nares Abyssal Plain...

Anything that drifts onto any of its surrounding currents eventually ends up in the Sargasso Sea amidst its expansive weed mats of sargassum. Because of the entropious currents, it is unlikely anything would ever drift out...

The Sargasso Sea must remain an enigma of this globe, for the forces that have created it have created a masterpiece of visible nonconformity, which may only be the tip of the iceberg for invisible disharmony in its elements...

From: http://www.bermuda-triangle.org/index.html
[edited in part by me as it's long.]
 

Journal Entry 22 by Lisagt from Holsworthy, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Vi0let has asked to be skipped so this book is now on its' way home to paulainen... 

Journal Entry 23 by paulainen from Kuopio, Pohjois-Savo Finland on Monday, February 20, 2006

The book arrived back home; thanks for all the participants (and sorry for my obscure numbers)!