A gorgeous clothbound edition of Jean Rhys’s great masterpiece of desire and madness in the Caribbean, published for the novel’s fiftieth anniversary. “Wide Sargasso Sea” was inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre”, and is set in the lush landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. Born into a colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who falls in love with her. After their marriage the rumors begin, poisoning her husband against her, and Antoinette is driven towards madness.

“But what about happiness, I thought at first, is there no happiness? There must be.”

Jean Rhys “Wide Sargasso Sea. First published in 1966. This anniversary edition was released by Penguin Classics in 2016. Bought by the Sea Library 💙

Photos by Anna Iltnere / Sea Library