This novel declares itself to be the history of Mr. Rochester's first wife--the madwoman in the attic in JANE EYRE, described by Charlotte Brontk only as "a Creole heiress." Rhys was obsessed for years with the first Mrs. Rochester, and finally felt compelled to do justice to the figure to whom Brontk gave such short shrift. Rhys herself was torn between the disparate elements of her own background: her father was a Welsh doctor, her mother a white Creole from Dominica in the Caribbean. As a teenager, Rhys moved to England and also lived in Paris, but in WIDE SARGASSO SEA she recreates the world of her childhood. Appearing in 1966--27 years after her previous book--the novel is notable not only because of its vivid setting and "prequel" status, but because it takes a hard look at a patriarchal system in which Mr. Rochester is not the redeemable romantic hero he is in JANE EYRE, but a harsh master whose cruelty to his "mad" Creole wife mirrors the destructive effects of British colonialism.