Wide Sargasso Sea (2006)

How, precisely, do you take Wide Sargasso Sea and make it all about how Rochester really isn't that bad and may be a jerk, but is really just a poor innocent lamb tricked into marrying a crazy woman who he really just wanted to protect?

(Note:  I'm not talking about your interpretation of Rochester based on Jane Eyre, but specifically of Wide Sargasso Sea.)

Mostly by making every single thing through his narrative POV with the assumption that he was justified and it was all her fault, and removing the ENTIRE FIRST PART OF THE BOOK, which, of course is the entire point to understanding her character and issues, and giving Antoinette virtually no narrative at all.

OTOH, Rebecca Hall was absolutely fabulous as Antoinette, and struggled mightily against a terrible script and theme.  They should remake it again with her in the lead and a GOOD script.  Rafe Spall did a good job, too, but the pro-Rochester/anti-Antoinette approach rather ruined him for me.

WSS was one of my favorite books last year, and while I knew an adaptation wouldn't really be able to get the "it" of the book, which largely relied on living inside their heads, I didn't exactly expect it to end up the exact opposite of the book in virtually every important way. 

The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

When newly-orphaned Peggy Grahame arrives at her family’s ancestral estate, she finds that her uncle, Enos, is obsessed with their colonial ancestors and tradition, and even almost acts like a gentleman from the times. He also takes an immediately and intense dislike to Pat Thorne, a young man from England who gave her a ride to the estate.

The framing story takes place in “modern” times (the 1950s, when it was written) but most of the plot is the story of Peggy’s ancestors-Richard Grahame, a Colonial officer, his younger sister, Barbara, and his childhood tormentor, Eleanor-and Peaceable Sherwood, the British officer who opposed Richard-as related by their ghosts. I loved the historical parts (the only fantasy aspect is the presence of the ghosts) and the various stories and how the relationships played out, though one relationship was wrapped up a little too tidily for me. Though I will never object to a man who proposes to a woman because she’s able to outsmart and drug him so she can free her brother from his prison.

Unfortunately, I didn’t like the modern part as much, and was less convinced by the romance, I think possibly because Peggy is 17, and the 50s is just modern enough for me to have some reservations about how it plays out. I also don’t think Peggy and Pat interact quite enough for me to be sold on how it’s portrayed, though I like both and don’t really have a problem with the idea of a romance between them, just not that quickly. (Which, for spoilery reasons, is rather ironic.)

Also, I find it funny that, though based on “Tam Lin,” The Perilous Gard isn’t really very romantic at all, while The Sherwood Ring, which is about the American Revolution, is built around several romances. All in all, I found this very delightful, though not as much so as The Perilous Gard, and am sad that Pope only wrote two books. (Of fiction, at least. I understand she had some non-fiction, too.)