Wide Sargasso Sea

In this imaginative prequel, Rhys gives a story and voice to the "villain" of Jane Eyre. Readers know Bertha as Mr Rochester's crazed wife who haunts his attic. In Wide Sargasso Sea, we meet her in her youth in the West Indies, before she enters an unfortunate marriage with the powerful, selfish Englishman, a marriage so devastating it literally drives her mad. Rhys grew up in the Caribbean herself, and the details ring true in this lush and lyrical story. (I would read Jane Eyre before you pick this up.)