Publisher's Synopsis
"A cursed, damaged, aging wretch as I had no right to one so innocent, lovely, good, and gifted as she. Yet . . . I would have her. And soon."
Set in 1840, Rochester: A Thornfield Story is an imaginative exploration of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and its prequel Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, told through the eyes of their fiercely sensuous and introspective leading man, Edward Fairfax Rochester. Passionate and worldly, he tells an evocatively alternative tale of his consuming love for lonely governess Jane Eyre, from their compelling first encounter onward, all the while hiding and denying his terrible secret hidden away in Thornfield Hall's north tower. Leaving behind coincidence and politesse, Edward tells his story in narrative rich with keen observations of settings and fellow players as he details his history of regrets, conflicts of conscience, and newfound relentless desire for a solitary young novice; Jane meantime finding her quiescent soul awakening under her master's ardent allure.
In the backdrop is the beautiful and gentrified but mercenary Blanche Ingram who invested years in claiming Edward and expects her due. And Arthur Eshton, Edward's loyal lifelong friend and fellow discarded second-son to a wealthy sire. Then there's Grace Poole, the embittered keeper of Edward's secret, who schemes a solution to both the master's burden and her own financial security. And of course Bertha Mason; incarcerated in the north tower, her madness is punctuated with longing for the lover she left behind in Jamaica. Protecting Bertha's interests (and his own) is Richard Mason, the next-of-kin inheritor of the Rochester fortune and sole surviving co-conspirator responsible for Edward's misery.
Rochester: A Thornfield Story begins Edward's journey from painful despair to absolution, told in his own uninhibited, saucy, conceited, funny, manly way, never dreaming of fading to black when the bedchamber door closes.
