[Bookpossum]

(We share the same first name!) "Wide Sargasso Sea" is very good indeed and well worth reading.

You do have to worry a bit about Rochester's preparedness to lie about the situation in order to marry Jane. At the same time, you can have sympathy for his situation, and that of anyone in such a situation back then when divorce was not an option. The real concern was that he would also be lying to Jane, which is hardly a good basis for a relationship.

On a lighter note, "The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde is hilarious and brilliant in a very quirky way. Jane Eyre is abducted which means that the book will collapse unless she can be restored to it.