In Charlotte Bronte's 1847 novel Jane Eyre, Rhys found the inspiration for Wide Sargasso Sea. Jane Eyre traces the travails of a poor English governess. In this novel, Bertha Antoinetta Mason appears fleetingly as a crazed Creole madwoman who threatens Jane Eyre's happiness.

The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, Mary Seacole's 1857 autobiography. The Jamaican-born Seacole relates her life as a nurse in the West Indies, Central America, England, and the Crimea. This woman of mixed Scottish and African ancestry describes her rise to fame as a celebrated nurse as well as the racial prejudice she encountered along the way.

In her 1934 novel, Voyage in the Dark, Rhys tells the story of Anna Morgan, a white West Indian woman who lives in England. Often dreaming of home and feeling alienated by life in England, Anna becomes an alcoholic prostitute...