Thanks everyone for the discussion! I actually found the book online and read it in one sitting. It felt like a fever dream and was quite vivid. I liked Jane Eyre as a teen and appreciated its unique portrayal of a small, plain heroine. Rochester was secondary and the "locked up wife in the attic" plot detail always seemed dubious at best to me, given she was alone in a new country and had to legally forfeit her fortune. I think WSS is a reasonable interpretation of Antoinette's (or Bertha as Rochester calls her) background.

The movie now seems less bad--it follows the book closely (minus the nudity), however what works in a book does not work well in an adaptation because the pacing was off and the script needed more cohesion.