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Last edited by Doro Wynant
March 18, 2023 | History
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Jean Rhys

24 August 1890 - 14 May 1979

Jean Rhys, born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams in 1890, was a 20th-century novelist and writer of short stories. Born and raised on the Caribbean island of Dominica, she moved to England at age 16, became a chorus girl, and embarked on the life of a demimondaine there and in Europe. Her deep sense of being an outsider -- the descendant of white colonialists in the Caribbean, then a Creole in England -- never left her and deeply informed her work.

Rhys's evocative sketches in the 1920s caught the eye, and briefly earned the patronage, of Ford Madox Ford (her fraught relationship with him is explored in her debut novel, Quartet [1928]). She is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), which examined the character of Bertha Rochester (in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre) from a different angle.

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  • Cover of: Wide Sargasso Sea

    First published in 1966 48 editions in 4 languages — 11 previewable Cover of edition widesargassosea0000rhys_q8x3 Cover of edition widesargassosea0000rhys_u1f0 Cover of edition widesargassosea0000rhys_l7l7 Cover of edition widesargassosea0000unse Cover of edition widesargassosea00rhys Cover of edition widesargassosea00jean Cover of edition widesargassosea00rhys_3 Cover of edition widesargassosea00rhys_088 Cover of edition widesargassosea00rhys_579
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  • Cover of: Quartet

    First published in 1928 26 editions in 3 languages — 7 previewable Cover of edition quartet0000rhys_s3k5 Cover of edition quartet0000rhys Cover of edition quartetrhys00rhys Cover of edition quartet00jean Cover of edition quartet00rhys Cover of edition quartetnortonpap00jean
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  • Cover of: Good morning, midnight.

    First published in 1967 25 editions in 4 languages — 3 previewable Cover of edition goodmorningmidn000rhys Cover of edition goodmorningmidni00rhys
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  • Cover of: Voyage in the Dark

    First published in 1934 24 editions in 3 languages — 3 previewable Cover of edition voyageindark00rhys Cover of edition voyageindarktwen0000jean
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  • Cover of: Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography

    First published in 1979 11 editions in 2 languages — 1 previewable
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  • Cover of: After leaving Mr. Mackenzie.

    First published in 1931 8 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable
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  • Cover of: The left bank & other stories.

    First published in 1927 7 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable
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  • Cover of: Tigers are better-looking: with a selection from The Left Bank: stories.

    First published in 1968 7 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition tigersarebetterl00rhys
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  • Cover of: Sleep it off, lady: stories

    First published in 1976 6 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable
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  • Cover of: Quartet

    First published in 1969 6 editions in 1 language
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  • Cover of: My Day

    First published in 1974 5 editions in 1 language
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  • Cover of: The collected shortstories

    First published in 1987 4 editions in 1 language — 3 previewable Cover of edition collectedshortst00rhys Cover of edition collectedshortst00rhys
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  • Cover of: After leaving Mr. Mackenzie / Jean Rhys

    First published in 1973 4 editions in 1 language — 2 previewable Cover of edition afterleavingmrma00rhys
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  • Cover of: Jean Rhys: Letters 1931-1966 (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

    First published in 1985 3 editions in 1 language
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  • Cover of: After leaving Mr. Mackenzie

    First published in 1969 3 editions in 1 language
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  • Cover of: Tigers are better-looking

    First published in 1968 3 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable
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  • Cover of: Los fantabulosos vuelos/ The Marvelous Flights

    First published in 2005 2 editions in 1 language
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  • Cover of: After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (Norton Paperback Fiction)

    First published in 1997 2 editions in 1 language — 1 previewable
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  • Cover of: After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie

    First published in 2020 2 editions in 1 language
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  • Cover of: After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie

    First published in 2000 1 edition
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Photo of Jean Rhys
Subjects
Fiction, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, general, Fiction, short stories (single author), Rhys, jean, 1894-1979, English Novelists, Novelists, English, Biography, Correspondence, English literature, Manners and customs, Social life and customs, Authors, Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author), English, English Short stories, English Women novelists, Fiction, classics, Fiction, women, Imprisonment, Large type books, Man-woman relationships, Married people, Paris (france), fiction, Short stories
Places
Paris (France), Caribbean Area, Dominica, England, West Indies, British West Indies, Caribbean, Coulibri, Europe, France, Granbois, Jamaica, London, London (England), Thornfield Hall
People
Jean Rhys, Jean Rhys (1894-1979), Antoinette, Christophine, Daniel, Mr. Mason, Pierre
Time
20th century, 1930s, 19th century, Siglo XX

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Alternative names

  • Jean Rhys
  • Rui Si (Rhys, Jean, 1894-1979)
  • Rhys Jean
  • Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams

History

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March 18, 2023 Edited by Doro Wynant The wikipedia bio is too short and somewhat inaccurate. Wide Sargasso Sea was not written as a "prequel" to Jane Eyre; rather, Rhys identified with Bertha -- as a Creole and as an exploited woman -- and chose to write Bertha's story. I've studied Rhys's work for 30 yrs, and I know these biographical details very well.
September 27, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot add ISNI
February 27, 2020 Edited by Tom Morris Add AKA
February 12, 2020 Edited by Lisa merge authors
April 12, 2012 Edited by Dylan Cuffy merge authors