Rhys, Jean

From New World Encyclopedia
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'''Jean Rhys''' (August 24, 1890 - May 14, 1979), originally '''Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams''', was a [[Caribbean]] [[novel]]ist who wrote in the mid [[20th century]].  Her first four novels were published during the 1920s and 1930s, but it was not until the publication of ''[[Wide Sargasso Sea]]'' in 1966 that she emerged as a significant literary figure.  A "[[prequel]]" to [[Charlotte Brontë]]'s ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' won a prestigious [[WH Smith Literary Award]] in 1967.
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'''Jean Rhys''' (August 24, 1890 - May 14, 1979), born '''Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams''', was a [[Caribbean]] [[novel]]ist who wrote in the mid [[20th century]].  Her first four novels were published during the 1920s and 1930s, but it was not until the publication of ''[[Wide Sargasso Sea]]'' in 1966 that she emerged as a significant literary figure.  A "[[prequel]]" to [[Charlotte Brontë]]'s ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' won a prestigious [[WH Smith Literary Award]] in 1967.
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Rhys's [[Creole]] [[heritage]], her experiences as a white Creole woman, both in the [[Caribbean]] and in [[Great Britain|England]], influenced her life and writing. Her [[fiction]] was somewhat autobiographical, often dealing with the theme of a helpless female, an outsider, who is victimized by her dependence on an older man for support and protection.  
  
 
==Personal life==
 
==Personal life==
She was born in [[Roseau, Dominica]], to her father Rhys Williams, a doctor of [[Welsh]] descent, and her mother Minna Lockhart, a third-generation Dominican [[Creole]]. She later adopted her father’s name as her own surname. Growing up in [[Dominica]], an island of the [[Lesser Antilles]], Rhys was heavily influenced by her mother’s Creole cultural background, and would later manifest this in her writing. She was particularly intrigued by black culture and the colonial aspects of life in the islands, though these also resulted in questions about her self-identity. She associated black life with color and vigor, while she characterized whiteness as often hollow and barren.
+
She was born in [[Roseau]], [[Dominica]], to her father Rhys Williams, a doctor of [[Welsh]] descent, and her mother Minna Lockhart, a third-generation Dominican [[Creole]]. She later adopted her father’s name as her own surname. Growing up in Dominica, an island of the [[Lesser Antilles]], Rhys was heavily influenced by her mother’s Creole cultural background, and would later manifest this in her writing. She was particularly intrigued by black culture and the colonial aspects of life in the islands, though these also resulted in questions about her self-identity. She associated black life with color and vigor, while she characterized whiteness as often hollow and barren.
  
In 1907, Rhys left the islands for [[England]], where she felt suddenly confronted by the foreign culture and quickly identified with blacks there. While living with her aunt, Clarice Rhys Williams, she briefly attended [[Perse School]] in [[Cambridge, England|Cambridge]] before going to the Trees School (now the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts]]), but had to discontinue her studies after one term because her father died. Her mother arrived in England, though she died too, after arriving in poor health.
+
In 1907, Rhys left the islands for [[Great Britain|England]], where she felt suddenly confronted by the foreign culture and quickly identified with blacks there. While living with her aunt, Clarice Rhys Williams, she briefly attended [[Perse School]] in [[Cambridge, England|Cambridge]] before going to the Trees School (now the [[Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts]]), but had to discontinue her studies after one term because her father died. Her mother arrived in England, though she died too, after arriving in poor health.
  
After attending the Trees School, she toured with a musical-chorus troupe; her experiences later were adapted in her novel ''Voyage in the Dark'' (1934). She went on to work in theatre, acting as a chorus girl in a few productions. During this period, Rhys lived in near poverty, while familiarizing herself with [[modernism (art)|modern art]] and [[modernism|literature]], and acquiring the [[alcoholism]] that would persist throughout the rest of her life. Her experience of a [[patriarchal]] society and feelings of displacement during this period would form some of the most important themes in her work. Working among the many similarly young, poor, passive, and uneducated women around her at this time, Rhys adopted the plight of females as her cause, which she would represent in her writing.
+
After attending the Trees School, she toured with a musical-chorus troupe; her experiences later were adapted in her novel ''Voyage in the Dark'' (1934). She went on to work in theater, acting as a chorus girl in a few productions. During this period, Rhys lived in near [[poverty]], while familiarizing herself with [[modernism (art)|modern art]] and [[modernism|literature]], and acquiring the [[alcoholism]] that would persist throughout the rest of her life. Her experience of a [[patriarchal]] society and feelings of displacement during this period would form some of the most important themes in her work. Working among the many similarly young, poor, passive, and uneducated women around her at this time, Rhys adopted the plight of females as her cause, which she would represent in her writing.
  
In 1919, she married Jean Lenglet, a French-Dutch journalist and songwriter. Lenglet served in the [[French Foreign Legion]] in [[Africa]], fought on the Western Front, served in the [[Deuxième Bureau]], and traveled on secret diplomatic missions for the French. They moved to [[Paris, France|Paris]], but after the war, Lenglet’s work forced the couple to move constantly. The couple had two children together—a son that died in its infancy in 1919, and a daughter, Maryvonne, born in 1922. The family returned to Paris shortly after Maryvonne's birth.
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In 1919, she married Jean Lenglet, a [[France|French]]-[[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[Journalism|journalist]] and [[songwriter]]. Lenglet served in the [[French Foreign Legion]] in [[Africa]], fought on the Western Front, served in the'' Deuxième Bureau'', and traveled on secret diplomatic missions for the French. They moved to [[Paris, France|Paris]], but after the war, Lenglet’s work forced the couple to move constantly. The couple had two children together—a son that died in its infancy in 1919, and a daughter, Maryvonne, born in 1922. The family returned to [[Paris]] shortly after Maryvonne's birth.
  
Rhys was able to fashion a literary career after meeting [[Ford Madox Ford]]. During the same time, Lenglet’s financial woes led him to make illegal transactions, and he was convicted and sent to prison. Left to support herself and her daughter, Rhys published a collection of stories in ''The Left Bank'' (1927), with editorial help from Ford, her mentor and lover. She followed that with the publication of her first novel Postures, understood to be an account of her affair with Ford. Lenglet was eventually released from prison in the early 1930s, at about the time that the Rhys-Ford affair had ended, though upon Rhys's disclosure to Lenglet of her affair, they separated.
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Rhys was able to fashion a literary career after meeting [[Ford Madox Ford]], an English [[novel]]ist, [[Poetry|poet]], critic and editor, who was always a champion of new literature and literary experimentation. During the same time, Lenglet’s financial woes led him to make illegal transactions, and he was convicted and sent to prison. Left to support herself and her daughter, Rhys published a collection of stories in ''The Left Bank'' (1927), with editorial help from Ford, her mentor and lover. She followed that with the publication of her first novel ''Postures'', understood to be an account of her affair with Ford. Lenglet was eventually released from prison in the early 1930s, at about the time that the Rhys-Ford affair had ended, though upon Rhys's disclosure to Lenglet of her affair, they separated.
  
 
Rhys became acquainted with Leslie Tilden Smith and soon started a relationship. Smith, a literary agent, was able to introduce Rhys to many figures in literary circles, but because she was shy and somewhat reclusive, she remained on the periphery of these circles. By the mid-1930s, Smith and Rhys were married, following the death of Smith's father. These years were highlighted by the couple's visit to Rhys's native Dominica. Though she had developed such a fondness for her origins, she found that she had idealized her memory of the land and the life of its people. Her efforts to write while there were not fruitful. She returned to London, and never again visited the island. As the war broke out in Europe, Rhys was unable to visit Maryvonne, who lived with her father in the Netherlands, but maintained correspondence with her through friends in [[Portugal]].
 
Rhys became acquainted with Leslie Tilden Smith and soon started a relationship. Smith, a literary agent, was able to introduce Rhys to many figures in literary circles, but because she was shy and somewhat reclusive, she remained on the periphery of these circles. By the mid-1930s, Smith and Rhys were married, following the death of Smith's father. These years were highlighted by the couple's visit to Rhys's native Dominica. Though she had developed such a fondness for her origins, she found that she had idealized her memory of the land and the life of its people. Her efforts to write while there were not fruitful. She returned to London, and never again visited the island. As the war broke out in Europe, Rhys was unable to visit Maryvonne, who lived with her father in the Netherlands, but maintained correspondence with her through friends in [[Portugal]].
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==Bibliography==
 
==Bibliography==
*''[[The Left Bank and Other Stories]]'', 1927
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*''The Left Bank and Other Stories'', 1927
*''[[Postures]]'', 1928 (released as ''[[Quartet (Novel)|Quartet]]'' in 1929). ISBN 0393315460.
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*''Postures'', 1928 (released as ''[[Quartet (Novel)|Quartet]]'' in 1929). ISBN 0393315460.
*''[[After Leaving Mr Mackenzie]]'', 1931. ISBN 0393315479.
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*''After Leaving Mr Mackenzie'', 1931. ISBN 0393315479.
*''[[Voyage in the Dark]]'', 1934. ISBN 0393311465.
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*''Voyage in the Dark'', 1934. ISBN 0393311465.
*''[[Good Morning, Midnight]]'', 1939. ISBN 0393303942.
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*''Good Morning, Midnight'', 1939. ISBN 0393303942.
*''[[Wide Sargasso Sea]]'', 1966. ISBN 0393308804.
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*''Wide Sargasso Sea'', 1966. ISBN 0393308804.
*''[[Tigers Are Better-Looking]]: With a Selection from 'The Left Bank' '', 1968. ISBN 0140183469.
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*''Tigers Are Better-Looking: With a Selection from 'The Left Bank' '', 1968. ISBN 0140183469.
*''[[Penguin Modern Stories 1]]'', 1969 (with others)
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*''Penguin Modern Stories 1'', 1969 (with others)
*''[[My Day: Three Pieces]]'', 1975, ISBN 068564409X.
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*''My Day: Three Pieces'', 1975, ISBN 068564409X.
*''[[Sleep It Off Lady]]'', 1976. ISBN 0060135727.
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*''Sleep It Off Lady'', 1976. ISBN 0060135727.
*''[[Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography]]'', 1979. ISBN 0140184058.
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*''Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography'', 1979. ISBN 0140184058.
*''[[Jean Rhys Letters 1931-1966]]'', 1984. ISBN 0233975675.
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*''Jean Rhys Letters 1931-1966'', 1984. ISBN 0233975675.
*''[[Early Novels]]'', 1984. ISBN 0233977228.  
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*''Early Novels'', 1984. ISBN 0233977228.  
*''[[The Complete Novels]]'', 1985. ISBN 0393022269.
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*''The Complete Novels'', 1985. ISBN 0393022269.
*''[[Tales of the Wide Caribbean]]'', 1985. ISBN 0435987496.
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*''Tales of the Wide Caribbean'', 1985. ISBN 0435987496.
*''[[The Collected Short Stories]]'', 1987. ISBN 0393306259.
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*''The Collected Short Stories'', 1987. ISBN 0393306259.
  
 
==Notes==
 
==Notes==
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==External links==
 
==External links==
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3758 Literary Encyclopedia biography].Retrieved October 14, 2007.
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*Hulme, Peter. [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3758 Literary Encyclopedia biography].'' Litencyc.com.'' Retrieved October 14, 2007.
*[http://www.qub.ac.uk/en/imperial/carib/rhysbio.htm Jean Rhys Biography page].Retrieved October 14, 2007.
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*[http://www.lennoxhonychurch.com/jeanrhysbio.cfm Jean Rhys bio]. ''Lennoxhonychurch.com.'' Retrieved October 14, 2007.
*[http://www.lennoxhonychurch.com/jeanrhysbio.cfm Jean Rhys bio with particular ref. to her time in Dominica].Retrieved October 14, 2007.
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*[http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/worldlit/caribbean/rhys.htm ''Wide Sargasso Sea''] ''Eng.fju.edu.tw.'' Retrieved December 17, 2007.
* [http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/speccoll/collections/rhysjean/index.htm University of Tulsa McFarlin Library's inventory of the Jean Rhys Archive housed in their Department of Special Collections and University Archives].Retrieved October 14, 2007.
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* [http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/speccoll/collections/rhysjean/index.htm Jean Rhys Papers]. ''Lib.utulsa.edu.'' Retrieved October 14, 2007.
* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rhys.htm Author's calendar]. Retrieved December 12, 2007.
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* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/rhys.htm Books and Writers]. ''Kirjasto.sci.fi.'' Retrieved December 12, 2007.
  
 
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Revision as of 18:55, 17 December 2007

Jean Rhys (August 24, 1890 - May 14, 1979), born Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, was a Caribbean novelist who wrote in the mid 20th century. Her first four novels were published during the 1920s and 1930s, but it was not until the publication of Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966 that she emerged as a significant literary figure. A "prequel" to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea won a prestigious WH Smith Literary Award in 1967.

Rhys's Creole heritage, her experiences as a white Creole woman, both in the Caribbean and in England, influenced her life and writing. Her fiction was somewhat autobiographical, often dealing with the theme of a helpless female, an outsider, who is victimized by her dependence on an older man for support and protection.

Personal life

She was born in Roseau, Dominica, to her father Rhys Williams, a doctor of Welsh descent, and her mother Minna Lockhart, a third-generation Dominican Creole. She later adopted her father’s name as her own surname. Growing up in Dominica, an island of the Lesser Antilles, Rhys was heavily influenced by her mother’s Creole cultural background, and would later manifest this in her writing. She was particularly intrigued by black culture and the colonial aspects of life in the islands, though these also resulted in questions about her self-identity. She associated black life with color and vigor, while she characterized whiteness as often hollow and barren.

In 1907, Rhys left the islands for England, where she felt suddenly confronted by the foreign culture and quickly identified with blacks there. While living with her aunt, Clarice Rhys Williams, she briefly attended Perse School in Cambridge before going to the Trees School (now the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts), but had to discontinue her studies after one term because her father died. Her mother arrived in England, though she died too, after arriving in poor health.

After attending the Trees School, she toured with a musical-chorus troupe; her experiences later were adapted in her novel Voyage in the Dark (1934). She went on to work in theater, acting as a chorus girl in a few productions. During this period, Rhys lived in near poverty, while familiarizing herself with modern art and literature, and acquiring the alcoholism that would persist throughout the rest of her life. Her experience of a patriarchal society and feelings of displacement during this period would form some of the most important themes in her work. Working among the many similarly young, poor, passive, and uneducated women around her at this time, Rhys adopted the plight of females as her cause, which she would represent in her writing.

In 1919, she married Jean Lenglet, a French-Dutch journalist and songwriter. Lenglet served in the French Foreign Legion in Africa, fought on the Western Front, served in the Deuxième Bureau, and traveled on secret diplomatic missions for the French. They moved to Paris, but after the war, Lenglet’s work forced the couple to move constantly. The couple had two children together—a son that died in its infancy in 1919, and a daughter, Maryvonne, born in 1922. The family returned to Paris shortly after Maryvonne's birth.

Rhys was able to fashion a literary career after meeting Ford Madox Ford, an English novelist, poet, critic and editor, who was always a champion of new literature and literary experimentation. During the same time, Lenglet’s financial woes led him to make illegal transactions, and he was convicted and sent to prison. Left to support herself and her daughter, Rhys published a collection of stories in The Left Bank (1927), with editorial help from Ford, her mentor and lover. She followed that with the publication of her first novel Postures, understood to be an account of her affair with Ford. Lenglet was eventually released from prison in the early 1930s, at about the time that the Rhys-Ford affair had ended, though upon Rhys's disclosure to Lenglet of her affair, they separated.

Rhys became acquainted with Leslie Tilden Smith and soon started a relationship. Smith, a literary agent, was able to introduce Rhys to many figures in literary circles, but because she was shy and somewhat reclusive, she remained on the periphery of these circles. By the mid-1930s, Smith and Rhys were married, following the death of Smith's father. These years were highlighted by the couple's visit to Rhys's native Dominica. Though she had developed such a fondness for her origins, she found that she had idealized her memory of the land and the life of its people. Her efforts to write while there were not fruitful. She returned to London, and never again visited the island. As the war broke out in Europe, Rhys was unable to visit Maryvonne, who lived with her father in the Netherlands, but maintained correspondence with her through friends in Portugal.

At the onset of the war, Smith enlisted with the air force and was stationed at Norfolk, but Rhys spent most of her time in London. Smith died in October 1945, after the end of the war. It was at Smith's funeral that Rhys met his cousin, Max Hamer. Two years later, Rhys and Hamer married and moved to Beckenham, Kent.

In later life she befriended British jazz singer George Melly. She wrote a sardonic love song for him with John Chilton called Life With You.

Rhys died in the Royan Devon and Exeter Hospital on May 14, 1979.

Literary career

Rhys's writing often centers on the lives of women transplanted from their roots and left to die at the whims of unfamiliar societies—an obvious echo of her own life. Her style is often noted for its distinctive blend of modernist techniques and West Indian sensibilities. [1]

The publication of Postures, later published as Quartet, immediately showcased Rhys' primary thematic concern—that of the socially-trapped woman. Though her writing in Postures did not demonstrate the polish of her later work, it introduced her ubiquitous heroine—beautiful, thoughtful and often the subject of oppression. Following Postures was After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, a novel about human relationships. Rhys demonstrated an improvement over Postures in narrative composition, and additional focus on the male consciousness.

For her next novel, Voyage in the Dark, Rhys borrowed heavily from her experiences traveling with a musical troupe. The female protagonist, like Rhys, experiences a longing for the climate and color of the Caribbean. It introduces in Rhys's work the motif of the exoticized islands, which play a more prominent role in later work, with Wide Sargasso Sea. While critical reception of Voyage in the Dark was good, Rhys was often cited for the dark quality of her narratives.

With Good Morning, Midnight (1939), Rhys continued to present the idea of the interior female consciousness, in contrast with her other contemporary modernist writers, who seemed heavily influenced by the worldly and political issues during that time.

After her marriage to Hamer, Rhys became increasingly reclusive, and because of her lengthy absence from publication, her devoted readers believed she may have died. Not until 1949, when actress Selma Vaz Dias printed an ad in the New Statesman to try to find Rhys, did resume her work. When she responded to Dias' ad, she learned that Dias had obtained a dramatic adaptation of her novel Good Morning, Midnight. Dias went on to perform the adaptation at the Anglo-French Center in November 1949, and it was later produced for BBC's Third Programme in 1957. The newfound attention to her novels prompted Rhys to end her hiatus.

In 1957, Diana Athill of Andre Deutsch's publishing house helped return Rhys's work to a wider audience after her writing had fallen out of favor and out of print. Athill was a key player in generating Rhys's resurgence. Two short stories, "Till September Petronella" (1960) and "Let Them Call It Jazz" (1962) were published in London Magazine. Athill was responsible for choosing to publish Wide Sargasso Sea, which was published as a novel in October 1966.[2]

Again, like Rhys's previous novels, Wide Sargasso Sea goes deep in exploring male-female relationships, but it stands alone as Rhys's most famous work. The novel is imagined as a prelude to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, exploring the early years of the marriage between Rochester and the madwoman in the attic—here, named Antoinette.

Rhys published three more books, Tigers Are Better-Looking (1968), Sleep It Off, Lady (1976), and the autobiographical My Day (1975). She died before she could complete her autobiography. The unfinished work was published posthumously as Smile Please (1979).

Legacy

The success of Wide Sargasso Sea brought Rhys an unprecedented level of popularity. After receiving the WH Smith Literary Award and the Heinemann Award for Wide Sargasso Sea, the bulk of her earlier work was republished, giving her greater exposure and critical acclaim.

In 1978, Rhys was made a Commander of the British Empire.

Playwright Polly Teale brought the story of Rhys's life to the stage, in After Mrs. Rochester. The play was first produced at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, London in 2003.[3]

Her collected papers and ephemera are housed in the University of Tulsa's McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections and University Archives.

Bibliography

Notes

  1. Modjeska, Drusilla (1999). Stravinsky's Lunch. Sydney: Picador. ISBN 0 330 36259 3. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  2. The prime of Miss Jean Rhys by Vanessa Thorpe. The Observer UK, October 1, 2006.Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  3. Polly Teale Retrieved December 15, 2007.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 36: British Novelists, 1890-1929: Modernists. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Thomas F. Staley, University of Tulsa. The Gale Group, 1985. pp. 188-202.
  • Davidson, Arnold E. 1985. Jean Rhys. Literature and life series. New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co. ISBN 0804421439
  • Savory, Elaine. 1998. Jean Rhys. Cambridge studies in African and Caribbean literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521474345
  • Sternlicht, Sanford V. 1997. Jean Rhys. New York: Twayne. ISBN 0805746072
  • Angier, Carole. 1990. Jean Rhys: life and work. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0316042633

External links

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