Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys (August 24, 1890 - May 14, 1979), originally Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, was a novelist in the mid 20th century. Her first four novels were published during her twenties and thirties, 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.

Related Topics:
August 24 - 1890 - May 14 - 1979 - Novelist - Wide Sargasso Sea - 1966 - Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre - WH Smith Literary Award - 1967

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Rhys was born in Dominica (a formerly British island in the Caribbean) to a Welsh father and Creole mother. She moved to England at the age of sixteen, where she worked unsuccessfully as a chorus girl. In the 1920s, she relocated to Europe, traveling as a Bohemian artist and taking up residence sporadically in Paris. During this period, Rhys lived in near poverty, while familiarizing herself with modern art and literature, and acquiring the alcoholism that would persist through 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.

Related Topics:
Dominica - British - Caribbean - Welsh - Creole - England - Bohemian - Paris - Modern art - Literature - Alcoholism - Patriarchal

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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. Her work was published and promoted by Ford Madox Ford, among others.

Related Topics:
Modernist - West Indian - Ford Madox Ford

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