Jean Rhys

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Jean Rhys wrote a number of novels and short stories focusing on her own geographical and emotional alienation, as well as an unfinished autobiography. Her fiction from between the two world ward was largely forgotten when her final novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, brought her major success. After this her novels and short-story collections were translated into many languages, including French, Dutch, Belgian, Swedish, German, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Hungarian, Italian, Yugoslavian, Japanese, Czech, Spanish, and Turkish. Her autobiography was translated into French. Several of her novels and stories have been adapted for radio, film and television.
Jean Rhys (left, in hat) with Mollie Stoner

Milestones

24 August 1890

Ella Williams (later JR ) was born in Roseau, the capital of the island of Dominica, in the West Indies.
Although there are many biographies of Jean Rhys, the details of her life are not readily apparent, and accounts are often contradictory. Biographer Elaine Savory points out that Rhys herself wrote selectively (and not always accurately) about her life, and vigorously opposed anyone writing her biography. She preferred to have her very unusual private life erased entirely, so that her work could be the focus of attention.
Savory, Elaine. Jean Rhys. Cambridge University Press.
1-2
Sternlicht, Sanford. Jean Rhys. Twayne.
1
Savory, Elaine. Jean Rhys. Cambridge University Press.
xxi

1 June 1957

JR signed a publishing contract with Deutsch for her fifth and final novel, Wide Sargasso Sea; she did not complete the book for nine torturous years.
Angier, Carole. Jean Rhys: Life and Work. Little, Brown.
473, 475

27 October 1966

JR published her final, groundbreaking novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, in part a retelling of Charlotte Brontë 's Jane Eyre.
Mellown, Elgin W. Jean Rhys: A Descriptive and Annotated Bibliography of Works and Criticism. Garland.
67
Sternlicht, Sanford. Jean Rhys. Twayne.
104

14 May 1979

JR died peacefully in hospital in Dorset.
Angier, Carole. Jean Rhys: Life and Work. Little, Brown.
653

15 November 1979

JR 's Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography appeared posthumously, edited by Diana Athill : she completed the section on her childhood in Dominica, but not that on her adult life in England and France.
Athill, Diana, and Jean Rhys. “Jean Rhys and her Autobiography”. Smile Please, Deutsch, pp. 5-15.
7-9
Mellown, Elgin W. Jean Rhys: A Descriptive and Annotated Bibliography of Works and Criticism. Garland.
110-11

Biography

Birth and Family

24 August 1890

Ella Williams (later JR ) was born in Roseau, the capital of the island of Dominica, in the West Indies.
Although there are many biographies of Jean Rhys, the details of her life are not readily apparent, and accounts are often contradictory. Biographer Elaine Savory points out that Rhys herself wrote selectively (and not always accurately) about her life, and vigorously opposed anyone writing her biography. She preferred to have her very unusual private life erased entirely, so that her work could be the focus of attention.
Savory, Elaine. Jean Rhys. Cambridge University Press.
1-2
Sternlicht, Sanford. Jean Rhys. Twayne.
1
Savory, Elaine. Jean Rhys. Cambridge University Press.
xxi

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