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Jean Rhys, ( ; born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of
Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...
. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for her education. She is best known for her novel ''
Wide Sargasso Sea ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is a 1966 novel by Dominican-British author Jean Rhys. The novel serves as a postcolonial and feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë's novel ''Jane Eyre'' (1847), describing the background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from t ...
'' (1966), written as a
prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...
to
Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She enlisted i ...
's ''
Jane Eyre ''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...
''. In 1978, she was appointed a Commander of the
Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(CBE) for her writing.


Early life

Rhys's father, William Rees Williams, was a Welsh medical doctor and her mother, Minna Williams, née Lockhart, a third-generation Dominican Creole of Scots ancestry. ("Creole" was broadly used in those times to refer to any person born on the island, whether they were of European or African descent, or both.) She had a brother. Her mother's family had an estate, a former plantation, on the island. Rhys was educated in Dominica until the age of 16, when she was sent to England to live with an aunt, as her relations with her mother were difficult. She attended the Perse School for Girls in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...
, where she was mocked as an outsider and for her accent. She attended two terms at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...
in London by 1909. Her instructors despaired of her ever learning to speak "proper English" and advised her father to take her away. Unable to train as an actress and refusing to return to the Caribbean as her parents wished, Williams worked with varied success as a
chorus girl A chorus line is a large group of dancers who together perform synchronized routines, usually in musical theatre. Sometimes, singing is also performed. Chorus line dancers in Broadway musicals and revues have been referred to by slang terms su ...
, adopting the names Vivienne, Emma, or Ella Gray. She toured Britain's small towns and returned to rooming or boarding houses in rundown neighbourhoods of London.Carr, Helen (2004). "Williams, Ella Gwendoline Rees (1890–1979)," ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,'' Oxford University Press. After her father died in 1910, Rhys appeared to have experimented with living as a
demimondaine is French for "half-world". The term derives from a play called , by Alexandre Dumas , published in 1855. The play dealt with the way that prostitution at that time threatened the institution of marriage. The was the world occupied by elite me ...
. She became the mistress of wealthy stockbroker Lancelot Grey Hugh Smith, whose father Hugh Colin Smith had been
Governor of the Bank of England The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent grooming their successor. The governor of the Ba ...
. Though a bachelor, Smith did not offer to marry Rhys, and their affair soon ended. However, he continued to be an occasional source of financial help. Distraught by events, including a near-fatal
abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregnan ...
(not Smith's child), Rhys began writing and produced an early version of her novel ''
Voyage in the Dark ''Voyage in the Dark'' was written in 1934 by Jean Rhys. It tells of the semi-tragic descent of its young protagonist Anna Morgan, who is moved from her Caribbean home to England by an uncaring stepmother, after the death of her father. Once ...
''. In 1913, she was self-employed for a time in London. During the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighti ...
, Rhys served as a volunteer worker in a soldiers' canteen. In 1918, she worked in a pension office.


Marriage and family

In 1919, Rhys married Willem Johan Marie (Jean) Lenglet, a French-Dutch journalist, spy, and songwriter. He was the first of her three husbands. She and Lenglet wandered throughout Europe. They had two children, a son who died young and a daughter. They divorced in 1933, and their daughter lived mostly with her father. The next year, Rhys married Leslie Tilden-Smith, an English editor. In 1936, they went briefly to Dominica, the first time Rhys had returned since she had left for school. She found her family estate deteriorating and island conditions less agreeable. Her brother Oscar was living in England, and she took care of some financial affairs for him, making a settlement with a
mixed-race Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...
woman on the island and Oscar's illegitimate children by her. In 1937, Rhys began a friendship with novelist Eliot Bliss (who had taken her first name in honour of two writers she admired). The two women shared Caribbean backgrounds. The correspondence between them survives. In 1939, Rhys and Tilden-Smith moved to
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is a ...
, where they lived for several years. He died in 1945. In 1947, Rhys married Max Hamer, a
solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
who was a cousin of Tilden-Smith. He was convicted of fraud and imprisoned after their marriage. He died in 1966.


Writing career

In 1924, Rhys came under the influence of English writer
Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
. After meeting Ford in Paris, Rhys wrote short stories under his patronage. Ford recognised that her experience as an exile gave Rhys a unique viewpoint, and praised her "singular instinct for form". "Coming from the West Indies,
ord Ord or ORD may refer to: Places * Ord of Caithness, landform in north-east Scotland * Ord, Nebraska, USA * Ord, Northumberland, England * Muir of Ord, village in Highland, Scotland * Ord, Skye, a place near Tarskavaig * Ord River, Western Austr ...
declared, 'with a terrifying insight and... passion for stating the case of the underdog, she has let her pen loose on the Left Banks of the Old World'." This he wrote in his preface to her debut short story collection, '' The Left Bank and Other Stories'' (1927). It was Ford who suggested she change her name from Ella Williams to Jean Rhys.Owen, Katie, "Introduction", ''Quartet'', Penguin Modern Classics edition, Penguin, 2000, p. vi. At the time her husband was in jail for what Rhys described as currency irregularities. Rhys moved in with Ford and his long-time partner
Stella Bowen Esther Gwendolyn "Stella" Bowen (1893–1947) was an Australian artist and writer. Early career Bowen was born in North Adelaide, an inner suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, and educated at Tormore House School. As a young girl, Bowen enjo ...
. An affair with Ford ensued, which she portrayed in fictionalised form in her novel ''
Quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...
'' (1928). Her protagonist is a stranded foreigner, Marya Zelli, who finds herself at the mercy of strangers when her husband is jailed in Paris. The 1981
film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
of the novel, produced by
Merchant Ivory Productions Merchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant (1936–2005) and director James Ivory (b. 1928). Merchant and Ivory were life and business partners from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. During thei ...
, starred
Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performer ...
,
Isabelle Adjani Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for '' Possession'' (1981), ...
, Anthony Higgins, and
Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story '' Whistle Down the Wind'' to the " kitchen sink" dram ...
. In '' After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie'' (1931), the protagonist, Julia Martin, is a more unravelled version of Marya Zelli, romantically dumped and inhabiting the sidewalks, cafes and cheap hotel rooms of Paris. With ''
Voyage in the Dark ''Voyage in the Dark'' was written in 1934 by Jean Rhys. It tells of the semi-tragic descent of its young protagonist Anna Morgan, who is moved from her Caribbean home to England by an uncaring stepmother, after the death of her father. Once ...
'' (1934), Rhys continued to portray a mistreated, rootless woman. Here the narrator, Anna, is a young chorus girl who grew up in the West Indies and feels alienated in England. '' Good Morning, Midnight'' (1939) is often considered a continuation of Rhys's first two novels. Here, she uses modified
stream of consciousness In literary criticism, stream of consciousness is a narrative mode or method that attempts "to depict the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind" of a narrator. The term was coined by Daniel Oliver in 1840 in ''First Li ...
to voice the experiences of an ageing woman, Sasha Jansen, who drinks, takes
sleeping pill Hypnotic (from Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of (and umbrella term for) psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep (or surgical anesthesiaWhen used in anesthesia ...
s, and obsesses over her looks, and is adrift again in Paris. ''Good Morning, Midnight'', acknowledged as well written but deemed depressing, came as World War II broke out and readers sought optimism. This seemingly ended Rhys's literary career. In the 1940s, Rhys largely withdrew from public life. From 1955 to 1960, she lived in
Bude Bude (; kw, Porthbud) is a seaside town in north east Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Bude-Stratton and at the mouth of the River Neet (also known locally as the River Strat). It was sometimes formerly known as Bude Haven.''Cornis ...
, Cornwall, where she was unhappy, calling it "Bude the Obscure", before moving to Cheriton Fitzpaine, a small village in Devon. After a long absence from the public eye, she was rediscovered by Selma Vaz Dias, who in 1949, placed an advertisement in the ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...
'' asking about her whereabouts, with a view to obtaining the rights to adapt her novel '' Good Morning, Midnight'' for radio. Rhys responded, and thereafter developed a long-lasting and collaborative friendship with Vaz Dias, who encouraged her to start writing again. This encouragement ultimately led to the publication in 1966 of her critically acclaimed novel ''
Wide Sargasso Sea ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is a 1966 novel by Dominican-British author Jean Rhys. The novel serves as a postcolonial and feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë's novel ''Jane Eyre'' (1847), describing the background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from t ...
''. She intended it as an account of the woman whom Rochester married and kept in his attic in ''
Jane Eyre ''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...
''. Begun well before she settled in Bude, the book won the notable
WH Smith Literary Award The WH Smith Literary Award was an award founded in 1959 by British high street retailer W H Smith. Its founding aim was stated to be to "encourage and bring international esteem to authors of the British Commonwealth"; originally open to all res ...
in 1967. She returned to themes of dominance and dependence, especially in marriage, depicting the mutually painful relationship between a privileged English man and a Creole woman from Dominica made powerless on being duped and coerced by him and others. Both the man and the woman enter marriage under mistaken assumptions about the other partner. Her female lead marries Mr. Rochester and deteriorates in England as the "madwoman in the attic". Rhys portrays this woman from a quite different perspective from the one in ''Jane Eyre''.
Diana Athill Diana Athill (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing company Andre Deutsch Ltd. Early life ...
of
André Deutsch André Deutsch (15 November 1917 – 11 April 2000) was a Hungarian-born British publisher who founded an eponymous publishing company in 1951. Biography Deutsch was born on 15 November 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a Jewish denti ...
gambled on publishing ''Wide Sargasso Sea''. She and the writer Francis Wyndham helped to revive interest in Rhys's work.Preliminary page in Jean Rhys, ''Quartet'', Penguin: 2000, There have been film, operatic and radio adaptations of the book. In 1968,
André Deutsch André Deutsch (15 November 1917 – 11 April 2000) was a Hungarian-born British publisher who founded an eponymous publishing company in 1951. Biography Deutsch was born on 15 November 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, the son of a Jewish denti ...
published a collection of Rhys' short stories, '' Tigers Are Better-Looking'', of which eight were written during her 1950s period of obscurity and nine republished from her 1927 collection '' The Left Bank and Other Stories''. Her 1969 short story "I Spy a Stranger", published by Penguin Modern Stories, was adapted for TV in 1972 for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
's ''
Thirty-Minute Theatre ''Thirty-Minute Theatre'' was a British anthology drama series of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, which was used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short running length, and which t ...
'' starring
Mona Washbourne Mona Lee Washbourne (27 November 1903 – 15 November 1988) was an English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film '' Stevie'' (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Gold ...
,
Noel Dyson Elsie Noël Dyson (23 December 1916 – 29 June 1995) was an English character actress Dyson played a number of roles in theatre, television and films (including in telemovies) but is best remembered as a versatile character actress in TV seri ...
, Hanah Maria Pravda, and
Basil Dignam Basil Dignam (24 October 1905 – 31 January 1979) was an English character actor. Basil Dignam was born in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire. Before the acting, he tried many jobs, from a company clerk to a journalist. He acted on film and ...
. In 1976, Deutsch published another collection of her short stories, '' Sleep It Off Lady'', consisting of 16 pieces from an approximately 75-year period, starting from the end of the 19th century.


Later years

From 1960, and for the rest of her life, Rhys lived in Cheriton Fitzpaine in Devon that she once described as "a dull spot which even drink can't enliven much." Characteristically, she remained unimpressed by her belated ascent to literary fame, commenting, "It has come too late." In an interview shortly before her death she questioned whether any novelist, not least herself, could ever be happy for any length of time: "If I could choose I would rather be happy than write... if I could live my life all over again, and choose...."


Death

Jean Rhys died in
Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal c ...
on 14 May 1979, at the age of 88, before completing an autobiography, which she had begun dictating only months earlier. In 1979, the incomplete text was published posthumously under the title '' Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography''.


Legacy and honours

In a 1974 ''
New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' written appreciation,
A. Alvarez Alfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez. Background Alfred Alvarez was born in London, to an Ashkenazic Jewish mother and a ...
called Jean Rhys “quite simply, the best living English novelist". Jean Rhys was appointed a
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
in the
1978 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1978 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, to celebrate the year passed and mark the begin ...
. Australian filmmaker
John Duigan John Duigan (born 19 June 1949) is an Australian film director and screenwriter. He is mostly known for his two autobiographical films '' The Year My Voice Broke'' and ''Flirting'', and the 1994 film ''Sirens'', which stars Hugh Grant. Biogr ...
directed a 1993 erotic drama, ''Wide Sargasso Sea'', based on Rhys's best-known novel. The 2003 book and stage play '' After Mrs Rochester'' by
Polly Teale Polly Teale (born December 1962) is a British theatre director and playwright best known for her work with the Shared Experience theatre company, of which she was an artistic director. Career In 2002, Teale directed a production of Helen Edmund ...
is based on the life of Jean Rhys and her book, ''Wide Sargasso Sea''. In 2012,
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...
marked her
Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...
flat at Paulton House in Paultons Square with a
blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
. In 2020, a pen owned by Rhys (with another owned by
Andrea Levy Andrea Levy (7 March 1956 – 14 February 2019) was an English author best known for the novels '' Small Island'' (2004) and '' The Long Song'' (2010). She was born in London to Jamaican parents, and her work explores topics related to Britis ...
) was added to the
Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elec ...
's historic collection for the signing of their Roll Book.


Archives

Rhys's collected papers and ephemera are housed in the
University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin t ...
's McFarlin Library. The
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
acquired a selection of Jean Rhys Papers in 1972, including drafts of short stories, novels; ''After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie'', ''Voyage in the Dark'', and ''Wide Sargasso Sea'', and an unpublished play entitled ''English Harbour''. Research material relating to Jean Rhys can also be found in th
Archive of Margaret Ramsey Ltd
at the British Library relating to stage and film rights for adaptations to her work. The British Library also holds correspondence between Jean Rhys and
Patrick Garland Patrick Ewart Garland (10 April 1935 – 19 April 2013) was a British director, writer and actor. Career Garland was educated at St Mary's College, Southampton, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he studied English and was Literary Editor of Is ...
relating to his adaptation of 'I Spy a Stranger' and about 'Quartet'.Correspondence in the British Library between Jean Rhys and Patrick Garland about adaptations of 'I spy a Stranger' and more
/ref>


Selected bibliography

*'' The Left Bank and Other Stories'', 1927 *'' Postures'', novel, 1928 (published in the US as ''
Quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...
,'' 1929) *'' After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie'', novel, 1931 *''
Voyage in the Dark ''Voyage in the Dark'' was written in 1934 by Jean Rhys. It tells of the semi-tragic descent of its young protagonist Anna Morgan, who is moved from her Caribbean home to England by an uncaring stepmother, after the death of her father. Once ...
'', novel, 1934 *'' Good Morning, Midnight'', novel, 1939 *''
Wide Sargasso Sea ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' is a 1966 novel by Dominican-British author Jean Rhys. The novel serves as a postcolonial and feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë's novel ''Jane Eyre'' (1847), describing the background to Mr. Rochester's marriage from t ...
'', novel, 1966 *'' Tigers Are Better-Looking: With a Selection from 'The Left Bank' '', stories, 1968 *''Penguin Modern Stories 1'' (with
Bernard Malamud Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseb ...
, David Plante, and
William Sansom William Norman Trevor Sansom FRSL (18 January 1912 – 20 April 1976) was a British novelist, travel and short story writer known for his highly descriptive prose style. Profile Sansom was born in London, the third son of Ernest Brooks Sans ...
), 1969 *''My Day: Three Pieces'', stories, 1975 *'' Sleep It Off Lady'', stories, 1976 *'' Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography'', 1979 *'' Jean Rhys: Letters 1931–1966'', 1984 *''Early Novels'', 1984 *''The Complete Novels'', 1985 *''Tales of the Wide Caribbean'', stories, 1985 *''The Collected Short Stories'', 1987 *'' Let Them Call It Jazz'', stories, 1995


References


Further reading

*Angier, Carol. ''Jean Rhys: Life and Work''. Little, Brown and Co., 1990. * *Dash, Cheryl M. L. "Jean Rhys", in Bruce King, ed., ''West Indian Literature''. Macmillan, 1979, pp. 196–209. *Joseph, Margaret Paul. ''Caliban in Exile: The Outsider in Caribbean Fiction'', Greenwood Press, 1992. * Lykiard, Alexis, ''Jean Rhys Revisited''. Stride Publications, 2000. *Lykiard, Alexis. ''Jean Rhys Afterwords''. Shoestring Press, 2006. * * Seymour, Miranda. '' I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys''. 2022. *


External links


Literary Encyclopedia biographyJean Rhys bio, with particular reference to her time in Dominica
University of Tulsa McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Jean Rhys Papers
the British Library
Biography of Jean Rhys
by Dominican historian Lennox Honychurch
London Fictions article on 'After Leaving Mr Mackenzie'
by literary historian Susie Thomas {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhys, Jean 1890 births 1979 deaths Caribbean women writers Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art British women novelists People educated at The Perse School People educated at the Perse School for Girls Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Emigrants from British Dominica to the United Kingdom Dominica women writers Dominica novelists Dominica people of British descent 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British women writers Modernist women writers Modernist writers British women short story writers People from Roseau 20th-century British short story writers Lost Generation writers