Jean Rhys

Author profile

born

December 13, 1901 in Roseau, Dominica

died

May 14, 1979

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Jean Rhys originally 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 was born in Dominica (a formerly British island in the Caribbean) to a Welsh father and Scottish 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, Rhy...more

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Books by Jean Rhys

Average rating: 3.56 · 18,131 ratings · 1,723 reviews · 23 distinct works

	Wide Sargasso Sea 3.48 avg rating — 14,674 ratings — published 1966 — 46 editions	My rating:
	Good Morning, Midnight 3.96 avg rating — 1,196 ratings — published 1939 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Voyage in the Dark 3.87 avg rating — 734 ratings — published 1935 — 10 editions	My rating:
	After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie 3.91 avg rating — 502 ratings — published 1930 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Quartet 3.73 avg rating — 449 ratings — published 1928 — 15 editions	My rating:
	Sleep it Off Lady: Stories by Jean Rhys 4.02 avg rating — 101 ratings — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Collected Short Stories by Jean Rhys, Diana Athill (Introduction) 4.08 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 1987 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography by Jean Rhys, Diana Athill (Introduction) 4.10 avg rating — 93 ratings — published 1980 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Jean Rhys: The Complete by Jean Rhys, Brassai (Photographer) 4.33 avg rating — 85 ratings — 3 editions	My rating:
	Tigers are Better-Looking: With a selection from The Left Bank 3.99 avg rating — 84 ratings — 7 editions	My rating:

More books by Jean Rhys…

Quotes by Jean Rhys

“Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”
― Jean Rhys

93 people liked it

“Today I must be very careful, today I have left my armor at home.”
― Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight

46 people liked it

“You can pretend for a long time, but one day it all falls away and you are alone. We are alone in the most beautiful place in the world...”
― Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

36 people liked it

See all Jean Rhys's quotes »

Polls

Vote for the June Group Read (Beyond 1940...)

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan Bennett

10 votes, 43.5%

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

8 votes, 34.8%

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

5 votes, 21.7%

The Queen and I by Sue Townsend

0 votes, 0.0%

23 total votes

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