Jean Rhys was a 20th-century writer from Dominica, best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea. Her work was a postcolonial, feminist response to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Rhys lived a Bohemian lifestyle and her first four novels were promoted by Ford Maddox Ford. Wide Sargasso Sea was published in 1966 and Rhys received the WH Smith Literary Award in 1967. Rhys’ other works of fiction did not receive the same critical acclaim. Her writings and ephemera are held in the University of Tulsa McFarlin Library.
Jean Rhys was a 20th-century writer, best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea, which is a postcolonial, feminist response to Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, a Victorian classic. Jean Rhys was born on August 20, 24 as Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams. She was born on Dominica, a West Indian island that was once a British colony. Her mother was a Scottish Creole and her father was a Welsh man. Rhys lived in Dominica until his sixteenth year, when her family moved to England. In her twenties and thirties, the author traveled throughout Europe, living a Bohemian artistic lifestyle.
Rhys’ first four novels were published during the second and third decades of the twentieth century. His work was promoted by other better known authors such as Ford Maddox Ford. It wasn’t until 1966, however, when Wide Sargasso Sea was published, that Rhys became regarded as an important literary figure. Meanwhile, she has withdrawn from the public sphere. In 1967, the year after Wide Sargasso Sea was published, Rhys received the WH Smith Literary Award.
Biographies of the novelist suggest that these years were dark and difficult times for Rhys. Jean Rhys spent nearly two decades pondering, writing and battling with the Wide Sargasso Sea manuscript. The research featured within the novel is the culmination of the author’s life. Like Antoinette, the protagonist, she was a white descendant of planters living in a postcolonial era.
After Wide Sargasso Sea, the author has written more works of fiction. None of them, however, has received the same critical acclaim as Wide Sargasso Sea. His latest work, Smile Please, is an autobiography. However, the author died before it was finished.
Now that Rhys is regarded as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century, her writings and ephemera have been collected and are considered important in the history of literature. They are currently held in the University of Tulsa McFarlin Library, the Department of Special Collections, and the University Archives.
Below is the list of the author’s works:
The Rive Gauche and other stories
posture
After leaving Mr. Mackenzie
Journey in the dark
Good morning, midnight
Wide Sargasso Sea
Tigers look better
My day: three pieces
Sleep it off lady
Smile please
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