- Rhys, Jean
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orig. Ella Gwendolen Rees Williamborn Aug. 24, 1890, Roseau, Dominica, Windward Islands, West Indiesdied May 14, 1979, Exeter, Devon, Eng.Dominican-born British novelist.Rhys left the West Indies for London to study acting at age 16. She later moved to Paris, where she was encouraged to write by Ford Madox Ford. She earned acclaim for short stories and novels set in the bohemian world of Europe in the 1920s and '30s, including Good Morning, Midnight (1939). After settling in Cornwall, she published nothing for nearly three decades before producing Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), a memorable novel about Mr. Rochester's mad first wife in Charlotte Brontë 's Jane Eyre (see Brontë sisters); and two story collections.
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▪ British writeroriginal name Ella Gwendolen Rees Williamsborn Aug. 24, 1890, Roseau, Dominica, Windward Islands, West Indiesdied May 14, 1979, Exeter, Devon, Eng.West Indian novelist who earned acclaim for her early works set in the bohemian world of Europe in the 1920s and '30s but who stopped writing for nearly three decades, until she wrote a successful novel set in the West Indies.The daughter of a Welsh doctor and a Creole mother, Rhys lived and was educated in Dominica until she went to London at the age of 16 and worked as an actress before moving to Paris. There she was encouraged to write by the English novelist Ford Madox Ford. Her first book, a collection of short stories, The Left Bank (1927), was followed by such novels as Postures (1928), After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (1931), Voyage in the Dark (1934), and Good Morning, Midnight (1939).After moving to Cornwall she wrote nothing until her remarkably successful Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), a novel that reconstructed the earlier life of the fictional character Antoinette Cosway, who was Mr. Rochester's mad first wife in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Tigers Are Better-Looking, with a Selection from the Left Bank (1968) and Sleep It Off Lady (1976), both short-story collections, followed. Smile Please, an unfinished autobiography, was published in 1979.Additional ReadingArnold Davidson, Jean Rhys (1985); Carole Angier, Jean Rhys (1990).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
