| Jean Rhys |
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Information AboutJean Rhys |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT JEAN RHYS | |
| caribbean women writers | |
| 1890 births | |
| 1979 deaths | |
| british novelists | |
| british short story writers | |
| people from dominica | |
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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 continental Europe, travelling as a Bohemian artist and taking up residence sporadically in Paris . During this period, Rhys lived in near poverty, while familiarising herself with Modern Art and Literature , and acquiring the Alcoholism that would persist through the rest of her life. Her experience of a Patriarchal society and feelings of displacement during this period would form some of the most important themes in her work. Rhys's writing often centers on the lives of women transplanted from their roots and left to die at the whims of unfamiliar societies—an obvious echo of her own life. Her style is often noted for its distinctive blend of Modernist techniques and West Indian sensibilities. Her work was published and promoted by Ford Madox Ford , among others.1 Diana Athill of Andre Deutsch 's publishing house helped return Rhys's work to a wider audience after her writing had fallen out of favor and was responsible for choosing to publish ''Wide Sargasso Sea''.2 In later life she lived in London and was a friend of British Jazz singer George Melly . She wrote a sardonic love song for him with John Chilton called ''Life With You''. Her collected papers and ephemera are housed in the University Of Tulsa 's McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections and University Archives. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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