Jean Rhys
Sign in to saveAlso known as Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, Ella Rees Williams
British novelist (1890–1979)
Key facts
- Born
- Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams , ( 1890-08-24 ) 24 August 1890, Roseau or Grand Bay , British Leeward Islands (now Dominica )
- Died
- 14 May 1979 (1979-05-14) (aged 88), Exeter , Devon, England
- Occupation
- Novelist, short story writer , essayist
- Genre
- Modernism , postmodernism
- Notable works
- Good Morning, Midnight (1939) Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)
- Spouse
- Jean Lenglet ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1919 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1933 ) Leslie Tilden-Smith ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1934 ; died 1945 ) Max Hamer ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1947 ; died 1966 )
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- Dominica
- Place of birth
- Roseau
- Place of death
- Exeter
- Occupation
- novelist
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- belletristic literature
- Image
- Jean Rhys (left, in hat) with Mollie Stoner, Velthams, 1970s B (cropped).jpg
Show 6 more facts
- date of birth
- 1890-08-24
- date of death
- 1979-05-14
- unmarried partner
- Ford Madox Ford
- Commons category
- Jean Rhys
- start of work period
- 1924-00-00
- writing language
- English language
via Wikidata · CC0
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Jean Rhys (/riːs/ REESS; born Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British Creole novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she resided mainly in England, where she was sent for her education. She is best known for her final novel, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.
Rhys started writing intermittently around 1914, and found a literary mentor in Ford Madox Ford (with whom she also had an affair) in 1923. With his assistance and encouragement, her first work of fiction—The Left Bank and Other Stories—was published in 1927. This was followed by four short semi-autobiographical novels about women navigating perilous circumstances across London and Paris: Quartet (1928), After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (1931), Voyage in the Dark (1934), and Good Morning, Midnight (1939). After these publications failed to lead to significant financial or critical success, Rhys felt her writing career had stalled, and largely withdrew from public life.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Jean Rhys” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.