Books
by Jean Rhys
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Quartet |
1922, Paris: a city where well-heeled ex-pats rubbed shoulders with writers, artists and bohemians. Here Rhys became caught in a claustrophobic ménage à trois with Ford Madox Ford and his wife. In this raw semi-autobiographical novel, she recreates the confusion of a young, woman trying to survive in a sophisticated society where because she doesn't understand the rules, she is shunned as the culprit. Prejudiced perhaps, but powerful writing!
(Jenny Baker - bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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Wide Sargasso Sea |
In this richly imaginative novel, Rhys gives a voice to the mad Creole wife in Jane Eyre. If Rochester was the victim of the machinations of their families, surely she was equally wronged? Who was Bertha Antoinette Mason? Were she, her mother and brother really congenitally mad? What might have turned this beautiful, ardent heiress into the biting, malicious monster in the attic? Sacred ground perhaps but as she points out: "There is always the other side". Rhys's masterpiece.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 67 Winter 2013) |
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