Rhys, Jean 1894–1979

Rhys was an English novelist and short story writer born in the West Indies. The Wide Sargasso Sea, published in 1966 after a silence of twenty-seven years, led to the reprinting and reassessment of her earlier work. Her timeless narratives focus on lonely, passive, dependent women, whose lives parallel the author's in certain aspects. As a young woman, Rhys immigrated to England, was unsuccessful in a show business career, married but found herself abandoned in Europe, became a protégée of Ford Madox Ford, and disappeared from the public eye after World War II. She was reintroduced in 1958 when the BBC broadcast her Good Morning, Midnight. (See also CLC, Vols. 2, 4, 6, 14, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 25-28, rev. ed.; obituary, Vols. 85-88.)