Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys, CBE, born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams, was a mid-20th-century novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica, though she was mainly resident in England from the age of 16. She is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea, written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 August 1894
beautiful hurt mean
But why do you want to talk to me?' He is going to say: 'Because you look so kind,' or 'Because you look so beautiful and kind,' or, subtly, 'Because you look as if you'll understand....' He says: 'Because I think you won't betray me.' I had meant to get this mean to talk to me and tell me all about it, and then be so devastatingly English that perhaps I should manage to hurt him a little in return for all the many times I've been hurt.... 'Because I think you won't betray me, because I think you won't betray me....' Now it won't be so easy.
english-novelist finds home homes takes
Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.
eagle growing sad string violin woman
I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness, sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string and one that is broken, sad as a woman who is growing old.
action
She haunted him, as an ungenerous action haunts one.
girl clothes cost
It's funny, he said, have you ever thought that a girl's clothes cost more than the girl inside them?
real two people
There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about.
book heaven solitude
Not that she objected to solitude. Quite the contrary. She had books, thank Heaven, quantities of books. All sorts of books.
children liars believe
Stephan was secretive and a liar, but he was a very gentle and expert lover. She was the petted, cherished child, the desired mistress, the worshipped, perfumed goddess. She was all these things to Stephan - or so he made her believe.
shadow important substance
One realized all sorts of things. The value of an illusion, for instance, and that the shadow can be more important than the substance. All sorts of things.
beautiful destiny beautiful-things
Have all beautiful things sad destinies?
suicidal next-week years
Next week, or next month, or next year I will kill myself. But I might as well last out my month's rent, which has been paid up ...
book writing matter
All of a writer that matters is in the book or books. It is idiotic to be curious about the person.
wings fire feelings
I want more of this feeling - fire and wings.
forgotten moments eternity
Even the one moment that you thought was your eternity fades out and is forgotten and dies.