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
thinking afternoon strange
It is strange how sad it can be - sunlight in the afternoon, don't you think?
writing thinking ifs
When I think about it, if I had to choose, I'd rather be happy than write.
eye thinking circles
I hadn't bargained for this. I didn't think it would be like this - shabby clothes, worn-out shoes, circles under your eyes, your hair getting straight and lanky, the way people look at you. ... I didn't think it would be like this
thinking weight ankles
Every word I say has chains round its ankles; every thought I think is weighted with heavy weights.
thinking mirrors imagine
You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.
hurt party thinking
I think that the desire to be cruel and to hurt (with words because any other way might be dangerous to ourself) is part of human nature. Parties are battles (most parties), a conversation is a duel (often). Everybody's trying to hurt first, to get in the dig that will make him or her feel superior, feel triumph.
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.