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Till September Petronella
'I knew he was imagining a really lovely girl—all curves, curls, heart and hidden claws'
In stories that span the course of a lifetime—from childhood in the Caribbean to adolescent modelling in Paris; and from lonely adulthood to old age and beyond—here are women adrift, at sea, down but not quite out.
Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
In stories that span the course of a lifetime—from childhood in the Caribbean to adolescent modelling in Paris; and from lonely adulthood to old age and beyond—here are women adrift, at sea, down but not quite out.
Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
53 pages, Paperback
First published February 22, 2018
21 people are currently reading
977 people want to read
About the author
Jean Rhys
67 books1,491 followersJean Rhys, CBE (born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890–14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for her education. She is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.
She moved to England at the age of 16 years in 1906 and worked unsuccessfully as a chorus girl. In the 1920s, she relocated to Europe, travelled as a Bohemian artist, and took up residence sporadically in Paris. During this period, Rhys, familiar with modern art and literature, lived near poverty and acquired the alcoholism that persisted throughout the rest of her life. Her experience of a patriarchal society and displacement during this period formed some of the most important themes in her work.
She moved to England at the age of 16 years in 1906 and worked unsuccessfully as a chorus girl. In the 1920s, she relocated to Europe, travelled as a Bohemian artist, and took up residence sporadically in Paris. During this period, Rhys, familiar with modern art and literature, lived near poverty and acquired the alcoholism that persisted throughout the rest of her life. Her experience of a patriarchal society and displacement during this period formed some of the most important themes in her work.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 133 reviews
September 15, 2024
Rapunzel, rapunzel, let down your hair
Life isn't a fairy tale - if the women in Jean Rhys's stories lose their shoe at midnight, chances are they are going to walk home barefoot, or are under the influence.
Four short stories, neatly arranged following the cycle of a woman's life, from childhood to the next world - each phase equally characterized by inability to find one's place in the world or to connect to others, the impossibility to find an authentic mode of existence and fill the inner void.
Beneath lies a fear of aging, a fear of loneliness, undercurrents of having no sense of belonging and being adrift. And then there is the glass to fill the need.
Recalling the obsessive drinking of Sasha Jansen in Jean Rhys’s novel Good Morning, Midnight, and imagining how the life of Petronella heedlessly drinking in the titular (and longest) story ‘Till September Petronella’, would evolve, thinking of Marguerite Duras’s novel Moderato Cantabile in which Anne Desbaresdes brings herself in a state of inebriation by almost ceremonially drinking wine before being able to engage into conversations creatively reconstructing a crime of passion, I seem to have almost accidently fallen into what has been called the ‘modernist drunk narrative’. Having no biographical notions, nor on Marguerite Duras, nor on Jean Rhys I was suddenly struck by the excessive drinking, unfamiliar with and unaware of the phenomenon of the drinking woman both as a writer and as a character in fiction, rather associating this with male writers like Charles Bukowski, Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas or F. Scott Fitzgerald.
From Every hour a glass of wine – the female writers who drank I gathered the list of twentieth century female writers who sought refuge in the bottle and salvation in the page is quite (miserably) impressive: next to Patricia Highsmith, Jean Rhys, Marguerite Duras, Dorothy Parker, Carson McCullers, to name the ones I have read, feature others I still hope to read, Anne Sexton, Elisabeth Bishop, Jane Bowles, Shirley Jackson – which makes me wonder if the bottle is as prominent in their work as in what I read by Jean Rhys and Marguerite Duras so far. The link between alcohol and creativity, as explored by Olivia Laing in The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking , to me perhaps could be a new, additional angle to keep in mind for further reading, be it with caution, under a security blanket and with a cup of tea.
Life isn't a fairy tale - if the women in Jean Rhys's stories lose their shoe at midnight, chances are they are going to walk home barefoot, or are under the influence.
Four short stories, neatly arranged following the cycle of a woman's life, from childhood to the next world - each phase equally characterized by inability to find one's place in the world or to connect to others, the impossibility to find an authentic mode of existence and fill the inner void.
Beneath lies a fear of aging, a fear of loneliness, undercurrents of having no sense of belonging and being adrift. And then there is the glass to fill the need.
Recalling the obsessive drinking of Sasha Jansen in Jean Rhys’s novel Good Morning, Midnight, and imagining how the life of Petronella heedlessly drinking in the titular (and longest) story ‘Till September Petronella’, would evolve, thinking of Marguerite Duras’s novel Moderato Cantabile in which Anne Desbaresdes brings herself in a state of inebriation by almost ceremonially drinking wine before being able to engage into conversations creatively reconstructing a crime of passion, I seem to have almost accidently fallen into what has been called the ‘modernist drunk narrative’. Having no biographical notions, nor on Marguerite Duras, nor on Jean Rhys I was suddenly struck by the excessive drinking, unfamiliar with and unaware of the phenomenon of the drinking woman both as a writer and as a character in fiction, rather associating this with male writers like Charles Bukowski, Raymond Carver, Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas or F. Scott Fitzgerald.
From Every hour a glass of wine – the female writers who drank I gathered the list of twentieth century female writers who sought refuge in the bottle and salvation in the page is quite (miserably) impressive: next to Patricia Highsmith, Jean Rhys, Marguerite Duras, Dorothy Parker, Carson McCullers, to name the ones I have read, feature others I still hope to read, Anne Sexton, Elisabeth Bishop, Jane Bowles, Shirley Jackson – which makes me wonder if the bottle is as prominent in their work as in what I read by Jean Rhys and Marguerite Duras so far. The link between alcohol and creativity, as explored by Olivia Laing in The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking , to me perhaps could be a new, additional angle to keep in mind for further reading, be it with caution, under a security blanket and with a cup of tea.
March 27, 2022
These four stories, spanning childhood to old age, are artful but too bleak for me - especially the title story about a young woman adrift. I haven't read Rhys in decades and probably won't rush to read her again.
Penguin Modern Classics
#1 - Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
#2 - Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber by Allen Ginsberg
#3 - The Breakthrough by Daphne Du Maurier
#4 - The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker
#5 - Three Japanese Short Stories (3 authors)
#6 - The Veiled Woman by Anais Nin
#7 - Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell
#8 - Food by Gertrude Stein
#9 - The Three Electroknights by Stanislaw Lem
#10 - The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh
#11 - The Legend of the Sleepers by Danilo Kis
#12 - The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison
#13 - Till September Petronella by Jean Rhys
Penguin Modern Classics
#1 - Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
#2 - Television Was a Baby Crawling Toward That Deathchamber by Allen Ginsberg
#3 - The Breakthrough by Daphne Du Maurier
#4 - The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker
#5 - Three Japanese Short Stories (3 authors)
#6 - The Veiled Woman by Anais Nin
#7 - Notes on Nationalism by George Orwell
#8 - Food by Gertrude Stein
#9 - The Three Electroknights by Stanislaw Lem
#10 - The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh
#11 - The Legend of the Sleepers by Danilo Kis
#12 - The Black Ball by Ralph Ellison
#13 - Till September Petronella by Jean Rhys
September 15, 2020
"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave." -- Song of Songs, 8:6
This selection of four short stories of contrasting lengths have been well chosen, their semi-autobiographical nature spanning the author's lifetime from a Caribbean childhood to an ill-advised revisit, their themes of alienation, loneliness and depression mirroring the author's own experiences.
One might think such bleak writing might be of a nature best avoided, but the power of her simple yet expressive prose, seemingly artless but nevertheless exquisitely crafted, is hypnotic and at times dreamlike. I was captivated and felt, paradoxically, both protective and utterly useless: here was a human being expressing her hurt and sense of drifting and yet I was unable to help.
Three of the pieces are told in the first person, a fact which to me strongly suggests a degree of autobiografiction, and though the final piece -- less than two pages long in this edition -- is in the third person, almost as if she is standing apart from herself, sadly observing and grieving for the person that she was. In such a context it feels close to a form of literary disassociation.
The first story is set in the West Indies, where the author, as Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams, spent her childhood; the story reflects some of Rhys' experience as a native-born creole, being perceived as neither black nor white despite being from the land-owning class. When a white immigrant dies his wife -- "a decent, respectable, nicely educated coloured woman, mind you" -- had been humiliated by him once too often in front of guests. She thus is determined to get her own back in a way that determines the title of the story, 'The Day They Burned the Books'. But her decision will have a devastating effect on the two bookish youngsters whose enjoyment of the library has been only too brief -- and there may be significance in the fact that the boy manages to retrieve a Kipling adventure while the narrator only manages a tragic tale by Maupassant.
The title tale of this collection happens to be the longest. Petronella is, as before, a thinly disguised version of the writer, confirmed by the fact that Ella was one of Rhys's forenames. She is a model and former actress, living in digs in Bloomsbury, invited for the summer to join three others in a rented cottage in the Gloucestershire countryside. But it turns out to be a poisonous ménage, a hotbed of jealousy and misogyny, in which the alcoholic bohemian lifestyle of Frankie, Julian and Marston has already roused the suspicion and antagonism of locals -- altogether unsurprising when we discover this all takes place in July 1914. Spontaneously deciding to leave her acquaintances she accepts a lift from a farmer to the railway station, then in London shares first a taxicab and then a bed with a stranger. She seems to drift through the novel, disparaged for being a woman, regarded as socially inferior, depressed enough to contemplate suicide. Though her friends say they hope to see Petronella again after the summer we know that a month later war will start, when nothing will be certain. As a portrait of a young woman feeling adrift and alienated 'Till September Petronella' may be bleak, but it stays continually fascinating as we try to sift through the minutiae of conversations and of random incidents.
The next title -- 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel' -- alerts us to the well-known fairytale, and yet the first person narrative focuses on a woman leaving hospital and being transferred to a convalescent home. Again we examine details and routines and events for significances but their meanings seem to elude us, until finally we realise what bearing the title has on the tale.
'I used to Live Here Once' describes -- in the third person this time, despite the title -- the return of a woman later in life to a childhood home. She has expectations of nostalgia fulfilled, despite some changes time may have wrought, but one telling encounter shows here how deep those changes really are: That was the first time she knew, is the chilling final sentence of this sparsest of short stories.
These are consummate tales, troubling but honest in their depiction of how utterly detached one might feel in life from people, places, even emotions. Here, brutally presented, are pictures of troubled women, holding potential attachments at arm's length for fear of being hurt, of avoiding commitment because of a sense of being unlovable. Powerful stories such as these can play on our innate anxieties; one hopes that Rhys' artistry in conveying loss and isolation helped her in some measure cope with with her own insecurities and vulnerabilities.
February 8, 2023
Jedno z opowiadań było wspaniałe, ale niestety reszta przeszła bez większych emocji.
March 6, 2018
I love these little mini collections Penguin do. You get to sample a writer you've been meaning to read and see if you like them. And yes reader, I do like Jean Rhys! I must finally get around to reading her properly. Three of the stories in this volume are extremely short, the title story is by far the longest and that's only 35 pages. But each story is a vignette of...sadness? Melancholy? Yearning? I can't think of the right word, but suffice it to say this is a beautiful volume but if you are feeling blue it will not lift your spirits!
June 29, 2018
If there were a choice of reading this or watching paint dry, the paint wins without any doubt in my mind. Tedium reaches new heights in this bland collection of paint drying proportions.
What we have here is a writer who does not deserve the accolades handed to them. What I am trying to say is, well... THEY ARE SHIT. There said it.
RIGHT! let us watch some paint dry, I found some vintage red.
Care to join me?
What we have here is a writer who does not deserve the accolades handed to them. What I am trying to say is, well... THEY ARE SHIT. There said it.
RIGHT! let us watch some paint dry, I found some vintage red.
Care to join me?
July 9, 2018
this book has the best ghost story i’ve ever read.
May 18, 2019
It reminded me how good she is. I will perhaps buy her Collected Stories now.
June 27, 2018
Originally posted on A Frolic Through Fiction
With all the other Penguin Moderns I’ve reviewed so far, I’ve divided the reviews into small comments on each small story in the book. This one, however, just seems so finely put together, it feels wrong to do that. This book includes four short stories; The Day They Burnt the Books, Till September Petronella, Rapunzel, Rapunzel and I Lived Here Once. They all feature women who feel lost in the world for whatever reason, and that feeling really resonates with you throughout this book. Different situations, different societies, none of that matters – that sense of being lost is there. Jean Rhys writing style seemed quite scattered and almost disoriented. There was no clear continuation between a couple of paragraphs and the next, and while this would usually bother me, it made me feel off-track and adrift, much like the women of the stories. They all had an ambiguous air to them. There was definitely more to each story that we are told. But somehow it all worked, it said just enough, and leaves you with a series of short stories to remember. I’d love to read more of Jean Rhys’ work, and probably will do sometime soon.
January 21, 2022
review tbc
August 25, 2020
Review in English | Reseña en Español
Over the years, most collections of short stories have been a “hit or miss” for me. Though I love the genre, after reading several authors, I feel one must be a very accomplished writer to truly produce a perfect story with no lose ends.
Unfortunately, this was not the case with this collection by Jean Rhys. I was really excited to dive into Rhys’ short stories, as she became one of my favorite authors after reading Wide Sargasso Sea and I wanted to know more of her work. Now, the four stories included on this collection were ok –not bad, but just not as memorable as I had expected them to be.
The first story is The Day they burned the Books, which is the story of a Caribbean girl who recalls a childhood friend, Eddie, and what happened on the afternoon his mother, enraged, destroyed his father’s library. The story is good in the sense that, in very few words, it paints a clear picture of the life in the Caribbean –colonialism, discrimination, distrust among black and white populations, and prejudice. It also a very sad story and touching at the same time.
Till September, Petronella is the second story and it is about the life of Petronella, a young girl who has not fulfilled her dreams –she wanted to be an actress- and is lost between different worlds and people, trying to understand her purpose in life. This is a deeply sad story and I do believe Rhys does create an atmosphere which goes with the main character’s personality and current state of mind. However, I felt at times that I got lost within the story and that it was not clear until the very end what Petronella was facing or her background so I felt confused at times for not knowing why she behaved in a certain way or had certain acquaintances.
Rapunzel, Rapunzel is set on a mental institution and to be honest, I did not understand the plot of the story -it was just too weird for me: a woman is recovering in one of these places and she meets a very old patient who obsessed with her long hair. I think this could have been darker but didn’t explore this aspect.
I Used to live her once is a ghost story, but it is too short, so I felt this needed to be a couple of pages longer to actually have a greater impact.
As mentioned, my main issue with the stories was that I felt they were okay but there was some aspect I hoped could have been explored further. However I will say that Rhys’ writing is extraordinary and she has a way with words which I can only describe as beautiful: she does convey feelings through her words and her narrative makes you feel immersed in the story, often in a dark, dreamy-like atmosphere, longing with nostalgia for a place or a person. I might give this book another try in the future as perhaps these stories often show a bit more after each reread.
____________
Esperaba un poquito más de esta colección de cuentos de Jean Rhys, autora de Ancho Mar de los Sargazos una de mis novelas favoritas de los últimos tiempos. Y bueno, la verdad es que con los cuentos creo que siempre es un volado: aunque soy fan del género, creo que solo un escritor o escritorio extraordinario(a) puede producir historias completas y redondas en pocas páginas.
A las historias de esta colección creo que les faltó “algo”: me cuesta definir exactamente qué, y sin duda, puede ser una cuestión de gustos, porque no están mal escritas ni mucho menos. Al contrario, si algo reconozco es que la pluma de Rhys es estupenda y su narrativa es muy bella, ya que logra transportar al lector no sólo a cierto lugar o tiempo, sino imbuirnos en el estado o ánimo del protagonista.
Sin embargo, con las historias de esta colección, siento que un par de líneas o párrafos más las hubieran convertido en algo más memorable para mí. Por ejemplo, el cuento más largo que da título a este volumen Hasta Septiembre, Petronella, es bueno, y en verdad que la construcción de la atmósfera es extraordinaria, pero a mi parecer ciertos aspectos pudieron presentarse mejor para comprender, desde un inicio, la historia del personaje. Petronella es un mujer joven que se encuentra perdida –no ha logrado cumplir su sueño de ser actriz- y sobrevive entre un trabajo y otro, asociándose con amistades dudosas. Vivimos con ella una existencia como entre sueños, con amigos y amores casuales y una profunda nostalgia por algo que nunca será. La ejecución me pareció impecable, pero quizá hubiera preferido otra estructura en el cuento.
Las otras tres historias son muy cortas, e insisto, no son malas –es solo que en lo personal me quedé esperando más. Creo que tramas como relatos de fantasmas o de una mujer en un manicomio con una extraña obsesión merecerían algo más de cuatro hojas. Si bien la prosa de Rhys es impecable –es de admirar cómo por ejemplo, en la historia llamada The Day they burned the Books puede resumir en un par de líneas siglos de conflicto racial, de colonialismo y de prejuicio de una manera memorable, en los otros dos relatos me faltó algo más.
Si bien no fue lo que esperaba, sin duda seguiré interesada en la obra de esta autora y probablemente volveré a releer estos cuentos en un futuro cercano.
Over the years, most collections of short stories have been a “hit or miss” for me. Though I love the genre, after reading several authors, I feel one must be a very accomplished writer to truly produce a perfect story with no lose ends.
Unfortunately, this was not the case with this collection by Jean Rhys. I was really excited to dive into Rhys’ short stories, as she became one of my favorite authors after reading Wide Sargasso Sea and I wanted to know more of her work. Now, the four stories included on this collection were ok –not bad, but just not as memorable as I had expected them to be.
The first story is The Day they burned the Books, which is the story of a Caribbean girl who recalls a childhood friend, Eddie, and what happened on the afternoon his mother, enraged, destroyed his father’s library. The story is good in the sense that, in very few words, it paints a clear picture of the life in the Caribbean –colonialism, discrimination, distrust among black and white populations, and prejudice. It also a very sad story and touching at the same time.
Till September, Petronella is the second story and it is about the life of Petronella, a young girl who has not fulfilled her dreams –she wanted to be an actress- and is lost between different worlds and people, trying to understand her purpose in life. This is a deeply sad story and I do believe Rhys does create an atmosphere which goes with the main character’s personality and current state of mind. However, I felt at times that I got lost within the story and that it was not clear until the very end what Petronella was facing or her background so I felt confused at times for not knowing why she behaved in a certain way or had certain acquaintances.
Rapunzel, Rapunzel is set on a mental institution and to be honest, I did not understand the plot of the story -it was just too weird for me: a woman is recovering in one of these places and she meets a very old patient who obsessed with her long hair. I think this could have been darker but didn’t explore this aspect.
I Used to live her once is a ghost story, but it is too short, so I felt this needed to be a couple of pages longer to actually have a greater impact.
As mentioned, my main issue with the stories was that I felt they were okay but there was some aspect I hoped could have been explored further. However I will say that Rhys’ writing is extraordinary and she has a way with words which I can only describe as beautiful: she does convey feelings through her words and her narrative makes you feel immersed in the story, often in a dark, dreamy-like atmosphere, longing with nostalgia for a place or a person. I might give this book another try in the future as perhaps these stories often show a bit more after each reread.
____________
Esperaba un poquito más de esta colección de cuentos de Jean Rhys, autora de Ancho Mar de los Sargazos una de mis novelas favoritas de los últimos tiempos. Y bueno, la verdad es que con los cuentos creo que siempre es un volado: aunque soy fan del género, creo que solo un escritor o escritorio extraordinario(a) puede producir historias completas y redondas en pocas páginas.
A las historias de esta colección creo que les faltó “algo”: me cuesta definir exactamente qué, y sin duda, puede ser una cuestión de gustos, porque no están mal escritas ni mucho menos. Al contrario, si algo reconozco es que la pluma de Rhys es estupenda y su narrativa es muy bella, ya que logra transportar al lector no sólo a cierto lugar o tiempo, sino imbuirnos en el estado o ánimo del protagonista.
Sin embargo, con las historias de esta colección, siento que un par de líneas o párrafos más las hubieran convertido en algo más memorable para mí. Por ejemplo, el cuento más largo que da título a este volumen Hasta Septiembre, Petronella, es bueno, y en verdad que la construcción de la atmósfera es extraordinaria, pero a mi parecer ciertos aspectos pudieron presentarse mejor para comprender, desde un inicio, la historia del personaje. Petronella es un mujer joven que se encuentra perdida –no ha logrado cumplir su sueño de ser actriz- y sobrevive entre un trabajo y otro, asociándose con amistades dudosas. Vivimos con ella una existencia como entre sueños, con amigos y amores casuales y una profunda nostalgia por algo que nunca será. La ejecución me pareció impecable, pero quizá hubiera preferido otra estructura en el cuento.
Las otras tres historias son muy cortas, e insisto, no son malas –es solo que en lo personal me quedé esperando más. Creo que tramas como relatos de fantasmas o de una mujer en un manicomio con una extraña obsesión merecerían algo más de cuatro hojas. Si bien la prosa de Rhys es impecable –es de admirar cómo por ejemplo, en la historia llamada The Day they burned the Books puede resumir en un par de líneas siglos de conflicto racial, de colonialismo y de prejuicio de una manera memorable, en los otros dos relatos me faltó algo más.
Si bien no fue lo que esperaba, sin duda seguiré interesada en la obra de esta autora y probablemente volveré a releer estos cuentos en un futuro cercano.
August 8, 2019
I knew he was imagining a really lovely girl - all curves, curls, heart and hidden claws.
December 24, 2024
more so a 3.5 but the last short story gave me chills and to be able to do that in one page deserves a rounded number.
September 20, 2021
Full review to follow later!
January 19, 2019
No, it was like a room out of one of those long, romantic novels, six hundred and fifty pages of small print, translated from French or German or Hungarian or something - because few of the English ones have that exact feeling I mean. And you read one page of it or even one phrase of it, and then you gobble up all the rest and go about in a dream for weeks afterwards, for months afterwards - perhaps all your life, who knows? - surrounded by those six hundred and fifty pages (...) What is not there you put in afterwards, for it is alive, this book, and it grows in your head.
After reading Jean Rhys for the first time I decided that I would only read one book of hers per year, so that I could make them last. This short story collection left me wanting more and now I'm tempted to break that rule. Anyway, this book shouldn't really count, right? It's way too short to count. Besides, I didn't read any last year, so maybe I'll cash in that one.
I cherish the seemingly plotlessness, and the careful phrases and the gentle details of what she writes. There's a warmth in the loneliness. And a longing, and a void, and hunger, and something rich and complex and exquisite in her words.
-
The Short Stories:
The Day They Burned the Books
Only 10 pages long and I absolutely loved it. There are so many little details that stand out, subtle, gentle, rich, full of meaning and implications. It was my favorite of the four.
Till September Petronella
This somehow feels like classic Jean Rhys, probably because of the drinking, and the relationships with the other characters, but women and men. Yet it left me wondering about Estelle.
Rapunzel, Rapunzel
I could've read an entire novel about this short story. It made me want to read more of hers from when she's old.
It's still quiet, but there's something different in the heartbreak.
I Used to Live Here Once
I didn't like this one as much as the others, maybe it's way too short, but there it felt as if something was lacking, the details weren't as delicate, the sentences weren't as neatly woven as in the rest of her writing.
September 15, 2025
A Jean Rhys Sampler
A review of the Penguin Modern paperback (February 22, 2018) collecting 4 short stories previously published in Tigers are Better-Looking (1968) [1 & 2] and Sleep It Off Lady (1976) [3 & 4].
[4 star average for the 4 stories]
I'm in the process of the reading Miranda Seymour's I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys (2022) which frequently notes the parallels between Jean Rhys's fiction and her real life. I'm considering reading The Collected Short Stories (406 pages) for the upcoming Long Book Challenge and couldn't resist trying this short collection as a teaser sampler.
This anthology can even be read as a roman à clef novella in short stories as it could be interpreted as following a woman's life from a childhood adventure to a final revelation. My ratings were likely influenced by reading the biography, which included various story backgrounds.
The front covers of the original short story collections (1968 & 1976). Images from Goodreads.
1. The Day They Burned the Books **** (orig. 1953, London Magazine 1960, collected 1968). Set in Rhys’ birth island Domenica. A nameless girl is best friends with Eddie, the child of a mixed marriage. Eddie’s English father Mr. Sawyer maintains a large library but abuses his wife. When Sawyer dies, Mrs. Sawyer decides to sell off the best of the library and burn the rest. Eddie and his friend try to rescue one book each from the fire to come.
I read about the background to the story in the Miranda Seymour biography as follows:
2. Till September Petronella **** (orig. 1930s, London Magazine 1960, collected 1968). A roman à clef story, apparently edited down from an abandoned novel from the 1930s. A chorus girl, Miss Petronella Gray*, is invited to a countryside retreat by her artist friend but grows disillusioned by the snide remarks of the host. She escapes back to London and encounters various men on the way who say they will see her in September.
* Jean Rhys's stage name during her chorus girl years was Ella Gray.
I read about the background to the story in the Miranda Seymour biography as follows:
3. Rapunzel, Rapunzel *** A hospital patient is sent to a convalescent home to recover. There she observes another patient who recklessly lets her hair be cut by an incompetent men’s barber, losing most of her hair in the process.
4. I Used To Live Here Once ***** (1976) Very short (500 words) story about a woman who follows a path known from her childhood to a house where she used to live. There she has a shocking revelation delivered in a gut-punch final sentence.
Trivia and Links
Jean Rhys's Till September Petronella is part of a 50-volume Penguin Modern (May 30, 2019) boxset issued by Penguin Books. The promo description reads:
The box set is a limited edition which may gradually become rarer to source. The books are available individually, but will also likely become rare items.
WARNING Amazon.ca and Amazon.com are showing only a nominal fee ($1.99 Cdn, $2.53 US) for a supposed Kindle edition of the 50-volume boxset. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM, THE KINDLE ITEM IS A LIST OF TITLES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONTAIN THE ACTUAL COMPLETE BOOKS.
You can read the list of titles for free at the Penguin Modern link above.
A review of the Penguin Modern paperback (February 22, 2018) collecting 4 short stories previously published in Tigers are Better-Looking (1968) [1 & 2] and Sleep It Off Lady (1976) [3 & 4].
[4 star average for the 4 stories]
I'm in the process of the reading Miranda Seymour's I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys (2022) which frequently notes the parallels between Jean Rhys's fiction and her real life. I'm considering reading The Collected Short Stories (406 pages) for the upcoming Long Book Challenge and couldn't resist trying this short collection as a teaser sampler.
This anthology can even be read as a roman à clef novella in short stories as it could be interpreted as following a woman's life from a childhood adventure to a final revelation. My ratings were likely influenced by reading the biography, which included various story backgrounds.
The front covers of the original short story collections (1968 & 1976). Images from Goodreads.
1. The Day They Burned the Books **** (orig. 1953, London Magazine 1960, collected 1968). Set in Rhys’ birth island Domenica. A nameless girl is best friends with Eddie, the child of a mixed marriage. Eddie’s English father Mr. Sawyer maintains a large library but abuses his wife. When Sawyer dies, Mrs. Sawyer decides to sell off the best of the library and burn the rest. Eddie and his friend try to rescue one book each from the fire to come.
I read about the background to the story in the Miranda Seymour biography as follows:
From January 1953, Jean Rhys spent six months pursuing Selma with an urgency that betrays how badly she needed to earn some money. A promised dramatisation of Quartet, with a role for Selma herself, was followed by a flood of poems and stories, including some very early work (‘Houdia’ and ‘Susan and Suzanne’ both pre-dated Quartet) and the more recently completed ‘The Day They Burned the Books’ (for which a nervous Rhys expressed little hope since ‘most people find it dull’.
2. Till September Petronella **** (orig. 1930s, London Magazine 1960, collected 1968). A roman à clef story, apparently edited down from an abandoned novel from the 1930s. A chorus girl, Miss Petronella Gray*, is invited to a countryside retreat by her artist friend but grows disillusioned by the snide remarks of the host. She escapes back to London and encounters various men on the way who say they will see her in September.
* Jean Rhys's stage name during her chorus girl years was Ella Gray.
I read about the background to the story in the Miranda Seymour biography as follows:
A pleasing distraction from Rhys’s struggle with the novel emerged towards the end of the summer of 1959; Francis was able to report that John Lehmann was eager to publish ‘Till September Petronella’. (It appeared in the January 1960 issue of the London Magazine.) The novel-length story Rhys based upon her awkward 1915 holiday with Adrian Allinson, Philip Heseltine and Philip’s girlfriend had already been drastically cut by Rhys. Heseltine had died back in 1930, but Rhys took care to protect the reputation of his surviving fellow pacifist and conscientious objector by pre-dating events to the summer of 1914.
3. Rapunzel, Rapunzel *** A hospital patient is sent to a convalescent home to recover. There she observes another patient who recklessly lets her hair be cut by an incompetent men’s barber, losing most of her hair in the process.
4. I Used To Live Here Once ***** (1976) Very short (500 words) story about a woman who follows a path known from her childhood to a house where she used to live. There she has a shocking revelation delivered in a gut-punch final sentence.
Trivia and Links
Jean Rhys's Till September Petronella is part of a 50-volume Penguin Modern (May 30, 2019) boxset issued by Penguin Books. The promo description reads:
This box set of the 50 books in the new Penguin Modern series celebrates the pioneering spirit of the Penguin Modern Classics list and its iconic authors. Including avant-garde essays, radical polemics, newly translated poetry and great fiction, here are brilliant and diverse voices from across the globe. Ground-breaking and original in their day, their words still have the power to move, challenge and inspire.
The box set is a limited edition which may gradually become rarer to source. The books are available individually, but will also likely become rare items.
WARNING Amazon.ca and Amazon.com are showing only a nominal fee ($1.99 Cdn, $2.53 US) for a supposed Kindle edition of the 50-volume boxset. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM, THE KINDLE ITEM IS A LIST OF TITLES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONTAIN THE ACTUAL COMPLETE BOOKS.
You can read the list of titles for free at the Penguin Modern link above.
February 10, 2021
They really did Jean Rhys dirty with this one. What a weird collection of tales. The first two fit together in theme and style, and then the last two are supernatural? None of them are bad, I actually rather liked them all, especially the first two, but something about these four stories together just feels off and is a very bad introduction to her as an author, which is the opposite of what these books are supposed to do.
I have never read any of her shorter fiction before this, but even so I can tell you she deserves better than this mediocre presentation. A damn shame.
I have never read any of her shorter fiction before this, but even so I can tell you she deserves better than this mediocre presentation. A damn shame.
March 17, 2022
The first and last stories (The Day They Burned the Books and I Used to Live Here Once) were both really enjoyable and thought-provoking reads which I would highly reccomend, however I feel like the other two stories, especially Till September Petronella, were of a bit of a lower standard and weren't quite as interesting or entertaining. I would still reccomend at least giving them a go if you get the chance though.
April 27, 2023
Emotionally intense stories with characters who are fighting to keep their head above water, through no fault of their own, simply faced with a bad hand that life has dealt them. Till September Petronella is particularly jarring and uncomfortable and portrays a livelihood that, while having the potential for luxuries and riches, is empty beneath the surface.
August 6, 2023
I love a little book that in a few pages can impact you for days, but 'Till September Petronella' sadly did nothing to me.
October 14, 2023
(3.5/5)
August 30, 2024
Me not liking Jean Rhys might just be the loss of my life (Taylor’s Version)
May 3, 2024
Jean Rhys never fails. She is consistently good.
You know the modern version of this if it were a song? Lana Del Rey's "Summertime Sadness".
You know the modern version of this if it were a song? Lana Del Rey's "Summertime Sadness".
July 2, 2020
This is a terrific selection of short stories by Jean Rhys, who I'm ashamed to say I've never heard of before, but whose writing style is beautiful and direct while telling tales that are ambiguous and unsettling.
In all four of these stories, the main character is a woman who can't quite seem to get it together. The endings pack a punch, but usually one in the gut as you realize it's not what you thought. What's especially intriguing is how Rhys trickles in enough of her own background into each story to make the reader begin questioning even the basic premise of whether these are fiction. I assume they are, but their settings – except perhaps the last story, which is the shortest and my favorite of the four – reflect Rhys' life just enough to make you wonder, from the little girl in the Caribbean to the young woman escorting young men through the city, to the sick old woman observing the tragedies taking place around her bed.
All in all, a great collection of classic stories from Penguin Modern.
In all four of these stories, the main character is a woman who can't quite seem to get it together. The endings pack a punch, but usually one in the gut as you realize it's not what you thought. What's especially intriguing is how Rhys trickles in enough of her own background into each story to make the reader begin questioning even the basic premise of whether these are fiction. I assume they are, but their settings – except perhaps the last story, which is the shortest and my favorite of the four – reflect Rhys' life just enough to make you wonder, from the little girl in the Caribbean to the young woman escorting young men through the city, to the sick old woman observing the tragedies taking place around her bed.
All in all, a great collection of classic stories from Penguin Modern.
April 26, 2018
If you enjoy books about 'high society', Till September Petronella is for you. Parts of it really reminded me of F. Scott Fitzgerald (in particular where they drive to the New York hotel) but because it was a short story, there wasn't much depth to the characters.
I loved the first and last stories in this collection, similar in tone to the Wide Sargasso Sea (The Day they Burnt the books and I Used to Live Here Once).
The following (tongue in cheek) line was my favourite:
"But a book by Christina Rosetti, though also bound in leather, went into the heap that was to be burned, and by a flicker in Mrs Sawyer's eyes I knew that worse than men who wrote bookswere women who wrote books - infinitely worse. Men could be mercifully shot; women must be tortured."
Really made me chuckle!
I loved the first and last stories in this collection, similar in tone to the Wide Sargasso Sea (The Day they Burnt the books and I Used to Live Here Once).
The following (tongue in cheek) line was my favourite:
"But a book by Christina Rosetti, though also bound in leather, went into the heap that was to be burned, and by a flicker in Mrs Sawyer's eyes I knew that worse than men who wrote bookswere women who wrote books - infinitely worse. Men could be mercifully shot; women must be tortured."
Really made me chuckle!
June 12, 2019
A sure, beautiful voice recalling the latter days of the British Empire and women's place in it.
Read
September 2, 2025bosh i read this on my graveyard shift at EP and I would mill the fuck out of a full length novel of this esp the second story side note penguin modern collection one of the best inventions OAT shoutout harry and Shane for gifting me the entire set for my birthday Im finally gonna work my way thru all them books goated again writing goated again the world is opening up
March 14, 2019
Rhys's writing style and voice was truly enjoyable to read, but unfortunately two out of the four stories included in this collection left me utterly apathetic towards them. I only enjoyed the first story, 'The Day They Burned the Books' and the last one, 'I Used to Live Here Once'.
June 24, 2018
Rapunzel, Rapunzel was the best story by far. Jean Rhys is a brilliant writer as always though.
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