Jean Rhys, a Critical Study

by Thomas F. Staley

1979, hardcover edition, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX. 140-page critical overview of the writer. In 1974, in a review, Jean Rhys was called "quite simply the best living English novelist." The author died in 1979 and her life is examined in this interesting title. Rhys, like many writers, was not an instant success and here is an overview of her career and her later critical and popular recognition. She was a careful writer who produced a small body of work that is much admired.

140 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1979

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Staley's critical survey of Jean Rhys's novels and short stories is a great companion while reading Rhys's obscure and at times dark and difficult work. Though I suspect most of the book's readers are scholars of literature, I appreciated the book's insight into Rhys's first four novels as I completed them, and his discussion of her later successful Wide Sargasso Sea (and her short stories) before I delved into them. His analysis, like Peter Wolfe's book, also titled Jean Rhys, is as brief and to the point as a Rhys novel.