Synopses & Reviews
Jean Rhys (1890-1979) is best known for her 1966 novel
Wide Sargasso Sea. A prequel to Jane Eyre, Rhys's revolutionary work reimagined the story of Bertha Rochester the misunderstood 'madwoman in the attic' who was driven to insanity by cruelties beyond her control.
The Blue Hourperforms a similar exhumation of Rhys's life, which was haunted by demons from within and without. Its examination of Rhys's pain and loss charts her desperate journey from the jungles of Dominica to a British boarding school, and then into an adult life scarred by three failed marriages, the deaths of her two children, and her long battle with alcoholism.
A mesmerizing evocation of a fragile and brilliant mind, The Blue Hourexplores the crucial element that ultimately spared Rhys from the fate of her most famous protagonist: a genius that rescued her, again and again, from the abyss.
Review
"'I think we do ourselves and literature a disservice which [when?] we try to untangle what we call the facts from the fiction. As if there were two parallel lines which never met.' -- Jeanette Winterson
The biography of Jean Rhys which has just been published by W.W. Norton is not a biography. It is a biopic in narrative form. This is not entirely the fault of its writer, Lillian Pizzichini; writing a biography of Jean Rhys is a tricky proposition. Lauren Elkin, The Quarterly Conversation (Read the entire )
Synopsis
A groundbreaking biography of a psychologically traumatized novelist who forever changed the way we look at women in fiction.
Synopsis
This groundbreaking biography of Jean Rhys -- best known for her 1966 "Wide Sargasso Sea" -- examines the life of the psychologically traumatized novelist who forever changed the way readers interpret women in fiction.
Synopsis
A groundbreaking biography of a psychologically traumatized novelist who forever changed the way we look at women in fiction.
Synopsis
Jean Rhys (1890-1979) is best known for her 1966 novel
Wide Sargasso Sea. A prequel to Jane Eyre, Rhys's revolutionary work reimagined the story of Bertha Rochester--the misunderstood "madwoman in the attic" who was driven to insanity by cruelties beyond her control.
The Blue Hour performs a similar exhumation of Rhys's life, which was haunted by demons from within and without. Its examination of Rhys's pain and loss charts her desperate journey from the jungles of Dominica to a British boarding school, and then into an adult life scarred by three failed marriages, the deaths of her two children, and her long battle with alcoholism.
A mesmerizing evocation of a fragile and brilliant mind, The Blue Hour explores the crucial element that ultimately spared Rhys from the fate of her most famous protagonist: a genius that rescued her, again and again, from the abyss.
About the Author
British biographer Lilian Pizzichinihas worked for the Literary Reviewand the Times Literary Supplement.