Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys's late, literary masterpiece Wide Sargasso Sea was inspired by Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, and is set in the lush, beguiling landscape of Jamaica in the 1830s. Born into an oppressive, colonialist society, Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent sensuality and beauty. After their marriage the rumours begin, poisoning her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is driven towards madness.

Often considered Jean Rhys's most autobiographical novel, this masterful and moving work follows a chorus girl, Anna, who struggles to adjust to cold and inhospitable England after a childhood in the West Indies. When an affair that at first feels like salvation comes to a disastrous end, Anna begins to unravel.

Quartet, Jean Rhys's first novel, launched her literary career in the late 1920s, and today remains an incisive, sinister tale of love and obsession.After her husband, Stephan, is arrested, Marya finds herself destitute in Paris. With nowhere else to turn, she accepts the hospitality of an English couple living on the fringes of the artistic world. Yet as Marya is drawn inexorably into their universe, she becomes entangled in a bizarre sexual and psychological relationship that frightens even as it fascinates her--and as the date of Stephan's release from prison draws near, Marya's new life splits apart at the seams.

»En av 1900-talets 100 bästa engelskspråkiga romaner.« | Time Magazine»Det är ett verk som skakat om och förändrat perspektivet. En svindlande läsupplevelse.« | Maria Ehrenberg, KristianstadsbladetSargassohavet utspelar sig i det tidiga 1800-talets Västindien, mitt i den förrädiska naturens överdådiga grönska. Antoinette Cosway gifter sig med den unge engelsmannen Edward Rochester. Men illasinnade rykten börjar cirkulera - och får honom att vända sig mot henne. Sakta men säkert drivs Antoinette mot vansinne. Sargassohavet bygger på Charlotte Brontës roman Jane Eyre. Den är en omskrivning av den viktorianska berättelsen men samtidigt ett enastående verk i sig självt, som med tiden blivit en postkolonial klassiker.JEAN RHYS [1890-1979], född Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams, var en brittisk författare med västindiskt ursprung (Dominikanska Republiken). Kort efter utgivningen av Godmorgon, midnatt! [1939] försvann Rhys från offentlighetens ljus, innan hon oväntat återkom med romanen Sargassohavet [1966].»Det är som om Charlotte Brontës roman Jane Eyre vore del två i en romansvit och nu har man äntligen hittat del ett, för att strax upptäcka att den är ännu bättre.« | Catrin Villaume Fägerstrand, Norrköpings Tidningar

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'A gorgeous clothbound edition of Jean Rhys's great masterpiece of desire and madness in the Caribbean, published for the novel's fiftieth anniversary. Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another novel's heroine. This classic study of betrayal, a seminal work of postcolonial literature, is Jean Rhys's brief, beautiful masterpiece.'She took one of the works of genius of the nineteenth century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the twentieth century'Michele Roberts, The Times

Wide Sargasso Sea, a masterpiece of modern fiction, was Jean Rhys's return to the literary center stage. She had a startling early career and was known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction's most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Bront 's Jane Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.A new introduction by the award-winning Edwidge Danticat, author most recently of Claire of the Sea Light, expresses the enduring importance of this work. Drawing on her own Caribbean background, she illuminates the setting's impact on Rhys and her astonishing work.

Sargassohavet utspelar sig i det tidiga 1800-talets Västindien, mitt i den förrädiska naturens överdådiga grönska. Antoinette Cosway gifter sig med den unge engelsmannen Edward Rochester. Men illasinnade rykten börjar cirkulera och får honom att vända sig mot henne. Sakta men säkert drivs Antoinette mot vansinne. Sargassohavet bygger på Charlotte Brontës roman Jane Eyre. Den är en omskrivning av den viktorianska berättelsen men samtidigt ett enastående verk i sig självt, som med tiden blivit en postkolonial klassiker. JEAN RHYS [18901979] hade länge antagits död när hon plötsligt åter dök upp på den litterära scenen med Sargassohavet 1966. I den engelskspråkiga världen mottogs romanen som en sensation. »Rhys öppnar en hemlig dörr i Brontës viktorianska roman en dörr till koloniernas historia, minst lika undertryckt som en förbjuden kvinnlig vrede. Sargassohavet är ett oroande mästerverk.« EVA STRÖM, SYDSVENSKAN »Tveklöst ett mästerverk.« MAGNUS ERIKSSON, SVENSKA DAGBLADET »Det är som om Charlotte Brontës roman Jane Eyre vore del två i en romansvit och nu har man äntligen hittat del ett, för att strax upptäcka att den är ännu bättre.« CATRIN VILLAUME FÄGERSTRAND, NORRKÖPINGS TIDNINGAR »En av 1900-talets 100 bästa engelskspråkiga romaner.« TIME MAGAZINE

Sargassohavet utspelar sig i det tidiga 1800-talets Västindien, mitt i den förrädiska naturens överdådiga grönska. Antoinette Cosway, en kreolsk arvtagerska, gifter sig med den unge engelsmannen Rochester, men hemska rykten börjar cirkulera vilka vänder honom mot henne. Antoinette drivs sakta men säkert mot galenskap. Sargassohavet är inspirerad av Charlotte Brontës Jane Eyre, och är ett försök att rent bokstavligt skriva om historien, men också ett enastående verk i sig självt. Denna postkoloniala klassiker görs nu åter tillgänglig för svenska läsare. Jean Rhys (1890-1979) hade länge antagits vara död, när hon plötsligt dök upp på den internationella scenen igen. Efter en kort litterär karriär under 20- och 30-talet, med böcker om unga kvinnor på drift i Paris och Londons undre värld, försvann hon helt från offentligheten. När Sargassohavet (Wide Sargasso Sea) publicerades 1966 blev boken en sensation, som också fick många att återupptäcka Rhys tidigare författarskap. Den kan beställas redan nu men levereras först i slutet av november. Sargassohavet har utnämnts till en av 1900-talets 100 bästa böcker av TIME Magazine.

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World''Rhys took one of the works of genius of the 19th Century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the 20th Century' Michele RobertsJean Rhys's masterpiece tells the story of Jane Eyre's 'madwoman in the attic', Bertha Rochester.Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another novel's heroine. This classic study of betrayal, a seminal work of postcolonial literature, is Jean Rhys's brief, beautiful masterpiece. Edited with an introduction and notes by Angela Smith

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World''Rhys took one of the works of genius of the 19th Century and turned it inside-out to create one of the works of genius of the 20th Century' Michele RobertsJean Rhys's masterpiece tells the story of Jane Eyre's 'madwoman in the attic', Bertha Rochester.Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another novel's heroine. This classic study of betrayal, a seminal work of postcolonial literature, is Jean Rhys's brief, beautiful masterpiece. Edited with an introduction and notes by Angela Smith

Beautiful and wealthy Antoinette Cosway's passionate love for an English aristocrat threatens to destroy her idyllic West Indian island existence and her very life; accompanied by notes and criticism

«Du går på ein veg i fred og ro. Du snublar. Du fell inn i noko svart. Det er fortida - eller kanskje framtida. Og du veit at det ikkje finst noka fortid, noka framtid, det er berre dette svarte, som endrar seg ørlite, sakte, men likevel forblir det same.» I God morgon, midnatt (1939) møter vi Sasha i det ho ser for seg eit par rolege, sunne veker i balanse, der ho besøker Paris igjen, ein by ho har budd i tidlegare. Ho vandrar i gamle oppgåtte trasear og besøker restaurantar, hotell og barar som ho eingong har kjent. Samstundes streifar ho att og fram i tankane mellom fortida, der så mykje har sett merke i henne, og notida, der ho på sett og vis er nummen. I notida treffer ho særleg ei rekkje menn, som ho forhandlar med om nærleik og avstand, verdi og verdløyse, tiltru og fortviling.

The last of the four novels Jean Rhys wrote in interwar Paris, Good Morning, Midnight is the culmination of a searing literary arc, which established Rhys as an astute observer of human tragedy. Her everywoman heroine, Sasha, must confront the loves-- and losses-- of her past in this mesmerizing and formally daring psychological portrait.

Julia Martin is in Paris and at the end of her rope. Once beautiful, she was taken care of by men. Now, after being dropped by her latest lover, Mr. Mackenzie, Julia is running out of luck and chances. A visit to London to see her ailing mother might offer an opportunity to start over--but it also brings her face to face with her distrustful sister, Norah, who can't help but feel that Julia has only changed for the worse in the years since they last saw one another. And it proves difficult to escape the desultory romantic entanglements of Paris when a suitor follows her to England.Nowhere is Jean Rhys's talent for fully inhabiting the minds of her characters more apparent than in After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie, her masterful second novel. Rhys lays bare the desires and contradictions of the mercurial Julia, and all those trapped in her orbit, in this haunting depiction of life after the end of a tumultuous affair.

»Det är en fantastisk roman, som tiden nu äntligen har kommit ikapp.« | Björn Kohlström, Jönköpings-Posten»God morgon, midnatt! är helt enkelt en briljant skildring av ångest, av ensamhet, av det borttappade livet och av den lilla, hemliga underström som förmår en människa att försöka leva en allra sista gång.« | Malin Ullgren, DN»Jean Rhys skriver fram en rastlös monotoni, en lågintensiv desperation i febriga stycken prosa [... ] Det är hjärtskärande, sorgligt och vackert.« | Jenny Aschenbrenner, SvD I trettiotalets Paris, där det ena billiga hotellrummet liknar det andra, undervisar en ung kvinna sig själv i likgiltighet. Hon har undkommit en personlig tragedi och flyttat till Paris för att finna mod och självständighet. Hon intalar sig att aldrig förvänta sig något, i synnerhet inte vänlighet - och i synnerhet inte från männen. I morgon, beslutar hon sig, ska hon bleka håret blont.Jean Rhys hör till genierna i den engelskspråkiga 1900-talslitteraturen, och God morgon, midnatt! [Good Morning, Midnight!, 1939] hör till de absoluta mästerverken.I svensk översättning av Annika Preis och med ett förord av författaren och kritikern Arazo Arif.JEAN RHYS [1890 -1979], född Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams, var en brittisk författare med västindiskt ursprung (Dominikanska Republiken), bosatt i England fr.o.m. 16 års ålder. Kort efter utgivningen av God morgon, midnatt! [1939] försvann Rhys från offentlighetens ljus, innan hon oväntat återkom med romanen Sargassohavet [1966].»En existentiell redovisning som trots sina 78 år på nacken känns osannolikt modern. Jag önskar att Godmorgon, midnatt! aldrig skulle ta slut.« | Anna Lundvik, Sydsvenskan»En sådan äkthet och en sådan nerv!« | Just här - Just nu»Den mest subtila, mest fulländade - och mest mänskliga - av Jean Rhys romaner.« | V.S. Naipaul

New to Penguin Classics, the remarkable, devastating collected stories by the author of Wide Sargasso Sea.Some of Jean Rhys's most powerful writing is to be found in this rich, dark collection of her collected stories. Her fictional world is haunted by her own, painful memories: of cheap hotels and drab Parisian cafés; of devastating love affairs; of her childhood in Dominica; of drifting through European cities, always on the periphery and always perilously close to the abyss. Rendered in extraordinarily vivid, honest prose, these stories show Rhys at the height of her literary powers and offer a fascinating counterpoint to her most famous novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. This volume includes all the stories from her three collections,The Left Bank (1927), Tigers Are Better-Looking (1968) and Sleep It Off, Lady (1976).

A brilliant companion piece to Wide Sargasso Sea, this is Jean Rhys's beautifully written, bitter-sweet autobiography, covering her chequered early years in Dominica, England and Paris.Jean Rhys wrote this autobiography in her old age, now the celebrated author of Wide Sargasso Sea but still haunted by memories of her troubled past: her precarious jobs on chorus lines and relationships with unsuitable men, her enduring sense of isolation and her decision at last to become a writer. From the early days on Dominica to the bleak time in England, living in bedsits on gin and little else, to Paris with her first husband, this is a lasting memorial to a unique artist.Includes an introduction by Diana Athill.

"There is no looking glass here and I don't know what I am like now… Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I?" If Antoinette Cosway, a spirited Creole heiress, could have foreseen the terrible future that awaited her, she would not have married the young Englishman. Initially drawn to her beauty and sensuality, he becomes increasingly frustrated by his inability to reach into her soul. He forces Antoinette to conform to his rigid Victorian ideals, unaware that in taking away her identity he is destroying a part of himself as well as pushing her towards madness. Set against the lush backdrop of 1830s Jamaica, Jean Rhys's powerful, haunting masterpiece was inspired by her fascination with the first Mrs Rochester, the mad wife in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Jean Rhys's first novel, a heartbreaking and disturbingly intimate portrayal of an isolated woman in ParisSet in a superficially romantic, between-wars Paris, Quartet is a poignant tale of a lonely woman. Set against a background of winter-wet streets, Pernod in smoky cafes and cheap hotel rooms with mauve- flowered wallpaper, Marya tries to make something substantial of her life in order to withstand the unreality of her surroundings. Alone, her Polish husband in prison, she is taken up by an English couple who slowly overwhelm her with their passions.