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
brain calm foolish
Something in her brain that still remained calm told her that she was doing a very foolish thing indeed.
being-yourself children soul
When you are a child you are yourself and you know and see everything prophetically. And then suddenly something happens and you stop being yourself; you become what others force you to be. You lose your wisdom and your soul.
beautiful successful wish
Now I no longer wish to be loved, beautiful, happy or successful. I want one thing and one thing only - to be left alone.
home today armor
Today I must be very careful, today I have left my armor at home.
sometimes life-is melancholy
Everything tender and melancholy - as life is sometimes, just for one moment.
betrayal doe traitor
And what does anyone know about traitors, or why Judas did what he did?
golden-days lasts sun
But they never last, the golden days. And it can be sad, the sun in the afternoon, can't it? Yes, it can be sad, the afternoon sun, sad and frightening.
dream lying magic
Only the magic and the dream are true — all the rest's a lie.
beautiful hurt mean
But why do you want to talk to me?' He is going to say: 'Because you look so kind,' or 'Because you look so beautiful and kind,' or, subtly, 'Because you look as if you'll understand....' He says: 'Because I think you won't betray me.' I had meant to get this mean to talk to me and tell me all about it, and then be so devastatingly English that perhaps I should manage to hurt him a little in return for all the many times I've been hurt.... 'Because I think you won't betray me, because I think you won't betray me....' Now it won't be so easy.
would-be longing thirsty
She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it.
eye heart my-heart
Something came out from my heart into my throat and then into my eyes.
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.
want lovers
She’ll have no lover, for I don’t want her and she’ll see no other.
lasts firsts first-time
The last time you were happy about nothing; the first time you were afraid about nothing. Which came first?