Book Review: The Collected Short Stories, by Jean Rhys (1987)

 

Paperback cover of The Collected Short Stories, by Jean Rhys (1987). Photo by Mark C. Taylor

Ella Rees Williams, who wrote under the pen name Jean Rhys, 1890-1979.

Jean Rhys is best-known for her stark, modernist novels like Voyage in the Dark, and Good Morning, Midnight, as well as her Jane Eyre prequel, Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys also wrote short stories, and they are all assembled in the 1987 volume, The Collected Short Stories.

The Collected Short Stories includes the contents of Rhys’ first short story collection The Left Bank, published in 1927, and her late collections 1968’s Tigers are Better-Looking, and 1976’s Sleep It Off Lady. Also included are various short stories that didn’t make it into those three books. Curiously enough, the back cover of the book says that it contains 36 stories, when there are actually 51 stories in the book. I guess the proof-reader missed that one.

I’ve read all of Jean Rhys’ novels, and I think she was a very talented writer. Her subject matter is always depressing, but she writes so well that you’re drawn into her worlds. I felt I needed to read The Collected Short Stories so I could say I’ve read all of her work. But Rhys’ short stories didn’t do much for me. If you’ve read any of her novels, then you’ve basically read her short stories. Rhys’ short stories are all variations on the same theme: 51 stories, all sounding the same notes of depression and alienation.

Rhys was a misanthrope of the highest order. I can’t really tell you anything that she liked about life. In Rhys’ view, men are vile, but still somewhat attractive, and women are catty gossips best avoided. One of the key quotes I wrote down was: “Coming back from one of these walks the thought came to me suddenly, like a revelation, that I could kill myself any time I liked and so end it. After that I put a better face on things.” (p.126) Well, whatever it takes to cheer yourself up, I guess.

Rhys’ own life was closely mirrored in her fiction. Born Ella Rees Williams, she was raised on the island of Dominica until the age of 16, when she was sent to England to finish her schooling. She felt herself an outsider in both societies, and I suspect she never felt at home anywhere in this world. Eventually she made her way to Paris in the 1920’s, and Ford Madox Ford encouraged her writing. Rhys kept coming back to her youth again and again in her writing, and there are only two short stories that seem to be set after World War II.

I think the lack of plot hampers Rhys’ short stories more than her novels. You don’t read Jean Rhys for the plot or for narrative tension. I quickly figured out with Rhys’ novels that the plot isn’t really that important, so I’m reading the book for the mood. (It helps that all her novels are about 200 pages long.) But as I was reading the short stories, it just hit me over and over in each story: there’s no plot, no tension. If you take away narrative drive/plot/tension, then what else do you have except style/voice? That’s a large burden for style to carry over 51 stories and 400 pages. I think Rhys’ novels are much better constructed than her stories. If you’re looking to get a feel for her voice as a writer, read Voyage in the Dark, Good Morning, Midnight, or Wide Sargasso Sea.