The Blue Hour : A Life of Jean Rhys

Published by Norton, 2009, hardcover, 323 pages, condition: new.

A groundbreaking biography of a psychologically traumatized novelist who forever changed the way we look at women in fiction.

Jean Rhys (18901979) is best known for her 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea. A prequel to Jane Eyre, Rhyss revolutionary work reimagined the story of Bertha Rochesterthe misunderstood madwoman in the attic who was driven to insanity by cruelties beyond her control. The Blue Hour performs a similar exhumation of Rhyss life, which was haunted by demons from within and without. Its examination of Rhyss 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.

 I read all of Jean Rhys. The Complete Novels: Voyage in the Dark / Quartet / After Leaving Mr Mackenzie / Good Morning, Midnight / Wide Sargasso Sea.

Much later I came across this biography written by Lilian Pizzichini. It is fantastic and is one of the best biographies of an author/artist/woman that I have ever read. It felt like an undiscovered Rhys novel and Pizzichini was well equipped to delve into the nuances of class, identity, a sort of p*********n, and full-blown alcoholism. Highly recommended if you are reading Jean Rhys.