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In 1924 a young Jean Rhys (then Ella Williams) was in Paris, in some need of rescuing as her husband was in jail. Ford Madox Ford (the famous novelist) and his partner (and mother of his child) Stella Bowen took her in. Quartet is the fictionalised retelling of what happened next.
Rhys wrote this just a few years after and it is remarkable to feel her helplessness and then her rage. Memorable for its imagery and sheer emotion ⬇️

Marya was content in Paris even with her husband‘s uncertain income. When he is jailed, she is thrown upon her own resources – there is no help from family in England. Marya is taken in by the Heidlers, a prominent couple in the ex-pat community and her life becomes one of quiet desperation; she is coerced to pretend respectability while being seduced by Mr. Heidler. When Stephen is released from prison, an untenable situation becomes even worse.

Not that she objected to solitude. Quite the contrary. She had books, thank Heaven, quantities of books. All sorts of books.

#LakeReading

"The days were hot and very lovely. Loveliest in the morning, because then there were grey and silver in the blue dream and cool shadows on the water that was so hot and sticky at midday. Rather like bathing in warmish oil. But sticky or not, it was a caressing sea. If you had any guts; if you were anything else but a tired-out coward, you‘d swim out into the blue and never come back. A good way to finish if you‘d made a mess of your life."

Jean Rhys is absolutely brutal.

"Marya turned to watch Heidler go down on one knee and cross himself as he passed the altar. He glanced quickly sideways at her as he did it, and she thought: 'I'll never be able to pray again now that I‘ve seen him do that. Never! However sad I am.'"

"People went ludicrously wrong. You told the truth, the stark truth--or perhaps you gave it a fig-leaf so as not to harrow too much--and everybody said: 'Come, come,' and 'Don‘t tell me,' and: 'Do you think I was born yesterday?' You told lies and they said: 'Ah, the cri du coeur!'"

"The grey-blue room seemed to be growing larger, the walls had receded, the bulbs of the electric lights had expanded mysteriously. Now they looked like small moons."

"Madame Hautchamp was formidable. One heard the wheels of society clanking as she spoke."

📖Quartet Jean Rhys
✍️Ellery Queen
📽The Quiet Man
🍽Quiche Lorraine
#manicmonday #letterQ

#LitsyClassics Q
Jean Rhys's life is itself worthy of a novel, born of a dominican mthr and welsh fthr, she became a chorus girl moved 2 paris and had an affair with ford maddox ford living with him +his wife. In this bk the heroine marya works in the chorus, marries a pole who is imprisoned in paris, and has a sexual relationship with heidler encouraged by the wife lois.
A bk well worth reading, a fascinating life + works, lost until the 1960's.

My next #LitsyClassics read was waiting for me when we got home last night. Letter Q and a story as with good night midnight about a young engish woman in a difficult situation in 1920's Paris. Her prose captures emotions so well and follows her own life story which is as interesting as her novels. Anyway a quote everyone on litsy will understand.

#litsyclassics #litsyclassicsmatches

@merelybookish @andrew61

#startswithQ #maybookflowers
I loved good morning, midnight and wide sargasso sea and therefore hopefully will get to this soonish. Also what an amazing life. Id actually been just about to give up today on this but then put my book down and looked on my read list on gr for inspiration. Litsy is becoming a bit obsessional 😀

I found more books that #StartswithQ than I thought. And I threw in Anna Quindlen just for fun. 😬 ( I need to figure out how to link titles here in the comments. Anyone know how? ) #maybookshowers

"The room was full of men in caps who bawled intimacies at each other; a gramophone played without ceasing; a beautiful white dog under the counter, which everybody call Zaza and thew bones to, barked madly."

A charming semi-sweet love story.💕

What I am starting today for my "Q". #LitsyAtoZ

A fascinating, strange and unsettling read, based on events in Rhys's own life. The writing style is sparse and sometimes bewildering, full of allusions, imagery and subtext to decode in order to work out what is going on. Ultimately I found the book to be worth the extra effort, and the reading experience all the richer for it.

#192019challenge : published in 1928

Hello subtext my old friend...

This 1928 novella is only 140-odd pages, but it takes a little longer to read as you frequently have to stop to work out what ISN'T being said. Like that pause up there 👆after 'Please will you draw the curtains?'. Yeah. You know what they're doing during that pause.

#192019challenge

Stephan writes from a Paris jail cell: "My dear, I have such a cafard."

In English, cafard = melancholy, depression.
In French, cafard = cockroach.

#192019challenge

'Everybody pretends... only about different things'

#192019challenge