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Chargement... Quartet (Norton Paperback Fiction) (original 1969; édition 1997)par Jean Rhys (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreQuatuor par Jean Rhys (1969)
Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. A sordid melodrama whose only merit might its ability to provide insight into a disturbed psyche. I suspect biographer Carole Angier’s assessment of Rhys as a sufferer of borderline personality disorder is on the mark. A short autobiographical novel, which I found tedious and repetitive, it feels longer than it actually is. ‘Quartet’ is the first, slim, novel by ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ author Jean Rhys. Published in 1928 it is its very different from its famous older sister which was not published until 1968. Semi-autobiographical, ‘Quartet’ tells the story of Marya, marooned without money in Paris after her chancer husband Stephan is jailed for theft. It is a novel about loneliness and vulnerability and where that can lead. Marya is taken under the wing of the English couple, the Heidlers. They are spoken of as a unit, he is referred to as HJ, his wife is Lois. It is Lois who persuades Marya to move into the spare bedroom at their studio. HJ, she tells Marya, likes to ‘help people.’ But as days pass, Marya is drawn into their emotional and sexual influence. Not an accurate judge of character, Marya is let down but seems incapable of getting away. Visits to her husband in prison are fleeting and unsatisfactory, husband and wife face their own dilemmas and deal with them alone. This is a melancholy story told beautifully. Marya is intelligent but weak, recognising she is trapped but unable, or unwilling, to extricate herself. ‘You see, I’m afraid the trouble with me is that I’m not hard enough. I’m a soft, thin-skinned sort of person and I’ve been frightened to death these last days.’ She tells her own story but there is often an observational feel almost as if she is standing to the side, commentating about someone playing herself. Some acute observations of other people are really just her transferring her own condition, her own sensibilities onto someone else. I read the Penguin Modern Classics edition with an excellent introduction by Katie Owen, which sets this novel in the context of Rhys’ bibliography. [Borrowed from my local library] Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Appartient à la série éditorialeFischer Taschenbuch (2488) Gallimard, Folio (1379) Perennial Library (P568) Est contenu dansFait l'objet d'une adaptation dansListes notables
Set 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. Jean Rhys's first novel is both poignant anddisturbingly intimate in its vivid depiction of a woman on her own. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)823.912Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1901-1945Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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This semi-autobiographical novel is bleak; Paris is rainy, cold, and dirty and reflects Marya's life which is also sordid, bleak, and cold. This is a story of a woman who seems to be at everyone's mercy and doing nothing to pick up the pieces of her miserable life. Thank goodness it is short and the last of Rhys's books from the 1001 list. The characters are modeled after herself, her husband (Jean) Lenglet, Ford Maddox Ford, and Stella Bowen. ( )