Dusting off a classic – Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys (1890-1979) is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea, which appeared in 1966 when many thought she had died years before.

During the interwar years, Rhys pursued a demi-monde lifestyle in London and Paris. She wrote four novels on this subject, and the last of these – Good Morning, Midnight (1939) – is the first to appear now in a Norwegian translation by Grethe Fatima Syéd.

The quartet have many features in common. They describe young women on the fringes of both the artistic scene and their own lives, confused, frozen and to some extent despairing. These characters wander the urban landscape, with a rather too relaxed relationship with alcohol and rather unhappy relationships with men.

Syéd, a literary scholar, author and translator, presents Rhys’ work in Norwegian.