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benedettal's review against another edition
2.5
Only now finding out this was about an affair with Ford Madox Ford makes it a lot more interesting. Anyway, Quartet is all about affairs, jealously, possessiveness and all those ugly things. Part of me is fascinated by those weird dynamics that form when a wife allows her husband to pursue other interests, but at the same time, here it’s very clear that she’s not okay with that one bit and it makes the story lose its edge (contrast with Garden of Eden)
Ultimately I think the biggest issue is that I didn’t exactly get why Marya was into Heidler, besides the fact that she was destitute and panicked. But I think the author was trying to suggest some romance, otherwise it’d be pure exploitation of not one but two women, and I don’t think that’s the intention. I take it that Ford was a mentor to Jean Rhys, but it doesn’t transpire at all in the fictionalised version, he just seems attracted to her. I don’t know, maybe that’s the point Rhys was trying to make, I’m just projecting my desire for the story to be hotter. As it is it’s just a little bit miserable. Also feel bad for the husband, if anything his rage at the end was satisfying.
Ultimately I think the biggest issue is that I didn’t exactly get why Marya was into Heidler, besides the fact that she was destitute and panicked. But I think the author was trying to suggest some romance, otherwise it’d be pure exploitation of not one but two women, and I don’t think that’s the intention. I take it that Ford was a mentor to Jean Rhys, but it doesn’t transpire at all in the fictionalised version, he just seems attracted to her. I don’t know, maybe that’s the point Rhys was trying to make, I’m just projecting my desire for the story to be hotter. As it is it’s just a little bit miserable. Also feel bad for the husband, if anything his rage at the end was satisfying.
t_thekla's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
this is about me and my 11th grade chemistry teacher
raulbime's review against another edition
4.0
"Life was like that. Here you are, it said, and then immediately afterwards. Where are you?"
The second book set in France during the first half of the 20th century that I’ve read this past month, the other one being [b:Black Docker|123756|Black Docker (African Writers Series)|Ousmane Sembène|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1677791464l/123756._SX50_.jpg|119163] by Ousmane Sembène. Both are first novels, both focus on characters at the margins of society, and both drew from the personal lives of their writers. Where Sembène focused on a Black immigrant man in France, Rhys focuses on a poor and down and out (white) immigrant woman.
Marya finds herself in a dire situation when her Polish husband, Stephan, is arrested by French authorities and is left with no income and could basically become homeless, when an English couple offers her their home to stay in while she’s in this fiasco. She soon finds out that the husband wants to have an affair, and the wife will put up with and even (falsely) encourage this as long as it doesn’t disrupt her marriage. Both pulling at and using the emotionally broken woman who seeks escape from her depressing reality in drink.
It’s incredible that this was published in 1928. The psychological probing into the power dynamics of relationships between men and women reminded me of early Doris Lessing (which is really all the Lessing I’ve read so far), only Rhys work is tighter in form and clearer in language. It’s just marvellous and completely absorbs the reader into the tribulations of a financially dependent woman in a downward spiral.
This was truly a depressing book. It wasn’t intended as my first Rhys read, [b:Wide Sargasso Sea|25622780|Wide Sargasso Sea|Jean Rhys|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453021061l/25622780._SY75_.jpg|142647] was meant to be my first one, but a brief biography I’d read of Jean Rhys made me interested in her life and work and tracing her literary and philosophical development through the years, and so I decided to read the books in order of publication. Only I’ve found out too late that this was her first novel but not her first book, as she had a collection of short stories published a year before this that I’m yet to read. Learning that this book was inspired by Rhys’s affair with the writer Ford Madox Ford, his wife Stella Bowen and her husband Jean Lenglet rounding up the real quartet, adds more sadness to this book.
The second book set in France during the first half of the 20th century that I’ve read this past month, the other one being [b:Black Docker|123756|Black Docker (African Writers Series)|Ousmane Sembène|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1677791464l/123756._SX50_.jpg|119163] by Ousmane Sembène. Both are first novels, both focus on characters at the margins of society, and both drew from the personal lives of their writers. Where Sembène focused on a Black immigrant man in France, Rhys focuses on a poor and down and out (white) immigrant woman.
Marya finds herself in a dire situation when her Polish husband, Stephan, is arrested by French authorities and is left with no income and could basically become homeless, when an English couple offers her their home to stay in while she’s in this fiasco. She soon finds out that the husband wants to have an affair, and the wife will put up with and even (falsely) encourage this as long as it doesn’t disrupt her marriage. Both pulling at and using the emotionally broken woman who seeks escape from her depressing reality in drink.
It’s incredible that this was published in 1928. The psychological probing into the power dynamics of relationships between men and women reminded me of early Doris Lessing (which is really all the Lessing I’ve read so far), only Rhys work is tighter in form and clearer in language. It’s just marvellous and completely absorbs the reader into the tribulations of a financially dependent woman in a downward spiral.
This was truly a depressing book. It wasn’t intended as my first Rhys read, [b:Wide Sargasso Sea|25622780|Wide Sargasso Sea|Jean Rhys|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1453021061l/25622780._SY75_.jpg|142647] was meant to be my first one, but a brief biography I’d read of Jean Rhys made me interested in her life and work and tracing her literary and philosophical development through the years, and so I decided to read the books in order of publication. Only I’ve found out too late that this was her first novel but not her first book, as she had a collection of short stories published a year before this that I’m yet to read. Learning that this book was inspired by Rhys’s affair with the writer Ford Madox Ford, his wife Stella Bowen and her husband Jean Lenglet rounding up the real quartet, adds more sadness to this book.
lisahopevierra's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Need to read again
poeshoe's review against another edition
3.0
A young english woman, alone in Paris with no friends or family except her husband, is left all alone when he is arrested for theft. A middle aged couple, Heidlers, take her in and gradually have her fall for their, mainly Mr Heidler’s desires. Marya starts to lose herself: in her love for HJ, her jealousy for Lois, and guilt for her husband and even her own virtue and consciousness. The parisian society is too hard on her to the point of having her become an empty shell.
sainte_v's review against another edition
3.0
Can't remember the last time I encountered such a brainless pathetic piece of shit protagonist. Reminded me of Rosemary's Baby in that aspect. The novel is obviously concerned with feminist issues, so I am rather at a loss to understand why Rhys created such an insipid female character to convey these things. But I did enjoy the style of writing and the chill cafe and bar settings of 1920s Paris. Hoping for more from her other works, though.
annacanizales's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
fromsalom's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
kirstenellang's review against another edition
3.0
Uni reading /// what did this book teach me? This book taught me that everything and everyone is horrible and evil and weak. I am ready to throw myself into the Seine.