Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight

Jessica Gildersleeve (University of Southern Queensland)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 4.1.1: Anglophone Writing and Culture of Central America and the Caribbean.
Vol. editors: Ronald Cummings (McMaster University), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège), Melanie Otto (Trinity College Dublin), Jak Peake (University of Essex), Abigail Ward (University of Nottingham)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1939

Places

Dominica (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Jean Rhys's four early novels, all published during the twenty years between the two world wars –

Quartet

(1928),

Leaving Mr Mackenzie

(1930),

Voyage in the Dark

(1934), and

Good Morning, Midnight

(1939) – are often considered together. Their central characters, although ostensibly different, share the same qualities of vulnerability, depression, loneliness and desperation. Forgotten by their families during the interwar years, they perpetually attach themselves to unsuitable men in exchange for alcohol, luxurious clothes, and attention. These four novels are often dismissed by critics as too experimental; they turn instead to Rhys's 1966 masterpiece,

Wide Sargasso Sea

, for any consideration of the postcolonial, structures of female identity, or the role of the outsider. It was,…

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1971 words

Citation: Gildersleeve, Jessica. "Good Morning, Midnight". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 September 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4930, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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