Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys, CBE (/ˈdʒiːn riːs/; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979), born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams, was a mid-20th-century novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica, though she was mainly resident in England from the age of 16. She is best known for her novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), written as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.
Early life
Rhys was born in Roseau, the capital of Dominica, an island in the British West Indies. Her father, William Rees Williams, was a Welsh doctor and her mother, Minna Williams, was a third-generation Dominican Creole of Scots ancestry. ("Creole" was broadly used in those times to refer to people born on the island, whether they were of white or mixed blood.)
Rhys was educated in Dominica until the age of 16, when she was sent to England to live with an aunt. She attended the Perse School for Girls in Cambridge, where she was mocked as an outsider and for her accent. She attended two terms at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London by 1909. Her instructors despaired of her ever learning to speak "proper English" and advised her father to take her away. Now unable to train as an actress and refusing to return to the Caribbean as her parents wished, she worked with varied success as a chorus girl, adopting the names Vivienne, Emma or Ella Gray.
Podcasts:
Famous quotes by Jean Rhys:
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by Jon Rice
Our Time
by: Jon RiceHOOK:
It's our time They never gonna bring us down
They never gonna bring us down, Cause it's our time.
VERSE 1:
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, anybody in the way this is what I'll die for,
Don't see no competitors it's like I got my eyes closed,
I'm riding to the top you would have thought I asked for Gieco.
I'm into winning it and I can do anything,
That's what real champs do, they just pretending it.
You starting now I'm finishing, everything is simple when,
You get past the struggle, use your muscle then you win again.
Ain't nobody stopping this, they prolly just jocking this,
Why they steady hating I should tell you put a sock in it.
I remember back when I felt I wasn't cool enough,
Now look at your boy (laughter) ain't I cool or what?
HOOK:
It's our time They never gonna bring us down
They never gonna bring us down, Cause it's our time.
It's our time. They never gonna bring us down
They never gonna bring us down, We're here to stay, we're here to stay.
VERSE 2:
I'm gone make it, trust me I ain't bailing out,
I'm winning dog the champs here it seems as if you failing now,
Looks as if you sitting still, you say that you prevailing how?
Hard in the paint, if I'm in anything I tear it down.
Trust me I'm the best, if not then I'm the next
And I ain't settling for second I'm a knock them out there nest.
I ain't playing man, feels like I'm weighing in,
Where's my heavyweight belt? Everyday I play to win.
That's how you got to do it when you feel like there's somewhere that you need to go,
It's on you, hustle hard, one day you gone be the show.
Stop saying that you need a show, be the show,
And every time you do it make sure everybody see the show.
HOOK:
It's our time They never gonna bring us down
They never gonna bring us down, Cause it's our time.
It's our time. They never gonna bring us down
They never gonna bring us down, We're here to stay, we're here to stay.
BREAKDOWN:
They never gonna bring us down, down, down, down
They never gonna bring us down, down, down, down
HOOK:
It's our time They never gonna bring us down
They never gonna bring us down, Cause it's our time.
It's our time. They never gonna bring us down