Jean Rhys left this island of lush vegetation and color and went to England around 1907. Her sense of cultural rift and displacement in the alien climate and society of England created a curious racial identification with blacks and gave her a lifelong affinity for the exile. She lived with her aunt, Clarice Rhys Williams, and attended for a time the Perse School in Cambridge. In 1908 she entered the Trees School (now the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts). Their records show that she was eighteen when she entered the school, which further substantiates the 1890 birth date. Her father died soon after her arrival in England, and her mother came to England in poor health and soon died there.
After a term at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Jean began traveling with a musicalchorus troupe to the smaller provincial towns. Her experiences with the troupe were later transformed into art in her novel Voyage in the Dark (1934). After leaving the troupe, she took a variety of theatrical jobs, playing a chorus girl in light operas, such as Franz Lehar's Count of Luxemburg (1909). She also posed as an artist's model, and her face was once used for a Pear's Soap advertisement.
This is a free page. This page contains 199 words. This
biography contains 19,114 words (approx. 64 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Jean Rhys Access Pass.
