Archive for the ‘Fiction: Modern’ Category

Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys

ISBN: 0393311465
192 pages
published in 1934.

Hate to cheat you guys out of a real review, but I’m super busy. Here’s a brief synopsis from Wiki:

Voyage in the Dark is a 1934 novel by Jean Rhys. It tells of the semi-tragic descent of its young protagonist Anna Morgan who is moved from her Caribbean home to England by an ‘evil’ stepmother. Once she leaves school, and she is cut off financially by the stepmother, Hester, Anna tries to support herself as a chorus girl, then falls in love with a man named Walter who briefly supports her but won’t marry her. When he leaves her, she begins a downward spiral. Like William Faulkner’s The Wild Palms, the novel features a botched illegal abortion. Rhys’ original version ended with the death of Anna from this abortion (see Bonnie Kime Scott’s The Gender of Modernism for the original ending), but she revised it before publication to the more ambivalent and modernist ending in which Anna survives to return to her now-shattered life “all over again.” The novel is rich in Caribbean folklore and tradition and post-colonial identity politics, including black self-identification by its white protagonist.

I loved it. It was distressing, but so beautifully written. It was part of the required reading for my Modern British Literature course this semester, and I am so grateful that it was. I found a copy of Wide Sargasso Sea at the used book store last week whilst I was in the middle of reading Voyage in the Dark so I’m very excited about starting that, as well (whenever I get a moment to spare! maybe over break.)