The Letters of Jean Rhys (1984) by Jean Rhys

p. 24 - “that gave me a great kick” - on reading ‘hunger’ by knut hamsun, feb. 18, 1934

pp. 49-50 - sleep

p. 51 - “toadstools on the kitchen wall” - inspiration for “let them call it jazz”?

pp. 52-53 - half happy, happy minutes or sensations

pp. 66-67 - “I hate to remember that coffee”

p. 76 - account of assault, basis for “let them call it jazz”

p. 80 - “I like trees, shadows, a shaded light”

p. 95 - numbers

p. 106 - “I find it easier to write than to talk” etc.

p. 142 - “have reached the stage when I can’t stop looking for [Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats]”

p. 145 - “it’s heaven having no landlady”

pp. 148-149 - references to sukarno takedown, cia coup, turmoil in indonesia

pp. 152-153 - mitsou san

pp. 155-156 - final paragraph, few understand books

p. 159 - “It made me laugh a lot. I liked it.” - on reading ‘the catcher in the rye,’ jan. 10, 1959

p. 161 - “So magnificent in parts. . . . I’d never read it before.” - on ‘wuthering heights,’ feb. 5, 1959

p. 170 - “I am pretty sure that most people notice details without knowing it. . . .”

p. 171 - “I think that I have had little success because I did not want it. . . .”

p. 172 - “As far as I know I am white. . . . Meek!!! When I long to slaughter for a week or more. All over the place.”

p. 173 - “I know that to write as well as I can is my truth and why I was born. Though the Lord knows I wish I hadn’t been!”

p. 174 - “I do often wish for a machine gun...”

p. 175 - “Sometimes I have wondered if Miss Brontë does not want her book tampered with!”

p. 184 - cow

p. 190 - publicity

p. 195 - “I’ve always known dogs were cash conscious—but I didn’t know cows were.”

p. 204 - poems, “the old bomb”

p. 205 - “I wish people had not got rid of God—they seem to be getting along badly by themselves!”

pp. 207-208, 211, 217, 227, 228, 268 - pep pills

pp. 208-209 - jean lenglet’s death(?) “No one dies.”

p. 214 - “She is not Jane Eyre’s lunatic at all.” - antoinette ~14 in 1839 - jane eyre published in 1847 - “she must die young, not old”

p. 220 - “I exist, am harmless, and non political in the extreme.” - oxymoronic

p. 224 - “Other people’s troubles are always boring and very distant somehow.”

p. 225 - audiences

p. 226 - numbers (13 unlucky, also p. 168)

p. 228 - “I’m not mad about the Welfare State you know!”

p. 229 - morning glory seeds and mescaline

p. 234 - “False Legend”

pp. 239-241, 243 - black magic/witch

p. 257 - superstitious about number of letters in title

pp. 262-266 - “Obeah Night” and explanation

pp. 267, 269 - mr. rochester and heathcliff

p. 271 - charlotte brontë quote

p. 273 - Béké, Buckra, ofay - words for “white people”

pp. 281-283 - ‘barred’ by edward de nève, aka jean lenglet

p. 284 - jean and maryvonne lenglet’s wwii resistance experiences

pp. 289-290, 298-300 - film/tv rights contract dispute

p. 291 - “I remember, at a dance, watching jim and thinking that he dan rd as if he were gay and loved life.” - on hemingway, aug. 4, 1965

p. 293 - “my last dress,” “Cows have a most inquisitive way of looking at you.”

p. 301 - dreams about baby, “It’s so cold

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