SOURCE: "The Later Writing," in Jean Rhys: A Critical Study, University of Texas Press, 1979, pp. 121-31.

In the following excerpt, Staley examines the depiction of feminine consciousness in Rhys's later short fiction.

Wide Sargasso Sea was both a critical and popular success and its publication had spectacular and far-reaching, if belated, effects on Rhys's literary career. For the first time—after over forty years—her work came to the attention of a substantial number of readers. On the basis of their success with Wide Sargasso Sea, her publisher brought back into print virtually all of her earlier work, and the steady sales encouraged Penguin to publish her work in paperback. By the early seventies all of her work was available in both hardcover and paperback. Her critical reputation from the middle sixties through the seventies has grown steadily. Critics have pointed primarily to her strong originality and her...