As mentioned in the previous article about the novelist Jean Rhys, Carole Angier's biography is very comprehensive indeed. She has done huge amounts of research; she describes Jean Rhys's personality, life and works in great detail and provides much background information. She makes good points and provides neat summaries; she has many insights that seem spot on. So what more can there be to say about Jean Rhys, this woman who seems to have been by far her own worst enemy?
Some of Carole Angier's material that is particularly interesting and relevant is worth highlighting and expanding on, as are some more connections and elements that are familiar from books by or about other writers.
This article introduces a recurring element in Jean Rhys's life that I think is very significant indeed: whenever she was in deep trouble, something or someone would come to her rescue. Money, somewhere to stay and support and assistance would appear as if by magic and save the day.
I suspect that there was more to this than just chance, benevolent, compassionate people – and victims and enablers - and sometimes unashamed begging and emotional blackmail on Jean Rhys's part: I think that unseen influences were involved. There are other elements and incidents in Jean Rhys's life that support this idea.
Jean Rhys and the miraculous deliverances
Carole Angier says that whenever Jean Rhys was in dire straits and at the end of her resources, something or someone would always turn up and bail her out:
“Whenever she was at rock bottom, someone would always help.”
“...Jean's life was full of benefactors – her unusual need drew unusual help, as though by magic.”
“Again the last-minute rescue, the magical, fateful possibility of change!”
This is independent confirmation of a phenomenon that I have mentioned in several other articles, Some of these deliverances do indeed seem almost miraculous; perhaps something metaphysical really was at work in these unexpected strokes of Providence.
While I believe that some people do have the ability to manifest things that they need, there are good – and safe – ways and bad – and dangerous - ways of doing this. I have mentioned various aspects of this elsewhere.
Getting things the good way involves asking in the right spirit – hopeful rather than desperate - after doing one’s best to get them in the normal way, earning them, expressing gratitude and appreciation for them, making good use of them and not getting them at anyone else’s expense.
Jean Rhys did the opposite; she got things the bad way. Rather like Stella Benson’s sponging Russian count, she was a classic, textbook case, a black hole or bottomless pit, all take and no give.
She was given far more support, encouragement, attention, gifts, money and assistance than some of us ever see, but she took it all for granted and was never the better for it for long. She exploited people, and rather than feel grateful she hated some of them because she had to ask them for help.
On the other side of the equation, rescuers must be in their right mind and a healthy state and not under the compulsion of what can seem like an evil spell; they should be helping in the right spirit of their own free will and not because they are weak, sucked in and trapped. Rescuers should not have been held to ransom; they should not be victims of manipulation, emotional blackmail or psychological black magic. Some of the people who came to the assistance of Jean Rhys did so for all the wrong reasons.
Jean Rhys and spiralling down
Carole Angier summarises Jean Rhys's entire life very neatly in one sentence. This says it all:
“Her life went in circles, through the same scenes, the same patterns, but each time worse.”
This is exactly what I was talking about in the article on the three paths that people take. Some people do spiral down and down, and something that seemed unbearable at the time can look not so bad after all when seen from an even worse perspective. As I said, a former hell can look like heaven in retrospect.
Jean Rhys's story provides yet more examples of something I have seen for myself many times: if something is obtained illegitimately, it may well go horribly wrong, backfire or turn sour. The skies may be bright at first, but then the storm clouds gather. This happens again and again in the lives of people who habitually bypass normal ways of getting things in favour of using occult methods, people who use willpower to try to force reality to fit their dreams.
Jean Rhys may have been able to use her powers to get herself out of tight corners, but in the long term she just dug herself in deeper and deeper, creating further and worse problems for herself.
There is more to come about Jean Rhys and her life. As usual, the work will be done in small steps with time taken out to recover from the depressing effects of the material.
Carole Angier's biography:
