Bookclub: "Voyage in the Dark"
Presented by Zofia Smardz
Writer, special to Book World
Thursday, June 27, 2002; Noon EDT

Welcome to the online meeting of The Washington Post Book Club, a monthly program presented by the editors and writers of Washington Post Book World.

This month Zofia Smardz, Washington writer and editor, will be leading the discussion on this month's selection, Jean Rhys's "Voyage in the Dark." Read this month's review of "Voyage in the Dark."

The transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Zofia Smardz: Welcome to today's Book Club discussion of Jean Rhys's "Voyage in the Dark," a novel that's one of the best exemplars of the way in which highly autobiographical detail can be transformed by real artistry in such a way as to render the individual universal. Oh dear, that sounds too, as Jon Yardley would say, lit'ry. Let's just say it's one of the very best autobiographical novels ever written, powerful, poignant, and profound -- not to mention linguistically beautiful. It's the story of a young chorus girl named Anna Morgan, and the failed love affair that sends her into a spiral of despair she finds difficult to break -- although ultimately, I believe, she does break it. I so love this book -- and everything Rhys ever wrote -- that I feel truly privileged to discuss it with those of you who are already familiar with it, and to introduce those of you who aren't to its tremendous charms. So let's get started, and see if I can't win you all over to the remarkable world of Jean Rhys.

Lenexa, Kans.: Rhys writes so well of the chasm of the two worlds (the poetic contrast of the two cultures, the nostalgia, the surreal dreams, the skilled flashbacks, the sense of not fitting, the fear of being ridiculed, her own kindness as a response). I think of Anna Morgan (passively inclined) less adept at "bridging" (as Marie Arana and others did).

Still, she does prevail. Her writing made her a patron of Ford Madox Ford fairly early on. Her life seemed to alternate between withdrawal and the genius of expression. As to your question of the novel's ending, it does seem like she is set to follow the doctor's sneer and be ready "to start all over again in no time." Your thoughts? Thanks.

Zofia Smardz: Yes, you're quite right about Anna's inability, or difficulty with, bridging the two cultures she has experienced. Her longings for the Caribbean island world of her youth are stark and powerful, but I think they're also highlighted for her by the sense of despair she feels after her affair is over. The grayness of England becomes more pervasive, more overwhelming, and the sunlit world of her youth thus feels more desirable. She feels even more displaced and alienated than before, having been rejected by a consummate Englishman. And I agree with you that she absolutely does prevail. The novel's last line is so poignant -- how hard it is to think of 'starting all over again" -- but clearly that's what she is set to do, which gives us, ultimately a sense of hope, after all.

Crofton, Md.: "Voyage in the Dark" made me a believer in a certain class of fiction: i.e. where the hero/heroine has a compelling personality, although not a terribly likeable one. Were these characters real people a sort of roman a clef whom Jean Rhys knew? All were superbly drawn.

Zofia Smardz: It's funny you say that the heroine of Voyage is not terribly likable. I find her immensely likable, but I've also read the novel countless times, and I think it's possible she's grown on me, because your comment actually made me think back to the first time I read the book, when I thought she was a bit wispy, not always nice. But I'd argue that it's those around her who aren't always nice, and that she's struggling hard for her dignity, not always succeeding in keeping it.
The characters in Voyage and indeed, all of Rhys's books, are based almost entirely on real people. She really is the most autobiographical of writers. In Voyage, the character of Walter is based on a man named Lancelot Grey Hugh Smith, who was the love of Rhys's life, a man about 20 years her senior, with whom she had an affair as a young chorus girl, but who broke it off because she really wasn't of the proper class. The affair and the ultimate rejection reverberated throughout her life, leading her to rush into an unsuitable marriage that led to her meeting Ford Madox Ford (with whom she also had an affair) and, essentially, never finding true happiness in her life.

Lenexa, Kans.: Ms. Smardz,

Jean Rhys (Gwen Williams) wrote the kind of literature I love the most--the kind that is autobiographically based within the stark existential parameters of joy and horror. I thought of "The Bell Jar" and Philip Roth's dealing with his beloved father "tottering on the brink of oblivion" in "Patrimony." As with the young Rhys, I'm sure such writing is of immense help to the writer at the time. We readers also benefit enormously that they turn in their anguish to the pen.

I also read "Wide Sargasso Sea." I thought it equally splendid--had the nice Bronte connection--but I actually enjoyed the dark voyage of Anna Morgan, and her "chorine friends," even more. I plan to read "Good Morning, Midnight" next. Do you like her short fiction? Her unfinished memoir? Thanks.

Zofia Smardz: "Wide Sargasso Sea" is a wonderful book -- I like your choice of the word "splendid," very accurate. It's the book that finally got Rhys the notice she deserved -- in her seventies! It's also probably the best known of her books, but I'm with you, I really prefer her earlier works like "Voyage." Somehow they ring more "true" to me, and they have no whiff of artifice, whereas Sargasso is based a bit on an artificial construct. "Good Morning Midnight" is superb, but I would steer you next to "Quartet," which is based on the next phase of Rhys's life, when she met Ford Madox Ford while living in Paris with her husband, a Dutch spy named Jean L'Englet. That's if you care about proceeding through her books chronologically. It would be followed by "After Leaving Mr. McKenzie," and only then by "Good Morning Midnight." But I supposed it doesn't ultimately matter what order you read them in. The picture still falls into place.

Crofton Md.: While I admired Anna's sassiness and ability to cope, I didn't really like her. Nonetheless
The novel succeeds in making us sympathize with her plight. Question; were the men in the novel too negatrive?

Zofia Smardz: That's a very good question. Rhys is often tagged, unfairly and incorrectly, I think, as a "women's writer" who portrays downtrodden women unfairly used by men, who are portrayed as monsters. But Rhys herself always protested that this was not right, that she truly liked men, and that Lancelot, far from being someone who seduced and abandoned her, was a wonderful man who was very kind to her. In my view, this feeling comes through in her depictions of Walter and Vincent in the novel. They are hardly negative characterizations. Yes, Walter leaves her in what appears to be a caddish way, taking off for New York and then having Vincent write a letter. But his conflict is still apparent -- he does agree to meet her one more time, and he wants to help her financially, not just out of guilt, I believe. Vincent, for his part, tries to be kind to her as well, and encouraging, even as he acts as hit man for his cousin. They help her when she most needs it. As for the other men, like Joe and Carl, even as she portrays them using Anna, she gives them real personalities, and flashes, again, of kindness. If anyone comes off negatively, it's the other women in the book. Think of one who's a positive portrait -- Maudie? Ethel? Hester? Laurie? Nope. Not a one.

Lenexa, Kans.: Thanks for the nice responses. I'm glad they're all in print--so I do have the option of reading them within chronology.

I also liked the humor--Maudie was a sad case but quite fun to read about. So were some of the others. Everyone seemed to use Anna Morgan as a kind of sounding board (even if ignored by Anna--lost in her own troubles and dreams). The fact that Anna often gave witty responses (out of the blue and one would think totally unexpected). Rhys's humor is unmistable, isn't it?

Zofia Smardz: I'm so glad you saw the humor! So often, people just see the darkness. Dark and depressing, they say of Rhys. But she had a lovely sense of humor, a great ear for saucy and spicy language and a dead-on ability to poke a little fun at her characters from time to time. Her dialogue is nothing short of brilliant; it really reconstructs the way people talk (or talked then, anyway)and it's often quite amusing.

Arlington, Va.: Is Rhys still writing?

Zofia Smardz: Alas, she died in 1979. A great loss. But most of her works are still in print -- in addition to the five novels, there's at least one short story collection, plus her not-quite-finished autobiography, "Smile, Please." I've read them all, several times over, and recommend everything!

Vienna, Va.: I did not find Anna Morgan particularly likeable, but I attributed some of her behavior to the fact thatshe felt so alienated from the English culture. And she didn't appear to be in love with Walter, but just dependent on his care and support. At the end of the novel, I truly wondered, if she was going to live or die from the consequences of her abortion.

Zofia Smardz: Oh, my, poor Anna seems to be suffering from that malady that so often afflicts shy people -- they're perceived as cold and unlikable. I'm sorry you didn't care for her, but I hope that if you reread the book, or read more of Rhys, you'll come to understand her a bit better. (The alienation is a large part of her behavior, good point.) But I would argue strenuously that she was very much in love with Walter, besotted, in fact. Go back and reread some of the passages after he leaves her. She talks about wanting to get into bed and pull the sheet over her head as she thinks, "He got sick of me." Or thinking about how long she has to go on living. That's someone suffering deeply from a love rejection, not just the rejection of someone she needed for support. As for the ending, as I said earlier, I think it's quite clear she's going to live -- and start all over again, though not happily.

Falls Church, Va.: Are all of Rhys' books autobiographical?

Zofia Smardz: As I think I said in an earlier reply, Rhys was the most autobiographical of novelists. Yes, all her books are hugely autobiographical, except perhaps for her last, "Wide Sargasso Sea," which is a retelling of the Jane Eyre story from the point of view of Rochester's mad wife, Bertha (who's called Antoinette in Rhys's version), whom he married in the Caribbean and brought to England. Rhys clearly isn't that character, but the elements of her life that were so important in her earlier work -- the sense of displacement after she leaves the Caribbean island of her youth and comes to England; the disappointment in love -- all play very strongly in this novel as well, so in that sense, it draws on her life, but isn't strictly autobiographical.

Arlington, Va.: Can you tell me a bit about Jean Rhys' personal life?

Zofia Smardz: Probably more than you'd ever want to know! Quick outline -- she was born on the Caribbean island of Dominica in either 1890 or 1894 (she was, in the manner of so many women of her day, coy about her age), was sent to school in England at the age of 16, studied briefly at a boarding school, then briefly in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts before becoming a chorus girl at the age of about 18. She had her affair with Lancelot Smith around the same time. After he left her, she became briefly engaged to another man, but broke that off. Eventually, she met Jean L'Englet, the Dutchman who would become her husband. They led a peripatetic life on the Continent, eventually landing in Paris. Jean gave birth to a baby boy who died after a few days, then later to a baby girl. In Paris, she met Ford Madox Ford, publisher of the transatlantic review, after she submitted some stories her husband had written for publication. She and Ford had a brief affair when her husband was sent to prison for fraud and she moved in with Ford and his wife, Stella. (This menage is the subject of the novel "Quartet.")
After the affair, she and her husband divorced. She eventually married the Englishman, Leslie Tilden Smith. AFter his death of a heart attack, she married Max Hamer and sort of "disappeared" for about 30 years. It turned out later she was living an impoverished life in the English countryside. Eventually, she was "rediscovered," and published "Wide Sargasso Sea," which brought her great acclaim at the end of her life. She died in 1979.

Vienna, Va.: Did anyone else think that Anna was dying at the end of the story? Obviously, if this was autobiographical, she didn't die. But I thought one of the metaphors about climbing the hill could have signified leaving this world for another. I have enjoyed the discussion, and like another contributor, I'll print these pages so that I can refer to them again.

Zofia Smardz: I believe an earlier reader wasn't sure Anna was going to survive, either. It's funny, because it seems so clear to me that she will. But the fact is that in her original draft, Rhys apparently wanted to finish the book with the first line of the last paragraph: "When their voices stopped the ray of light came in again under the door like the last thrust of remembering before everything is blotted out." Much more of a downer ending, obviously, and one that could clearly have signaled that Anna was dying. She was persuaded by someone, I can't remember who, however, to give the book a slightly different ending, which she did with the new line about starting all over again -- which again signals, to me, that that is precisely what Anna would do, albeit perhaps with difficulty. But it's forward-looking, nonetheless. I'll concede that it could be read as deliberatly ambiguous, though. That's another Rhys hallmark. If you read "Quartet," you'll find it has the same sort of ending, where the heroine's fate is not at all clear.

Washington, D.C.: Hello Zofia -- I really enjoyed this book. It was my first Jean Rhys book. Now I wonder which of her books I should pick up next?

Zofia Smardz: I personally think -- even though I didn't do it this way myself, but then I had no one to guide me -- that it's a good idea to read the novels in chronological order by subject. So following on "Voyage" would be "Quartet," which covers the next phase of Rhys's life, in Paris, then moving on to "After Leaving Mr. McKenzie" and then "Good Morning Midnight." These are the four "early" novels, written when Rhys was in her 20s and 30s, and following the arc of her life quite closely, although the last two, being written by a more mature artist, are not so strictly autobiographical as the first two (she never wrote about her second and third marriages). Then "Wide Sargasso Sea."

Lenexa, Kans.: A blurb on the cover by Howard Moss--I'm sure you've seen it--seems very accurate to me: Jean Rys's novels "have the quality of the best books by seeming to have written themselves..."

I especially liked the opening piece where Anna and Maudie go walking and meet the two men. Talk about ringing true.

A little off the wall, but I was wondering if you've seen Woody Allen's 1999 film "Sweet and Lowdown." There's a very similar scene where Sean Penn and his friend meet two similar (to Anna and Maude) types on the Boardwalk?

Zofia Smardz: I love that opening scene where the girls meet the men. It's so understated, but precisely the way you know these things happen in real life. A man looks back at you with his hands in his pockets, and your fate it set. I'm afraid I haven't seen The Sweet Lowdown, but now maybe I'll be sure to rent the video!
As for the Howard Moss quote, that's precisely the power of her books. They seem so inevitable, every word so perfectly following upon the one before.

Vienna, Va.: Zofia, how did you get started in reviewing books? Any particular genre?

Zofia Smardz: You're so nice to ask. I've been reviewing fiction since my days at the old Washington Star, which didn't have a book reviewer for a long time, so staff people were routinely thrown books and asked to review them. One of the first books I reviewed as a twentysomething-year-old dictationist was a book of short stories by a writer named Ann Beattie, and I wildly predicted that a star had just exploded on the literary scene. The rest was history. . . Sorry, I'm proud of that one, so have to toot my horn a bit.

Washington, D.C.: Hello -- Great book. After reading it, I started searching for more info about Rhys herself. Can you tell us anything about how/why she chose her nom de plume?

Zofia Smardz: I used to know that whole story but now I've forgotten most of it. Rhys is part of her real name -- Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams -- just rendered more exotic. She wrote somewhere that she loved all names ending in "a" so why she chose Jean eludes me at the moment. I believe Ford Madox Ford may have played a part in the name choice, too.I'm going to have to go look it right up!

Zofia Smardz: Well, I think that does it for today. I could of course go on and on -- perhaps you can tell this is one of my favorite subjects -- but I'm afraid they're going to pull the plug on me! Thanks so much for your questions and your interest. I feel I've done my job if I've won a few converts to Rhys's work. Cheers!

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