''Quartet'' is

Jean Rhys Jean Rhys, ( ; born Ella Gwendolyn Rees Williams; 24 August 1890 – 14 May 1979) was a British novelist who was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of Dominica. From the age of 16, she mainly resided in England, where she was sent for her ...

's 1928 debut novel, set in Paris's bohemian

café society Café society was the description of the "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafés and restaurants in New York, Paris and London beginning in the late 19th century. Maury Henry Biddle Paul is credited with ...

. Originally published by

Chatto and Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

, ''Quartet'' was Rhys's first published book other than her short story collection '' The Left Bank and Other Stories'' (1927). In the UK ''Quartet'' was released under the publisher's preferred title ''Postures'' which Rhys disliked. After it was well received in the US as ''Quartet'' (1929), Rhys had later UK editions re-titled to her original choice of ''Quartet'', which alludes to four central characters comprising two couples. Like various Jean Rhys novels, ''Quartet'' is autobiographical fiction. It is a ''

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship ...

'' based on her extramarital affair and acrimonious break-up with her literary mentor

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...

, the English author and editor of ''

The Transatlantic Review ''The Transatlantic Review'' (often styled ''the transatlantic review'') was an influential monthly literary magazine edited by Ford Madox Ford in 1924. The magazine was based in Paris but was published in London by Gerald Duckworth and Company. ...

'' literary magazine. The affair occurred in Ford's Paris home under the eye of his common-law wife, Australian artist

Stella Bowen Esther Gwendolyn "Stella" Bowen (1893–1947) was an Australian artist and writer. Early career Bowen was born in North Adelaide, an inner suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, and educated at Tormore House School. As a young girl, Bowen enjoy ...

, while Rhys's husband Jean Lenglet was in jail. Written in third-person narrative, ''Quartet'' is framed from the viewpoint of Rhys's fictional counterpart Marya (nicknamed Mado).

Synopsis

Peripatetic young married couple Stephan and Marya Zelli board in a cheap Paris hotel while Stephan, a fly-by-night Polish art dealer, conducts business. Reliant on Stephan as provider, Marya seldom questions his dealings. They live hand-to-mouth as his deal takes shape. When Stephan is charged with selling stolen artwork and sentenced to a year's jail Marya, stranded and alone in a foreign city, is destitute. At Stephan's urging from jail she moves in with avuncular Englishman H. J. Heidler and his painter wife Lois, who she knows socially. There she discovers Heidler's history of inviting young women to lodge in his spare room, initiating affairs with them as Lois turns a blind eye. When Marya visits Stephan in jail, Heidler and Lois object and discourage her from seeing him. Isolated under his roof and dependent on his charity, Marya succumbs to Heidler's advances. With Marya at their mercy, Heidler and Lois escort her around their social haunts in a charade of respectability, deflecting suspicion and gossip about the ''ménage à trois''. Obliged to comply, Marya suspects people guess the truth regardless. Tension mounts between Marya and Lois, which Heidler ignores. Released from jail, the once self-assured Stephan is broken and Marya guilt-ridden. Heidler pushes Marya to choose between himself and Stephan, while refusing to forfeit his own marriage to Lois. Torn, Marya pities Stephan, which he resents. As her affair with Heidler breaks down, Stephan bolts leaving Marya's fate in the hands of Heidler and Lois.

Background

Rhys and her first of three husbands Jean Lenglet, a multilingual Dutch journalist and French Intelligence Service spy, met in London in 1917. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

they roamed Europe, marrying in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

in 1919. They moved between

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

where, from 1920, Lenglet was a secretary-interpreter with the Inter-Allied Commission of Control's Japanese delegation, which monitored

disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as n ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. When the job transferred him to

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Lenglet was caught using Commission money for

currency speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.) Many ...

. When he failed to repay the money on time, he and Rhys absconded back to Paris, with the Inter-Allied Commission on his trail. French solicitors meanwhile pursued Lenglet over a previous undissolved marriage (Rhys being the third of his five wives). In Paris on 28 December 1924 Lenglet was arrested, accused by his new employer, American travel agency Exprinter, of embezzling 23,421 francs. He denied the charge, claiming the company had given him the money for a transaction, but his defence was dismissed and on 10 February 1925 he was sentenced to eight months at

Fresnes Prison Fresnes Prison ('' French Centre pénitentiaire de Fresnes'') is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne, south of Paris. It comprises a large men's prison (''maison d'arrêt'') of about 1200 cells, a smal ...

. This left Rhys destitute and panic-stricken. With Lenglet's agreement from jail, Rhys allowed herself to be taken in by

and

. She had met the couple in 1924 when, penniless with Lenglet working away as a journalist, she tried selling some of his articles through Mrs H Pearl Adam, a well-connected British expatriate that she met a tea party. Wife of wartime ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' correspondent George Adam and daughter of ''

Truth Truth is the property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth 2005 In everyday language, truth is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise correspond to it, such as beliefs ...

'' columnist C.E. Humphry, Mrs Adam wrote for the ''Evening Standard'', ''The Observer'', ''The Sunday Times'' and other newspapers. Thinking Lenglet's articles unmarketable, as an afterthought Mrs Adam perused Rhys's diary of her time in London, Paris, Vienna and Budapest. Seeing literary potential, Mrs Adam allowed Rhys to live with her while helping edit and divide the diary into stories, then sent Jean to Ford Madox Ford, who helped new writers. Ford mentored Rhys, published her first short story ''Vienne in

'' and introduced her to other contributors. At Ford and Stella's parties, she met people like

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

, Alice B. Toklas and painter

Nina Hamnett Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia. Early life Hamnett was born in Shirley House, Picton Road in the small c ...

. Under Ford and Bowen's roof, with Lenglet in jail, an affair developed between Jean Rhys and Ford, which Stella Bowen initially tolerated. She asked Rhys to pose for paintings, gave her clothes and confided in her, outwardly befriending her but silently disapproving. Presenting a respectable front, the couple took Rhys to

Le Dôme Café Le Dôme Café () or Café du Dôme is a restaurant in Montparnasse, Paris that first opened in . Based on the example established by La Closerie des Lilas (created in 1847) and followed by Café de la Rotonde (created in 1911), Le Select (creat ...

and other intellectual gathering spots on the

Boulevard du Montparnasse The Boulevard du Montparnasse is a two-way boulevard in Montparnasse, in the 6th, 14th and 15th arrondissements in Paris. Situation The boulevard joins the place Léon Paul Fargue and place Camille Jullian. The Tour Montparnasse and plac ...

, showing her off as Ford's protégé while rivalry grew between Stella and Jean, and tension formed between Stella and Ford. The trio's nonchalant façade was what ''Quartet'''s earlier title ''Postures'' alluded. By the time of Lenglet's prison release, the Ford affair was unhidden, and Lenglet felt betrayed. Soon after, due to his French criminal record, Lenglet was expelled, returning to his native Holland without Rhys. Ford and Stella sent Jean to

Juan-les-Pins Juan-les-Pins (; oc, Joan dei Pins) is a town in the commune of Antibes in the Alpes-Maritimes department in Southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera, it is situated between Nice and Cannes, to the southwest of Nice Côte d'Azur Airport ...

, finding her a live-in job ghostwriting a book on reincarnation and interior design for

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...

's mother-in-law Winifred, second wife of American cosmetics millionaire

Richard Hudnut Richard Alexander Hudnut (June 2, 1855 – October 30, 1928) was an American businessman recognized as the first American to achieve international success in cosmetics manufacturing. The company once maintained separate US and European headquarte ...

. With that, the 'quartet' after which the novel is named was dissolved. Jean Rhys revisited her relationships with Lenglet and Ford but neither lasted. Ford and Stella separated in 1927 after nine years together. Rhys and Lenglet remained intermittently estranged, formally separating in 1928 and divorcing in 1933. The pair remained close friends, bound by their daughter Maryvonne Lenglet, who was three and in care at the time of her father's imprisonment but later became his custodian. This traumatic episode is considered one of Rhys's great creative catalysts, resulting in ''Quartet'' launching her career as a novelist. She comments on “L’Affaire Ford” in the Jean Rhys papers.

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...

, who had published Rhys's '' The Left Bank and Other Stories'', rejected ''Quartet'' as libelous, recognising the notable Ford Madox Ford in its plot. With the help of Rhys's subsequent husband, editor and literary agent Leslie Tilden Smith, ''Quartet'' was published in 1928 by

. ''Quartet'''s real life character counterparts each published their own version of this episode from their respective viewpoints, all fictionalised except for Stella Bowen's memoir ''Drawn from Life'' (1941), which recalls Rhys disparagingly. ''Quartet'' was the first published of the four and is the only one still in print. Ford Madox Ford's ''When the Wicked Man'' (1932) portrays Rhys as hysterical drunken Creole journalist Lola Porter, who uses Joseph Notterdam (Ford's character). Jean Lenglet's version appeared under the ''nom de plume'' Édouard de Nève in Dutch, French and English. His Dutch novel was titled ''In de Strik'' (1932). His French version was ''Sous les Verrous (1933).'' Jean Rhys translated ''Sous les Verrous'' into English as ''Barred'' (1932) for Lenglet, who dedicated it to her. Her translation edited the Bowen character, softened her own and revived Lenglet's writing career. In old age, Rhys wrote of marriage to Lenglet, their life around Europe, meeting Ford and his literary coaching, in '' Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography'' (1979), which was published posthumously.

Adaptations

The 1981

Merchant Ivory A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry ...

film of the same name, starring

Isabelle Adjani Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for ''Possession'' (1981), ''O ...

Maggie Smith Dame Margaret Natalie Smith (born 28 December 1934) is an English actress. With an extensive career on screen and stage beginning in the mid-1950s, Smith has appeared in more than sixty films and seventy plays. She is one of the few performer ...

and

Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story '' Whistle Down the Wind'' to the " kitchen sink" dram ...

, won Adjani the

Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress The Best Actress Award (french: Prix d'interprétation féminine) is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival since 1946. It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance and chosen by the jury from the films in officia ...

"Festival de Cannes: Quartet"
''festival-cannes.com''. Retrieved 2020-03-21 and Smith the

Evening Standard Awards The ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the ''Evening Standa ...

Best Actress award.

References

External links

* Jean Lenglet (Dutch Wikipedia article - translatable to English by browser tool) * Martien Kappers-Den Hollande
"Jean Rhys and the Dutch Connection"
''Journal of Modern Literature'' * Lesley McDowel

''The Independent''
"Jean Rhys archive, 1920-1991"
University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections & University Archives * Joseph Wiesenfart
“‘Quartet With Variations: Ford Madox Ford, Stella Bowen, Jean Rhys, Jean Lenglet"
''International Ford Madox Ford Studies''. Vol. 15, Ford Madox Ford's Cosmopolis: Psycho-geography, Flânerie and the Cultures of Paris (2016) Novels set in Paris Roman à clef novels Novels by Jean Rhys 1928 debut novels Modernist novels Chatto & Windus books British novels adapted into films Infidelity in fiction 1920s novels

Synopsis

Background

Adaptations

References

Further reading

External links