''The Left Bank and Other Stories'' is the first collection of short stories and literary debut of

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

n author Jean Rhys. It was first published by

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 ...

(London) and Harper & Brothers (New York) in 1927, and contained an introduction by Ford Madox Ford. The original subtitle of the collection was "sketches and studies of present-day Bohemian Paris". Most of the twenty-two stories are impressionistic vignettes based on Rhys's own life experiences in and around the Left Bank of Paris. Some (''Mixing Cocktails'' and ''Again the Antilles)'' are drawn from Rhys's early years in Dominica. The final story, ''Vienne'', is based on her post- World War I life in Vienna with first husband Jean Lenglet, and was originally published in ''

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. ...

'' in 1924. Publication of ''The Left Bank and Other Stories'' came about as a result of Rhys's lover and literary mentor, Ford Madox Ford, sending the stories to his London contact, influential publisher's reader

Edward Garnett Edward William Garnett (5 January 1868 – 19 February 1937) was an English writer, critic and literary editor, who was instrumental in the publication of D. H. Lawrence's ''Sons and Lovers''. Early life and family Edward Garnett was born i ...

. The book was well received by critics on its initial release, establishing Rhys's early writing career. The book went out of print during Rhys's 1939-1966 period of obscurity but, following the resurgence of her career due to '' Wide Sargasso Sea'' (1966), ''The Left Bank'' collection was republished in part by André Deutsch in '' Tigers are Better-Looking'' (1968), which included nine of the original twenty-two stories. The collection was next republished 1976 by W. W. Norton & Company, then again after Rhys's death by Penguin Classics incorporated into a wider compilation entitled ''Jean Rhys, The Collected Short Stories''.

Stories found in ''The Left Bank and Other Stories''

* "Illusion" * "A Spiritualist" * "From A French Prison" * "In a Café" * "Tout Montparnasse and a Lady" * "Mannequin" * "In the Luxembourg Gardens" * "Tea with an Artist" * "Trio" * "Mixing Cocktails" * "Again the Antilles" * "Hunger" * "Discourse of a Lady Standing a Dinner to a Down-and-Out Friend" * "A Night" * "In the Rue de l'Arivée" * "Learning to be a Mother" * "The Blue Bird" * "The Grey Day" * "The Sidi" * "At The Villa d'Or" * "La Grosse Fifi" * "Vienne" {{DEFAULTSORT:Left Bank, The 1927 short story collections Short story collections by Jean Rhys Jonathan Cape books Harper & Brothers books

References

External links

* Irene Thompson
The Left Bank Apéritifs of Jean Rhys and Ernest Hemingway
''The Georgia Review'', Vol. 35, No. 1 (Spring 1981), pp. 94-106. * Gwendoline Riley, From rum to gay
Gwendoline Riley on the vehement, brilliant short stories of Jean Rhys
''The Times Literary Supplement'', 28 April 2017. * Chris Power
A brief survey of the short story: Jean Rhys
''The Guardian'', 15 April 2014. * Maud Newton & Alexander Chee
After the Affair
''Granta'', 22 June 2009. * Kate Jones
Exploring the Short Stories of Jean Rhys
''The Short Story'', 28 September 2016. Debut books

Stories found in ''The Left Bank and Other Stories''

References

Further reading

External links