JEAN RHYS

What may be the comprehensive Rhys short-story collection: a republication of the stories included in The Left Bank (1927); Tigers are Better-Looking (1969), and Sleep it Off, Lady (1976) as well as three stories that have not been previously issued in book form. The stories cover her early days in Paris in the 20's and 30's, the period in her life after her reemergence in the early 60's, and her old age. Rhys is justly famous for fiction from her "chorus line" days, stories like "To a Lost Cause; to All Lost Causes," and the newly rediscovered "Kismet," published for the first time here: the fragile, rococo lives of her lonely, dispossessed, and not-so-young women are devastating to behold. But the stories from her old age, while no less suggestive of disenfranchisement, will perhaps be the ones remembered longest, particularly pieces like "Who Knows What's Up in the Attic" and "Sleep it Off, Lady," the latter a stunning tale of an old woman left alone to die by her neighbors. All told, a welcome and important addition to the Rhys canon.