A reader-based textual analysis of the work of Jean Rhys. The author generates new readings of two of the short stories and all five of the novels. By focusing on character, she disagrees with those critics who see each heroine as part of a single character, the Rhys woman .Reducing Fifi; Marya's irony; Julia and the others ; Anna's darkness; Sasha in narrative control; Antoinette and Edward - locating the tragic figure.