Set in a superficially romantic, between-wars Paris, QUARTET is a poignant tale of a lonely woman. Set against a background of winter-wet streets, Pernod in smoky cafes and cheap hotel rooms with mauve- flowered wallpaper, Marya tries to make something substantial of her life in order to withstand the unreality of her surroundings. Alone, her Polish husband in prison, she is taken up by an English couple who slowly overwhelm her with their passions. Jean Rhys's first novel is both poignant anddisturbingly intimate in its vivid depiction of a woman on her own.

Set against a background of winter-wet streets, Pernod in smoky cafes and cheap hotel rooms, Marya tries to make something substantial of her life in order to withstand the unreality of her surroundings. Alone, her Polish husband in prison, she is taken up by an English couple who slowly overwhelm her with their passions.

Now available for the first time in paperback, "Quartet" "belongs to the new tradition in prose, which shuns elaboration for sharpness and intensity of effect" ("New York Times"). A woman, caught in the stranglehold between her lover and his wife, faces a further dilemma when her own husband is released from prison.

Quartet, Jean Rhys's first novel, launched her literary career in the late 1920s, and today remains an incisive, sinister tale of love and obsession.After her husband, Stephan, is arrested, Marya finds herself destitute in Paris. With nowhere else to turn, she accepts the hospitality of an English couple living on the fringes of the artistic world. Yet as Marya is drawn inexorably into their universe, she becomes entangled in a bizarre sexual and psychological relationship that frightens even as it fascinates her--and as the date of Stephan's release from prison draws near, Marya's new life splits apart at the seams.

The story of a woman caught in a stranglehold between her lover and his wife. Marya Zelli finds herself dependent on the English couple that have taken her in. A strange complicity among the three entangles Marya in a bizarre sexual and psychological relationship. The situation explodes when her husband is released from prison.

The frail, desperate Marya Celli's status as a thoughtless sweet young thing changes when her husband is jailed for possessing stolen artifacts and she is cast adrift among the amoral denizens of cafe society in Paris in the 1920's. The rumor circling the halls is that Beecham House (the home for retired musicians) is soon to play host to a new resident. Word is, it's a star. Reginald, Wilfred and Cecily are in for a special shock when the new arrival turns out to be none other than their former singing partner, Jean. Her subsequent career as a star soloist, and the ego that accompanied it, split up their long friendship and ended her marriage to Reggie, who takes the news of her arrival particularly hard.

The frail, desperate Marya Celli's status as a thoughtless sweet young thing changes when her husband is jailed for possessing stolen artifacts and she is cast adrift among the amoral denizens of cafe society in Paris in the 1920's.

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