Sleep It Off Lady

2024-08-21T01:26:53Z

86.167.21.187: /* Stories in the collection */Respected US usage ('verbing' of 'vacation') by standard (British) English. The subject of the article is British.

{{Infobox book | 
| name = Sleep It Off Lady
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = File:SleepItOffLady.jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = [[Jean Rhys]]
| illustrator =
| cover_artist = Rosemary Honeybourne
| country =
| language = English
| series =
| genre =
| publisher = [[André Deutsch]] (UK)<br />[[Harper & Row]] (USA)
| release_date = October 1976
| media_type = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages = 176 pp
| isbn = 0-233-96818-0
| oclc=
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
'''''Sleep It Off Lady''''', originally published in late 1976 by [[André Deutsch]] of Great Britain, was famed [[Dominica]]n author [[Jean Rhys]]' final collection of [[short story|short stories]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rhys|first=Jean|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1088038986|title=Sleep it off lady|date=1976|publisher=Andre Deutsch|isbn=978-0-233-96818-6|location=London|language=en|oclc=1088038986}}</ref> The sixteen stories in this collection stretch over an approximate 75-year period, starting from the end of the nineteenth century (November 1899) to the present time of writing ({{circa|1975}}).

The back cover of the first UK edition features a tribute quote from [[A. Alvarez]], extracted from his 1974 ''[[The New York Times Book Review|New York Times Book Review]]'' article about Rhys, praising her as "simply the best living English novelist..."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Alvarez|first=A.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/17/archives/the-best-living-english-novelist.html|title=The. Best Living English Novelist|date=1974-03-17|work=The New York Times Book Review|access-date=2020-04-07|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==Stories in the collection==
''(a synopsis follows each title)''
*"'''Pioneers, Oh, Pioneers'''": At the turn of the twentieth century, a doctor experiences the final hours of an ill-fated estate house bought only days before by his rival.
*"'''Goodbye Marcus, Goodbye Rose'''": A captain and his wife pay a visit to Dominica while on vacation in [[Jamaica]] for the winter.
*"'''The Bishop's Feast'''": A home-born [[wikt:returnee|returnee]] is invited by an old [[nun]] to witness the enthronement of a new Bishop in [[Roseau]], before spending a week on Dominica's leeward coast.
*"'''Heat'''": The effects of the 1902 eruption of [[Mont Pelee|Mount Pelée]] on Dominica.
*"'''Fishy Waters'''": Racial tensions between a British carpenter and local folk erupt into a scandal that eventually finds its way into Roseau's courtroom.
*"'''Overture and Beginners Please'''": In this first of four consecutive stories about a pre-[[World War I]] [[Caribbean]] immigrant named Elsa, the young girl starts at [[Perse School for Girls|Perse School]] then becomes a stage star in the midst of an unwanted life.
*"'''Before the Deluge'''": Elsa meets a stage girl—a policeman's daughter from [[Manchester]]—whose beauty never succeeds while entertaining her audience.
*"'''On Not Shooting Sitting Birds'''": An English gentleman rejects Elsa for good after hearing of her past exploits during hunting trips in her homeland.
*"'''Kikimora'''": At a first-class hotel, Elsa discovers how perceptive the title character, a black cat, can be, as compared to a husband.
*"'''Night Out 1925'''": The experiences of two lovers, Suzy and Gilbert, in the streets of Paris.
*"'''The Chevalier of the Place Blanche'''": In the English-language version of a work by the author's first husband, Jean Lenglet (written under his ''nom-de-plume'' of Edouard de Nève), the title character shares his desire with a British lady in a 1920s Paris restaurant.
*"'''The Insect World'''": An old lady shows a young child the disturbing connections between [[London underground]] dwellers and a tropical insect [[parasite]] whose name they share in slang.
*"'''Rapunzel, Rapunzel'''": A hospital patient makes a temporary stay at a [[wikt:convalescent|convalescent]] home in London, with a long-haired Australian as her neighbour.
*"'''Who Knows What's Up in the Attic?'''": A vacationer in south-east England comes face-to-face with a clothing salesman.
*"'''Sleep It Off Lady'''": In this story from which the collection takes its name, another old lady faces a rat problem while taking care of her cottage.
*"'''I Used to Live Here Once'''": In this final story, the author makes her way across a familiar childhood stream and discovers she is deceased.<ref>(Clugston 2010, sec 7.5)</ref>

== Reception ==
The book was generally well received, with [[Robie Macauley]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' writing : "The fact that the scenes themselves come from the West Indies or London or Paris of decades past has no real bearing—these are very modern stories written with a quick, young sensibility."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Macauley|first=Robie|date=1976-11-21|title=Sleep It Off, Lady|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/21/archives/sleep-it-off-lady-things-unsaid-and-said-too-often-sleep-it-off.html|access-date=2020-05-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' wrote "This is a more incidental collection of short stories than ''[[Tigers Are Better-Looking|Tigers are Better-Looking]]'' (1974) while still retaining the disconsolate allure of everything Jean Rhys has written" and called the collection "A force mineure, but how insistently, inductively, Jean Rhys makes herself felt in the small hours of the morning or at the fag end of the day."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jean-rhys/sleep-it-off-lady/|title=Sleep it Off, Lady {{!}} Kirkus Reviews|language=en}}</ref>

==Previous publications==
*"Pioneers, Oh Pioneers" in ''[[The Times]]'' under the title "Dear Darling Mr Ramage"
*"Sleep It Off Lady" in ''The New Review''
*"The Insect World" in ''[[The Sunday Times Magazine]]'' (UK) and ''[[Mademoiselle (magazine)|Mademoiselle]]'' (USA)
*"Goodbye Marcus, Goodbye Rose" in ''[[The New Yorker]]''
*"Heat" in ''The New Yorker''
*"Kikimora" in ''The New Yorker''
*"On Not Shooting Sitting Birds" in ''The New Yorker''

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1976 short story collections]]
[[Category:Short story collections by Jean Rhys]]
[[Category:André Deutsch books]]

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Sleep It Off Lady