Wide Sargasso Sea

Wide Sargasso Sea Timeline

Year	Historical	Literary	Author
1890	First underground railway in London Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough (first two vols; complete 13 vols., -1915) First of the Jim Crow laws passed to segregate blacks from whites in the South Southern states pass series of laws to restrict black voting rights	William Morris' News from Nowhere Emily Dickinson, Poems	Born Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams on August 24th in Dominica, West Indies (Some biographies give 1894, which is a date Rhys herself supplied for Who's Who)
1891	William Morris, Kelmscott Press	Gissing's New Grub Street
1892	Daimlers sell their first motor car
1893	Independent Labour Party formed
1895	Oscar Wilde arrested and imprisoned for homosexuality
1897	Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
1899	( - 1902) Second Boer War Irish Literary Theatre founded	Ibsen's When We Dead Awaken Pinero's Trelawney of the 'Wells' Symons' The Symbolist Movement in literature Wells' Tales of Space and Time	Attends convent school in Roseau
1900	Most children under eleven attending elementary school Daily Express founded Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams
1901	Queen Victoria dies. Edward VII king First transatlantic radio communication by Marconi	Wells' The First Men in the Moon
1902	Balfour Education Act establishes state system of secondary schools Second Boer War ends	Bennett's Anna of the Five towns Mare's Songs of Childhood Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles Kipling's Just So Stories
1903	Wilbur and Orville Wright make first powered flight New York-London news service begins using wireless telegraphy Emmeline Pankhurst founds the Women's Social and Political Union	Butler's The Way of All Flesh James' The Ambassadors The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. du Bois
1904	Entente Cordiale settles colonial differences between UK and France Offset printing invented Abbey Theatre, Dublin, founded Freud's The Psychopathology of Everyday Life	Hardy's The Dynasts, Part I published J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan first performed on stage James' The Golden Bowl
1905	Start of suffragette agitation and first suffragettes imprisoned Einstein's special theory of relativity Freud's Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality	Doyle's The Return of Sherlock Holmes Wells' Kipps
1906	Liberal landslide in general election; 29 Labour MPs elected and Labour Party constituted	Mare's Poems
1907	Pablo Picasso introduces cubism		Age 17, leaves Dominica for school in England. Attends the Perse School, Cambridge (briefly)
1908	Old Age Pensions Act introduces state pensions for the over-seventies Ford's first Model T car sold in Britain Pathe's first regular newsreel First aeroplane flight in Britain	Edmund Gosse's Father & Son published Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale Wells' The War in the Air	Leaves school to go to the Trees School, later Academy of Dramatic Art (which later became RADA) in London. Father dies, she leaves the Academy after two terms
1909	North Pole reached by Robert Peary (US) NAACP founded	Galsworthy's Strife Pound's Personae	Goes on the stage as a chorus girl in musical comedies in London and touring the provinces
1910	Edward VII dies. George V becomes king South Wales Miners' strike First post-impressionist exhibition in London First feature-length films Freud's On Psychoanalysis Collapse of cotton farming due to boll weevil damage	Galsworthy's Justice Wells' The History of Mr Polly	First love affair, with a man twice her age who leaves her, pensioning her off
1911	Ford Model T assembly plant opened in Manchester Beatrice and Webb's Poverty Der Blaue Reiter group of expressionist artists formed in Munich Frazer's The Golden Bough (11 vols.-1915; first two vols., 1890) Roald Amundsen reaches South Pole Suffragette riots in London	Wells' The New Machiavelli
1912	First Post-Impressionism Exhibition in London Titanic sinks Widespread strikes in Britain Women's Franchise Bill rejected by the House of Commons; suffragettes riot in London Some 400 cinemas in London; establishment of British Board of Film Censors	Bridges' Poetical Works Mare's The Listeners Georgian Poetry, ed. Edward Marsh Pound's Ripostes Mann's Death in Venice	Enters a kind of life considered disreputable by the conventional standards of the day. As an economically unsupported woman, she takes work on the borders of prostitution and is kept by wealthier men. Her attempts to carry on a stage career are unsuccessful
1913	Suffragette Emily Davies dies after throwing herself under the King's horse at the Derby Freud's Totem and Taboo; also Interpretation of Dreams Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring 'Cat and Mouse' Act House of Commons passes Irish Home Rule Bill but rejected by the House of Lords Suffragette deonstrations	Marcel Proust publishes first of the seven volumes of A la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past) (last volume, 1927)
1914	August: Great War breaks out (to November 1918) Irish Home Rule Act passed but later suspended because of war World War One - although segregated, black soldiers enlisted to fight in US armed forces	Pound's Des Imagistes
1915	War intensifies with huge losses Zeppelin attacks on London Sinking of Lusitania Einstein's general theory of relativity Second Battle of Ypres	Brooke's 1914 and Other Poems Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps Kafka's Metamorphosis Maugham's Of Human Bondage Some's Imagist Poets: An Anthology, ed. Amy Lowell (further Imagist anthologies followed in 1916 and 1917) Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier	Volunteers for work in a soldiers' canteen
1916	Easter Rising, Dublin Conscription introduced Battle of the Somme Theories of shell-shock develop Jung's Psychology of the Unconscious Battle of Verdun Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister The Great Migration to the north begins (US)	Brighouse's Hobson's Choice Wells' Mr Britling Sees it Through
1917	USA enters war Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) Russian Revolution (March) Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis Abdication of Czar Nicholas II Russian Revolution (October)
1918	End of the Great War: Armistice, 11 November Rutherford splits atom Representation of the People Act (4th Reform Bill) gives the vote to all men over twenty-one and women over thirty Stopes' Married Love; Parenthood Fisher Education Act raises school-leaving age to fourteen Influenza pandemic, kills over 20 million people world-wide by 1920 Execution of Czar Nicholas II Vote given to all men over twenty-one and women over thirty	Joyce's Exiles Thomas' Last Poems	Works in a pensions office Meets Jean Lenglet, a Dutch writer and journalist
1919	Treaty of Versailles Anglo-Irish War begins Nancy Astor becomes first woman MP Flu pandemic Peace conference at Versailles	Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence	Marries Jean Lenglet and moves to Holland, then to Paris and Vienna Birth of their son William, who lives only 3 weeks
1920	Partition of Ireland League of Nations founded (precursor of the United Nations) Oxford admits women to degrees (1880 at London University) Jung's Psychological Types	Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles Mansfield's Bliss Strachey's Eminent Victorians Hardy's Collected Poems
1921	Economic slump Marie Stopes opens first birth-control clinic in London Irish Free State formed	Huxley's Crome Yellow Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author
1922	Unemployment stands at 2 million: first of many 'hunger marches' organised by the NUWM throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Irish Civil War breaks out (ends 1923) Mussolini comes to power in Italy Radio broadcasting begins; British Broadcasting Company formed Frazer's The Golden Bough (one-volume abridged edn) Establishment of the USSR	Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga Mansfield's The Garden Party Richards' Principles of Literary Criticism	Birth of daughter Maryvonne Jean Rhys meets the writer Ford Madox Ford who encourages her writing
1923	Matrimonial Causes Act (allows women to sue for divorce on same grounds as men, including adultery)	Sitwell's Façade published Cummings' Tulips and Chimneys Huxley's Antic Hay Cane, Jean Toomer (Harlem Renaissance author)	Jean Lenglet arrested for illegal entry into France and currency offences, then extradited to Holland Rhys and Ford start an affair
1924	Paris Exhibition First Labour government in Britain under Ramsay MacDonald (January) Housing Act provides for subsidised public housing (generates over half a million new homes by 1932) Freud's The Ego and the Id Ramsay Macdonald forms first Labour government		Ford publishes his novel Some Do Not, the first volume of his tetralogy Parade?s End First published story Vienne appears in Ford?s magazine the transatlantic review under the name Jean Rhys
1925	Pensions Act provides pensions at sixty-five	Coward's Hay Fever Hemingway's In Our Time
1926	General Strike Television first demonstrated by John Logie Baird; British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) established	T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom
1927	Trade Disputes Act makes general strikes illegal Charles Lindbergh, first solo transatlantic flight German financial and economic crisis Rise of Stalin in USSR	Graves and Riding's A Survey of Modernist Poetry	The Left Bank and Other Stories published. Ford Madox Ford writes the preface
1928	Universal suffrage for men and women Minimum voting age for women in Britain reduced to twenty-one from thirty years Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin (fully exploited from 1940) First films with sound in Britain	Blunden's Undertones of War Huxley's Point Counter Point Isherwood's All the Conspirators	Quartet, her first novel published (also called Postures)
1929	General election returns minority Labour government; Margaret Bondfield becomes first woman Cabinet member Wall Street Crash and start of international economic depression Margaret Bondfield becomes first woman Cabinet member	Graves' Goodbye to All That Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms Priestley's The Good Companions Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (film version, 1930)
1930	Jet engine invented 11th May: Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to complete a solo flight from England to Australia The Great Depression Nazis begin rise to power in Germany Foundation of the Nation of Islam (black national separatist organisation)	Blunden's Collected Poems Coward's Private Lives Faulkner's As I Lay Dying Maugham's Cakes and Ale	After Leaving Mr Mackenzie published
1931		Woolf's The Waves
1932	Hunger marches in Britain British Union of Fascists formed	Huxley's Brave New World Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes	Lives in London with her agent, Leslie Tilden-Smith Divorces Jean Lenglet Translates Barred by Edward de Neve. This was Lenglet's pen-name
1933	Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany	Auden's The Dance of Death Orwell's Down and Out in London and Paris
1934	British Union of Fascists addressed by Oswald Mosley Adolf Hitler becomes Führer	John Masefield becomes Poet Laureate James' The Art of the Novel Pound's Make it New Priestley's English Journey	Voyage in the Dark published Marries Leslie-Tilden Smith
1935	Radar & nylon invented Italy invades Ethiopia	Launch of first Penguin paperbacks
1936	Death of George V Accession, then abdication of Edward VIII Spanish Civil war begins Jarrow March of the unemployed Accession of George VI	Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza Orwell's Keep the Aspidistra Flying Thomas' 25 Poems	Visits the Caribbean including Martinique and Dominica. This is her only visit after leaving in 1907
1937	British policy of appeasement towards Italy and Germany Mass Observation Project starts	Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier Priestley's Time and the Conway's Woolf's The Years Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
1938	Munich agreement with Hitler Supreme Court rules Missouri must provide access to public schooling for blacks as well as whites	Waugh's Scoop Day-Lewis' Overtures to a Death Greene's Brighton Rock
1939	End of Spanish Civil War Start of the Second World War Evacuation of children from London	Thomas' Twenty-Six Poems Eliot's The Family Reunion Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin Joyce's Finnegan's wake Orwell's Coming up for Air Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath	Good Morning, Midnight published
1940	Churchill becomes Prime Minister Evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk Start of the Blitz	Thomas' Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog Greene's The Power and the Glory	At some point during the war, Lenglet is arrested and sent to a concentration camp During the war, Lenglet, and her daughter, remain in occupied Holland and take part in resistance activities 1940 - 45 Spends the war years in London and the South West of England
1941	Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour USA declares war on Germany and Italy	Coward's Blithe Spirit Eliot's Little Gidding
1942	US involvement in Second World War
1944	D-Day Landings in Normandy Butler Education Act	Eliot's Four Quartets
1945	Yalta Conference Death of Hitler USA drops nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders End of Second World War Clement Atlee becomes Labour Prime Minister	Mitford's The Pursuit of Love Orwell's Animal Farm Waugh's Brideshead Revisited Priestley's An Inspector Calls	Tilden-Smith dies At some point during the war, Jean Rhys burnt the typescript of 'Le Revenant', an early version of Wide Sargasso Sea
1947	Independence of India and Pakistan The UK school leaving age is raised to 15 Princess Elizabeth – later Queen – marries the Duke of Edinburgh	Compton-Burnett's Manservant and Maidservant The Diary of Anne Frank is published The Maids, Jean Genet All My Sons, Arthur Miller A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams	Marries Max Hamer, a cousin of Tilden-Smith
1948	British Citizenship Act gives Commonwealth citizens subject status Policy of apartheid started in South Africa State of Israel founded	Waugh's Brideshead Revisited Leavis' The Great Tradition	Around this time, Jean Rhys begins or returns to work on Wide Sargasso Sea
1949		Orwell's 1984 Miller's Death of a Salesman The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir	Selma Vaz Dias advertises for information on Jean Rhys Jean Rhys arrested for being drunk and disorderly and assaulting her neighbours. Spends a week in Holloway Prison for assessment
1950	Korean War begins	Greene's The Third Man Lessing's The Grass is Singing	1950-52 Max Hamer imprisoned for fraud. On his release, Jean Rhys and Hamer go to live in Cornwall
1951	Festival of Britain Churchill becomes Conservative Prime Minister Spies Burgess and Maclean defect to USSR	Larkin's Poems Manning's School for Love
1952	George VI dies Accession of Elizabeth II Britain produces an atomic bomb	Christie's The Mousetrap Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea Thomas' Collected Poems	On Hamer's release, Jean Rhys and he go to live in Cornwall
1953	Death of Stalin Coronation of Elizabeth II Ascent of Everest	Hartley's The Go-Between Fleming's Casino Royale Miller's The Crucible
1954	End of post-war food rationing US Supreme Court declares racially segregated education is unconstitutional	Amis' Lucky Jim Rattigan's Separate Tables Golding's Lord of the Flies Thomas' Under Milk Wood
1955	Rosa Parks, Civil Rights activist in USA, refuses to give up her seat on a bus	Beckett's Waiting for Godot
1956	Suez Crisis Russian invasion of Hungary Rosa Parks defies bus segregation in Montgomery Alabama	Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Osborne's Look Back in Anger Wilson's Anglo-Saxon Attitudes Beckett, Waiting for Godot
1957	Wolfenden Report on Prostitution and Homosexuality Independence of Ghana Obscene Publications Act Martin Luther King elected President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference	Larkin's A Girl in Winter Hughes' The Hawk in the Rain Murdoch's The Sandcastle MacInnes' City of Spades Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur Osborne's The Entertainer	Rhys and Selma Vaz Dias adapt Good Morning Midnight for a radio broadcast Moves to Cheriton Fitzpaine in Devon
1958	Notting Hill race riots Aden state of emergency CND founded	Achebe's Things Fall Apart Pinter's The Birthday Party Delaney's A Taste of Honey Bates' The Darling Buds of May Murdoch's The Bell Silitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Betjeman's Collected Poems	Jean Rhys signs a contract with the publisher Deutsch for Wide Sargasso Sea
1959	First section of M1 motorway opened State of emergency in Kenya	Wesker's Roots Lee's Cider with Rosie Braithwaite's To Sir with Love Waterhouse's Billy Liar Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance Silitoe's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansbury
1960	John F. Kennedy wins US election CND demonstrations in Trafalgar Square Penguin wins the right to publish D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover	Banks' The L Shaped Room Lessing's In Pursuit of the English Pinter's The Caretaker Barstow's A Kind of Loving Plath's The Colossus
1961	Commonwealth Immigrants Act restricts right to settle in UK Structure of DNA discovered Building of Berlin Wall	Osborne's Luther Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas
1962	End of national military service Jamaica, Trinidad and Uganda become independent from UK	Burgess' A Clockwork Orange Al Alvarez (ed), The New Poetry Carson's Silent Spring Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing Albee, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1963	US President John F. Kennedy assassinated Kenya becomes independent Martin Luther King makes his 'I have a dream' speech	1960-1963 Wilson Harris publishes The Guyana Quartet Plath's The Bell Jar Theatre Workshop, Oh! What a Lovely War Dunn's Up the Junction
1964	Beatles become popular Labour PM, Harold Wilson Harlem race riots in USA Martin Luther King awarded Nobel Peace Prize Nelson Mandela sentenced to life in prison US Congress passes the Civil Rights Act banning segregation	Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane Larkin's The Whitsun Weddings
1965	Vietnam war escalates Abolition of the death penalty (UK) Rhodesia declares independence from UK Race riots across America	Osborne's A Patriot for Me Pinter's The Homecoming Plath's Ariel Bond's Saved Manning's The Balkan Trilogy
1966	England wins the World Cup Guyana becomes independent from UK Television drama Cathy Come Home highlights homelessness in UK In China, Mao Zedong launches his Cultural Revolution	Orton's Loot Fowles' The Magus Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Jubilee, Margaret Walker The Concubine, Elechi Amadi	Max Hamer dies. Wide Sargasso Sea published
1967	Legalisation of abortion (UK) Homosexuality decriminalized (UK) First heart transplant Gough, Patten, Henri, The Mersey Sound	Carter's The Magic Toyshop Dunn's Poor Cow
1968	National Front formed (UK) Race Relations Bill declares race discrimination illegal in the UK Student uprising in Paris Martin Luther King assassinated USA passes Civil Rights Bill Enoch Powell makes 'Rivers of Blood' speech in Birmingham National Front formed (UK)	Hines' A Kestrel for a Knave Bond's Early Morning End of theatre censorship in Britain When Rain Clouds Gather, Bessie Head	Collected Short Stories: Tigers Are Better Looking published
1969	'Winter of Discontent' Americans land on the moon Start of Northern Ireland ‘troubles’	Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman Greene, Travels with my Aunt
1970	Formation of Women’s Liberation Movement in UK Equal Pay Act, UK	Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye Ted Hughes, Crow
1971	Decimalisation of UK currency Anti Vietnam war demonstrations	Bond's Lear
1972	Terrorist attack at Munich Olympic Games Equal Opportunity Act extends 'affirmative action' to colleges and universities in USA	Drabble, The Needle’s Eye Stoppard, Jumpers
1973	Abortion legalised in USA USA pulls out of Vietnam Britain enters EEC	Alan Ayckbourn, The Norman Conquests Sula, Toni Morrison Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers Greene, The Honorary Consul
1974	President Richard Nixon resigns	Larkin, High Windows Murdoch, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine
1975	End of Vietnam war Sex Discrimination Bill (UK) North Sea oil comes on line	Griffiths' Comedians Bradbury's The History Man Jhabvala's Heat and Dust Scott's The Raj Quartet Lodge's Changing Places Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time	Three autobiographical pieces published in Vogue magazine
1976	Notting Hill (race) riots Advent of punk rock UK Race Relations Act strengthens anti-discrimination laws	Edgar's Destiny	Sleep It Off Lady (short stories) published
1977	Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee is celebrated Strikes by firefighters and riots against Far Right groups take place across the UK Public Works Employment Act - 10% of contractors to be from minorities First Virago Press publication First recognised AIDS death, New York	Dennis Potter, Brimstone and Treacle Our Sister Killjoy, Ama Aidoo Stoppard, Professional Foul
1978	The first 'test tube' baby	Murdoch's The Sea, The Sea Weldon's Praxis McEwan's The Cement Garden Hare's Plenty	Jean Rhys awarded a CBE
1979	Conservative party wins General Election (first female British Prime Minister) 'Winter of Discontent' Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran flees Iran with his family	Churchill's Cloud Nine Naipaul's A Bend in the River	Jean Rhys dies on May 14th Smile Please, a collection of autobiographical pieces is published after her death.
1980	Start of civil war in El Salvador Mount St Helens volcano erupts in Washington State, USA AIDS epidemic starts to spread
1981	Wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Riots in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Manchester Reverend Sun Myung Moon marries 2075 couples in mass wedding in Madison Square Garden Falklands War Women’s anti-nuclear Greenham Common protests First CD players	Rushdie's Midnight's Children The Women of Brewster Place, Gloria Naylor Churchill, Top Girls	Quartet adapted into film by James Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1982	Reverend Sun Myung Moon marries 2075 couples in mass wedding in Madison Square Garden
1983	US cruise missiles stationed in UK	Swift, Waterland Weldon, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
1984	Miner's Strike (UK) IRA attempt to assassinate PM Margaret Thatcher Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, is assassinated by her bodyguards	Ted Hughes becomes Poet Laureate Carter's Nights at the Circus Amis' Money Ballard's Empire of the Sun Barnes' Flaubert's Parrot	Letters 1931-1966, edited by Francis Wyndham and Diana Melly, published
1985	Live Aid concerts for Ethiopian famine relief	Ackroyd, Hawksmoor Brenton & Hare, Pravda Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit
1986	Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Ukraine
1987	Conservatives win General Election Race riots (UK) The Great Storm devastates southern UK IRA bomb, Enniskillen Stock market crash	Morrison's Beloved Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger Ian McEwan, The Child in Time Beloved, Toni Morrison Ackroyd, Chatterton Churchill, Serious Money
1988	Death threats against Salman Rushdie PanAm flight 103 destroyed by bomb over Lockerbie	Rushdie's Satanic Verses Hawking's A Brief History of Time
1989	Revolutions in Eastern Europe lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall Exxon Valdez oil tanker spills millions of gallons of oil off Alaskan coast Protesting students massacred in Tiananmen Square, Beijing	Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day Gwendolen, Buchi Emechera Winterson, Sexing the Cherry
1990	Nelson Mandela freed from imprisonment in South Africa Germany re-unified	Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia Byatt's Possession
1991	Collapse of Soviet Union South Africa repeals apartheid laws
1992		Jazz, Toni Morrison Hornby, Fever Pitch
1993	Murder of Stephen Lawrence Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa UK National Lottery starts First female Anglican priests ordained	D'Aguiar's British Subjects	Wide Sargasso Sea adapted for film by Carole Angier, Jan Sharpe and John Duigan

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