Jean Rhys' writings are examined through the frames of feminist criticism and literary theory, providing close readings of the texts and their language. The book explores the various forms of feminine dissent at work in Jean Rhys' fiction. She is shown to develop an ethics of subversion through resistance to closure, irony, parody and her daring rewriting of Jane Eyre. Each novel is treated as a complete aesthetic whole, with substantial references to the short stories, for a more penetrating insight into Jean Rhys' fictional universe.