Virginia Woolf

Synopsis: As the nephew of Virginia Woolf, Quentin Bell enjoyed an initimacy with his subject granted to few biographers. Originally published in two volumes in 1972, his acclaimed biography describes Virginia Woolf's family and childhood; her earliest writings; the formation of the Bloomsbury Group and her marriage to Leonard Woolf. Compelling, moving and entertaining, Quentin Bell's biography was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize. It is a fitting tribute to a remarkable and complex woman, one of the greatest writers of the century.

Review: I was so thrilled when I found this biography of Virginia in a local junk shop that I didn't study it properly. I was more than half way through reading it (and I was thinking .. 'he's going to have to cover an awful lot of ground in the second half') when my suspicions were aroused and I took a good look at the cover ... nothing was printed on the front bar the title and the author but on the spine the dreaded words 1882-1912 appeared, meaning that this was the first book of a two volume publication .. oh fiddlesticks!!

It's really frustrating because the chances of me getting the second volume to match are slim, I will either have to buy the two volume set (just to read the second volume) or the more modern one volume publication .. unless I am lucky enough to find the second book when I go book rummaging in the future. It's all the more annoying because I enjoyed it so much and was looking forward to reading about her at her most interesting (I.e. her writing years.)

Anyhow, back to the book itself, Quentin .. who is Virginia's nephew .. writes with great frankness and wit. It's clear he knows his subject well and you feel as if you are getting an insiders view. He says, in the foreword, that Leonard persuaded him to attempt this biography and that in itself gives you confidence that he must have been deemed worthy of the job. He doesn't treat his subject with kid gloves though, the portrait he paints of Virginia is an honest one, she could be difficult, temperamental and snobbish but she was also shy, sensitive and incredibly loyal. His account of her childhood is fascinating, she was a natural storyteller ('words, when they came, were to be then, and the rest of her life, her chosen weapons',) and also a natural clown earning herself the lifelong nickname of 'goat' but her life was peppered with tragedies, insecurities and ill health which all had their adverse effect. One of her greatest good fortunes, I think, was marrying Leonard .. up until then the only man she could ever see herself marrying was Lytton Strachey and that, I imagine, would have been disastrous (not least because he was gay) but Leonard seemed the perfect mate for her (if any man could be.) This first volume leaves off just as Virginia, after much soul searching, has agreed to accept him, Quentin calls it the wisest decision of her life (though whether it was Leonard's is up for debate .. that is I'm debating it .. I'm not quoting the author here.)

I found the book really readable, Quentin has an engaging, confidential style that makes this biography more than just a recounting of people, dates and places. There's no doubt that it's a fascinating time in history and Virginia along with her family and friends must be among the most fascinating people of the age. They lived pretty unconventional lives and were deemed quite shocking, though it all seems quite tame to begin with .. mere tales of unchaperoned girls who refuse to dress for dinner. As the decade progressed though their behaviour grew more licentious and there are tales of Virginia swimming naked with Rupert Brooke and Vanessa having sex in public (though Quentin regards this as unlikely .. but then, he would .. it's his mother!) But it's not all scandal, it focuses every bit as much on Virginia's mind and imagination (which was 'furnished with an accelerator and no brakes') and her constant struggle against mental illness. There are some great recollections and anecdotes such as this exchange which took place in a lodging house in Cornwall (and credit must go to Quentin here who has furnished the tale with his own words.)

'What's the pudding?' asked Virginia.
'Mount St Michael's Pudding, Miss.'
Virginia's imagination took fire; she saw how it would be and seeing could not but describe her vision. Her exact words are lost; but there was something about a soaring convexity of chocolate surmounted by a castle of dazzling sugar, battlemented, crenellated, machicolated, crowned with banners of crystallized angelica and at it's feet a turbulent ocean of lucent jelly, flecked with creamy foam and graced by heaven knows what sweetmeats fashioned to resemble vessels, mermaids, dolphins, nereids .... For Virginia's relations the chief interest in listening to this inventory lay in the face of the serving girl, who stood amazed by Virginia's eloquence and appalled by the knowledge that she would, in a few minutes, produce a steamed pudding, not unlike a sandcastle in shape and texture, parsimoniously adorned with a dab of strawberry jam.

I couldn't find a large enough picture of the book front but there were plenty of pictures of the painting which adorns the cover which is by Roger Fry so I used one of those instead. Even though I only read the one volume, I felt I understood her more and it made me feel bold enough to walk straight to the bookshelf and pluck down To the Lighthouse and begin upon it before I became rational again.

Flush

Synopsis: First published in 1933, "Flush" is the lively story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel. Although Flush has adventures of his own, he is also the means of providing us with glimpses of the life of his owner and her days at Wimpole Street as an invalid, her courtship by Robert Browning, their elopement and life together in Italy.

Review: Another one that I loved and wished I still was reading because it's the sort of read you need when you've got the 'mean reds'. I know I'm easing myself in a bit by making this my first Virginia Woolf read but it more or less came about by accident, I saw it at a local bookshop, bought it and the size of it (short) made it perfect for a sunny afternoon spent in the garden. This is a fictional reconstruction of the life of Flush .. Elizabeth Barrett Brownings spaniel and I though it was just adorable. I am a bit of a sucker for animal stories anyway and who doesn't love a spaniel? The book starts ... 'It is universally admitted that the family from which the subject of this memoir claims descent is one of the greatest antiquity. Therefore it is not strange that the origin of the name itself is lost in obscurity. Many million years ago the country which is now called Spain seethed uneasily in the ferment of creation. Ages passed; vegetation appeared; where there is vegetation the law of Nature has decreed that there shall be rabbits; where there are rabbits, Providence has ordained there shall be dogs.' and we are soon with Flush as he travels to Wimpole Street to become the beloved pet of the invalid Elizabeth. Obviously the story is a simple one but it's told with great intelligence and wit. Life isn't all plain sailing for Flush, his first disappointment comes in the shape of Robert Browning ... Flush is not at all amused by Robert's attentions to his mistress and feels rather neglected and usurped ... his behaviour is perhaps a little unworthy of a noble dog but life as he knows it is changing and he feels threatened. He then falls foul of the dognappers and spends a miserable few weeks chained up in a hovel waiting for a ransom to be paid (in actuality this happened several times to Flush but is only accounted for once here.) The vengeance exacted by the dognappers, should their ransom demands remain unheeded, was a gruesome parcel sent to the owner containing the head and paws of their beloved pet. Flush's life hangs in the balance as Elizabeth's family and Robert try to persuade her against paying these murderous louts.

Eventually, with Flush returned and Elizabeth's health much improved, she elopes with Robert to Italy taking her maid and Flush along too. Flush soon discards his old sedate London ways and becomes quite rakish, wandering the streets of Pisa and Florence, availing himself of the ladies, getting home late and sunning himself on the rocks. The most idyllic retirement in other words. Virginia gleaned most of her information from two of Elizabeth's published poems and plucked the rest from her imagination.

It's not typical of Virginia's writing so I'm not getting carried away but it's a great start and the other Virginia Woolf books on my bookshelf immediately look more inviting and less daunting (deluded fool!) If it was allegorical it completely went over my head .. which I knew it would .. it's nice not to be troubled by intellect :-)

I couldn't find any pics of Elizabeth with Flush but here are some gorgeous pics of other famous ladies with their pets.

Audrey Hepburn & Famous

Daphne du Maurier

Dorothy Parker & Misty

The Queen & Susan

Marilyn Monroe & Maf

Doris Day

Elizabeth Taylor

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

Synopsis: For Gertrude Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas, life in Paris was based upon the rue de Fleurus and the Saturday evenings and 'it was like a kaleidoscope slowly turning'. Picasso was there with 'his high whinnying spanish giggle', as were Cezanne and Matisse, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. As Toklas put it - 'The geniuses came and talked to Gertrude Stein and the wives sat with me'. A light-hearted entertainment, this is in fact Gertrude Stein's own autobiography and a roll-call of all the extraordinary painters and writers she met between 1903 and 1932. Audacious, sardonic and characteristically self-confident, this is a definitive account by the American in Paris.

Review: This one made my head ache, despite the blurb explaining all to me I really couldn't get the concept for ages. Eventually the penny dropped and I understood (eureka .. what's next .. Proust??) The books title is The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas but it's not about Alice, it's told from the viewpoint of Alice, but it's not by her either. It's a biography about Gertrude Stein written by her as if it's Alice (her friend and companion) talking .. oh my, my head hurts again thinking about it. This is a clever concept because of course you can get away with saying all sorts about how amazingly brilliant you are (as in 'The three geniuses of whom I wish to speak are Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and Alfred Whitehead') and it looks for all the world as if someone else is saying it about you (though Gertrude does come clean in the last sentence.) Anybody who was anybody in Paris (or abroad) always wanted to be introduced to Gertrude, she drew artistic people to her like moths to flames.

The book went through phases for me of being really entertaining and a little dull, I like her style of writing (very spare with only essential detail) but sometimes there wasn't quite enough detail. Often a sentence you thought was leading somewhere ended up dead ended ... stuff like .. 'we thought she would go there but she didn't' .. 'we thought she'd like him but she never' ... Gertrude bought a lot of paintings, she also sat for a lot of painters and sculptors and was mixing constantly in their society especially Picasso, Apollonaire & Matisse, later it was writers such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald and some of the Bloomsbury Group writers but a lot of this was more or less just listed with little snippets that mischievously made you want to know more. There are times when she elaborates a little more and it's always very entertaining and funny. She's someone who speaks her mind so if she doesn't like a painting/sculpture/piece of writing then she'll say so, she'd see no point in flattery. Having said that I don't think she was fond of criticism when it was directed at her, but then who is? 'She reads anything and everything and even now hates to be disturbed and above all however often she has read a book and however foolish the book may be no-one must make fun of it or tell her how it goes on. It is still as it always was real to her.'

One of the paragraphs that I loved was (and the above sentence may give you a clue) ...'Haweis had been fascinated with what he had read in the manuscript of The Making of Americans. He did however plead for commas. Gertrude Stein said commas were unnecessary, the sense should be intrinsic and not have to be explained by commas and otherwise commas were only a sign that one should pause and take breath but one should know of oneself when one wanted to pause and take breath. However, as she liked Haweis very much and he had given her a delightful painting, she gave him two commas. It must however be added that on re-reading the manuscript she took the commas out.' .. I think I will use that forever more as an excuse for my atrocious punctuation. You should have known to put it in yourself I can't do all the work for you :o)

An insight into life in Montmartre, during the dawning of the Cubism/Surrealism art movement and the first world war and rather endearing in it's way, Gertrude has an uncanny way of getting straight to the point of every topic and furnishing it with her dry wit. She and Alice lived simple lives but moved in extraordinary circles. As you would expect, it's comma-lite.