Vanessa & Virginia

Susan Sellers

Language: Dutch

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: Jan 1, 2009

Description:

From Publishers Weekly

A delectable little book for anyone who ever admired the Bloomsbury group, Sellers's first novel speaks in painter Vanessa Bell's voice as she addresses her sister, Virginia Woolf. The story includes everything one ever imagined that happened in the intimate lives of the sisters and their astounding circle, which burst upon late Victorian England and shattered both the artistic and cultural boundaries of the times. Sellers begins during the girls' childhood with their beloved brother, and as they grow up, she taps into the incest, sexual encounters and homoerotic love with and among the many great minds of the era. The fictional world the author has recreated—of the sisters striving to perfect their respective art forms while trying to keep the reality of children and war and illness at bay—is full of color and intellectual promise and laced with despair and untimely deaths. While the mix of first- and second-person perspectives gets tedious (there are many variations on the theme of I sensed you watching me), the narrative's a genuine treat for Bloomsbury fans and those at least vaguely familiar with the milieu. (May)
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From Booklist

Written from the perspective of Vanessa Bell to her sister Virginia Woolf, this novel plumbs the relationships between the women, their family, and their bohemian Bloomsbury set. Vanessa writes directly to Virginia, confessing early on to a fear of where her sister’s cleverness will lead. Having staked out different avenues for their talent in childhood—Vanessa painting and Virginia writing—the girls fiercely vie for the attention of their parents and their beloved brother Thoby, only to be bereft at the loss of each. Though Virginia is apparently the stronger and bolder of the two, she proves to be more vulnerable following the death of their father. The sisters compete all their lives—through the Depression and war—for the attention, acclaim, and love of their spouses, friends, Vanessa’s children, and an assortment of lovers. Virginia is given to hysterics and emotional blackmail; Vanessa is plagued by self-doubt and resentment in this beautifully written exploration of tortured talent, sibling conflicts, domestic discord, disappointed love affairs, and emotional despair. --Vanessa Bush