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Rezensionen (37)
25. Mai 2016
Don't be afraid of Virginia Woolf
On visiting the pregnant Barbara Rothschild and her husband Victor, the Woolfs, Leonard and Virginia, are astonished by the sight of a monkey emerging from the trees in the Rothschild garden. The monkey in question is a marmoset, a monkey so small one could “have balanced it on your palm like an apple.”
Victor had bought the animal in a junk shop as a (unappreciated) gift for his wife. Some weeks later the Victor Rothschild asks Leonard if he would look after the monkey while he and Barbara went on holiday. It is 1934 and at the book’s end in 1938 the Woolves still have the monkey in their possession.
Astonishing as it may seem the above is based on fact. Of course the author has imagined much of the story but it is based on published facts. In 1934 that nebulous amalgamation of writers and artists the Bloomsbury group had entered its twilight years. Arguably, the group for all intents and purposes ended on the death of the biographer, writer and critic and founding member of the Bloomsbury Group Lytton Strachey two years before.
This is a delightful, endearing and humorous book that wears its heart on its sleeve. But beneath its playful nature is an intelligent, profound and eloquent piece of writing. The allusive nature of Mitz’z life before she came into Leonard and Virginia’s possession will be all too obvious to those who are au fait with the life of Virginia Woolf.
It is to the book’s credit that it bears reading through to the end to those like me who read all things related to Bloomsbury as the book contains nothing new to the Bloomsbury aficionados as most of the information is culled from the likes of Virginia Woolf’s diaries and the biographies of Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee and Quentin Bell. The author doesn’t attempt to disguise this fact or that the book pays homage to Virginia Woolf’s own biography of an animal, Flush.
The book is set against the backdrop of Virginia struggling to finish her novel The Years, the black dog of manic depression following her around and the threat of war looming over the country. The latter in particular was particularly worrying for Virginia and Leonard (a prominent Jewish socialist) as they were to learn that the Gestapo had the Woolves named on a list of prominent Britons who would be automatically arrested when Germany invaded Britain. (The list included amongst others the writers Noel Coward, Rebecca West and H.G. Wells) It has been speculated that this knowledge was one contributing factor to Virginia’s suicide in 1941 when an invasion of Great Britain seemed likely and not speculative.
There are a few niggling errors or oversights that creep into the book. The author refers a few times to Vanessa Bell’s (Virginia’s sister), sons but makes no reference to her daughter, Angelica: “ In such dark times it was a blessing to be childless. Vanessa had lost one son* already. Would she now lose another?”
The second niggle I have with the book is the author’s mention of England going to war. Too many Europeans, Americans and some English believe that it is acceptable to transpose the words England and Britain. It is not, especially when in the context of war. ALL of Britain went to war in 1939. It is insulting to those non-English Britons who fought and died during the two World Wars. My Scottish uncle was interred in a Japanese prisoner of war camp for some two years. He endured that for all of Britain not just the English part. (Rant over).
If you are one of those who are afraid of Virginia Woolf then this book is a wonderful way to overcome those fears and to dip your toe into the expansive, mesmerising ocean that is the Bloomsbury group.
*Vanessa Bell’s son Julian did in 1937 at the age of 29. He was driving an ambulance in Spain during the civil war there.
25. Mai 2016
Only for the literature student?
Candide is a third person narrative that can be seen as a piece of travel writing, a fable or a parable. What it most certainly is, is a satirical piece of writing that though written over 250 years ago it still has relevance today. To be more precise it is indirect satire which allows the readers to draw their own conclusions. It also allows Voltaire to disavow the words written. This is made clear by Voltaire not putting his name to the novel until some eight years later even though most readers were fully aware who had written it.
The themes of the Candide are large, the hypocrisy of religion, the corrupting power of money and the folly of optimism. Candide explores them all in detail within what should really be considered a novella.
The edition I read is part of the Penguin Classics series, translated and edited by Theo Cuffe and has an introduction by Michael Wood, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. As with all the Penguin Classics series that I have read this is a superb edition. This edition includes a chronology, a map, notes on the text and names plus various appendices. Unless you have a good working knowledge of the 18th century then the notes are a must. With Candide being a satire than one needs to know the history of the period the book is set to understand what is being satirized.
In the midst of the novella is a love story; the love of Candide for Cunégonde, the Baron's daughter. When the Baron discovers Candide's love for his daughter he is driven out of the castle. While trying to make his own way in the world he meets his tutor from his days at the castle, Pangloss. Pangloss informs him that Cunégonde is dead as are everyone else at the castle after it was attacked. From there Candide and the various companions he meets on his travels encounter an egregious series of events; an earthquake, the Inquisition, murder, rape, a shipwreck and many others.
Candide fights to maintain his optimism and Pangloss tries to maintain his belief that "everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." Throughout the novella Voltaire is ridiculing the cosmic complacency and optimism that is expressed by philosophers of the day.
The book is an intellectual, philosophical and religious journey through the period of the Enlightenment in what became known as the `long' eighteenth century.
The novella moves a hectic pace which can leave one feeling breathless. The chapters are short and strangely each chapter has a heading which conveys the events that will occur in the chapter so ruining much of the novella's suspense. The novel's hectic pace was remarked on by the playwright Lillian Hellman who wrote the libretto for the operetta of the book for the stage; "the greatest piece of slap-dash ever written at the greatest speed."
25. Mai 2016
Flying High
Amelia Earhart is arguably one of the best known aviatrix of the twenty century. Earhart set many records most notable being the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic. Her death has fuelled as many conspiracy theories as those that surround 9/11.
On June 1937, during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe, Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, lost radio contact, ran out of fuel and crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
Jane Mendelsohn's novel is a fictionalised account of what happened to Amelia Earhart after she lost contact with Howland Island, her destination, and the navy.
Mendelsohn's novel is at once a story of a driven, unhappy possibly reckless woman who does not feel alive unless she is flying. The author weaves fact and fiction, the present and the past using first and third person narrative. First person narrative is used as Earhart's own personal point of view while third person narrative is utilised to portray Earhart's life. This moving to and fro, in and out of time and space allows the author to blend, like some exotic biographer's cocktail, layer upon layer of fact and fiction, present and the past, real or imagined until the reader feels drunk from bibliophilic pleasure.
But there is no hangover or altitude sickness as a consequence of imbibing this particular cocktail. Instead one feels the need to continue drinking the book without stopping for breath or coffee.
The novel is written in the style of a diary with short, usually one paragraph long, entries.
"Back then, a plane was called a ship. There were still cabins and a sense of voyaging. There was a reverence for flight because it was so dangerous. People lost themselves. There was no safety."
This diary style way of writing gives the novel a sense of urgency. One feels that Amelia Earhart is writing down her thoughts before either she dies, possibly by her own hand, or before she forgets. In the author's hands Amelia has something of a death wish. The aviatrix is trying to make sense of the world she lives in and the decisions she made. She enjoys the celebrity that has come with her exploits but feels guilty at doing so. She regrets her marriage to the publisher George Putnam but understands that were it not for him she would not have had the success she achieved.
"He's the husband who made her famous, who devoted himself to her, even when she hated him, even when he hated her back. She needs him so that she can fly, so that she can escape from him, so that she can escape from the very people who worship her."
At only 146 pages in length the book is short but very sweet. Jane Mendelsohn has taken the `goddess of flight', as she was described by the press, and brought her down to earth by encasing her feet in clay. But, though the author has endowed Amelia Earhart with flaws, insecurities and an occasional hint of self loathing, Amelia Earhart still remains a heroine.