Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Shopping for books at the Woolf conference

Tuesday 25 May 2010 by Paula Maggio

If you are attending the Woolf conference, June 3-6 at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky., you can plan some of your book purchases in advance, including the latest from Cecil Woolf’s Bloomsbury Heritage Series.

  • A link on the Georgetown College bookstore’s webpage has a list of the books that will be for sale at the conference. You can order them in advance and either pick them up at the bookstore or at the conference center when you arrive.
  • A representative from The Scholar’s Choice will also be there with lots of wonderful books (display copies) and order forms.
  • Pace University Press will have offerings and order forms on hand. 
  • Cecil Woolf Publishers will offer the latest volumes from its Bloomsbury Heritage Series. Among them are:
    • Beyond the Icon: Virginia Woolf in Contemporary Fiction by Alice Lowe
    • Desmond and Molly MacCarthy: Bloomsberries by Todd Avery
    • Leslie Stephen as Mountaineer: ‘Where does Mont Blanc end, and where do I begin?’ by Catherine W. Hollis
    • Virginia Woolf and ‘Dress Mania’: ‘the eternal and insoluble question of clothes’ by Catherine Gregg

Get more details about the 2010 Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: Woolf and the Natural World.

Posted in 2010 Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: Woolf and the Natural World, Bloomsbury Heritage Series, Cecil Woolf Publishers, Virginia Woolf, Woolf and the natural world | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

From Flush to Randolph, dogs do tell

Tuesday 18 May 2010 by Paula Maggio

Some people don’t like stories written from a dog’s point of view, but I tend to enjoy their whimsical approach to life.

Take Virginia Woolf’s Flush, for example. It’s more than a dog’s story. It’s a literary love story. And it’s a study of a complicated father-daughter relationship somewhat like Woolf’s own.

In it, Woolf also includes allusions to John Ruskin‘s descriptions of Italy, all told from the perspective of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel named Flush.

A couple of years ago, J.F. Englert, author of a series of charming mystery books ostensibly written by a Labrador retriever named Randolph, sent me two, A Dog About Town and A Dog Among Diplomats, in the hopes that I would blog about them. Hoping that I could find a connection between his books and Woolf’s Flush, I thought I would too.

But I haven’t until now. Somehow I needed a third canine narrator to flesh out my little post. I found the missing link when The Guardian wrote a review of a The Life and Opinions of Maf the Dog, and of his Friend Marilyn Monroe by Andrew O’Hagan.

Not only does O’Hagan’s book feature a doggie narrator. It also starts out at Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex. There, the narrator, while still a pup, discusses his life with Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. And that little tidbit gave me the hook I needed to write this.

It stretches the imagination to visualize a dog moving from a life with Vanessa and Duncan to a life with Marilyn Monroe, but what the heck. Is that any more of a stretch than a dog who narrates novels?

Such books are a fun read. But for now I think I’ll stick to Randolph, who has a new book out. This one is called A Dog at Sea. Sounds like a perfect summer read.

Posted in dog, Duncan Grant, Flush, Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Today’s the day to buy Bloomsbury art

Thursday 13 May 2010 by Paula Maggio

Paintings and other works of art once owned by Grace Higgens, former Charleston Farmhouse cook and housekeeper, go up for auction today at the Gorringes sales room in Lewes.

The collection includes 11 items. Among them are paintings and ceramics by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. A bronze bell used to summon guests for meals is also for sale.

Read the story in the Antiques Trade Gazette. Visit the Gorringes website, where you can search for the names of Bell and Grant to see photos and details of their art for sale and read more about the collection.

Posted in Virginia Woolf | Leave a Comment »

Woolf conference adds staged reading

Tuesday 11 May 2010 by Paula Maggio

This year’s Virginia Woolf conference is coming up soon. And organizers continue to make additions to the program.

The most recent is a staged reading called “Life in the Country: A Dramatic Reading for Five Voices,” by Roberta Palumbo of Holy Names University.

The 50-minute chamber play features dialogue created from the letters, diaries, and memoirs of Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Dr. Octavia Wilberforce and Louie Mayer.

It will be performed by professional actors from Lexington, Ky., and is scheduled to follow Thursday’s opening reception. It will be on stage at Georgetown’s Lab Theatre, right across the street from the Art Gallery, where the reception will be held.

Get more details about the 2010 Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: Woolf and the Natural World, June 3-6, in the Thomas & King Leadership and Conference Center at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky.

Posted in 20th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, performance, Reading Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf, Woolf and the natural world | Tagged | Leave a Comment »

Going Italian with Virginia Woolf

Sunday 9 May 2010 by Paula Maggio

I’m going to Italy with Virginia Woolf. I’m sure we will have a wonderful time.

She accompanied me to Ireland a few years ago, and we had such fun that we are traveling together again.

Woolf was a great European traveler. Of course she traveled around England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, but she also visited six other European countries. She spent time in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Greece, as well as Italy. She toured some of these countries more than once.

While in her twenties, she also made two trips to Turkey. 

I got most of those facts from a wonderful book titled Travels with Virginia Woolf written by Jan Morris and first published in 1993. And it’s because of that book that I know whenever I am traveling in Woolf’s steps.

Morris scoured Woolf’s diaries and letters in preparation for writing her Woolf travelogue. Then she went one big step further. She visited some of Virginia’s favorite spots herself. 

I expect to find Morris’s own observations most useful on my own Italian trip, for she has noted how the sights and scenes of present-day Italy do or don’t match up to what Woolf experienced during her seven trips to the country where she said she would “come to die.”

Right now, I have a photocopy of the 15-page “Italy” chapter in my carry-on bag. I plan to spend my eight-hour Alitalia flight highlighting the spots Woolf saw that I, too, will have a chance to see.  I will let you know how they compare.

Posted in Italy, Jan Morris, Travels with Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »