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Posts Tagged ‘commodification’

Solving the puzzle(s) of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway

Posted in commodification, tagged , , , on Saturday 21 January 2023| 1 Comment »

There seems to be an endless supply of jigsaw puzzles that include a connection to Virginia Woolf.

Well, the supply is probably not endless. But every time I think I have exhausted all avenues in my Woolf puzzle search, a new puzzle appears.

This go-round, I found two. And both connect to Woolf’s 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway.

Mrs. Dalloway 1

I discovered the first thanks to a Facebook post by Ben Hagen, president of the International Virginia Woolf Society.

It featured a panoramic puzzle from the New York Puzzle Company that measures  39″ x 13″ and depicts an imaginary street scene populated by characters from the novel. The cost of the 1,000-piece “Mrs. Dalloway” is $25.99 on Amazon. But you can buy it for $16.50 on the puzzle company’s website.

Mrs. Dalloway 2

The second “Mrs. Dalloway” is a lithograph and looks much more difficult to complete, as it is made up of words — the words of the novel.

The only image is the profile of a woman’s face superimposed over the text. It comes in two versions: 500 pieces and 1,000 pieces and a variety of colors. The cost of each is $39.

However if puzzling is not your gig, you can purchase the same image — words and all — as a tote, a T-shirt, a blanket, a scarf, a pillow, and more from Litographs.

More Woolf puzzles

For more on Woolf puzzles, visit these posts:

  • “Doing jigsaw puzzles with Virginia Woolf,” which Includes

    “Jane Austen’s Book Club” puzzle by eeBoo

  • “A puzzling question: Why is Woolf depicted as a blue-eyed blonde?,” which includes a link to eeBoo’s “Jane Austen’s Book Club” puzzle.
  • “Two more to add to your stash of Virginia Woolf puzzles, which includes
    • A take-off on the iconic 2008 Barack Obama “Hope” poster featuring Woolf. However, it is no longer available. I was able to obtain the puzzle before it went off-market and completed it this week. It is pictured below.
    • Edward Gorey Book Covers.  It includes the cover of From Beowulf to Virginia Woolf by Robert Manson Myers. It has 1,000 pieces, 20″ x 27″ and is priced at $22.95.
  • “Two more for your Virginia Woolf puzzle stash,” which includes:
    • The Re-marks Famous Authors Postage Stamp Collage Puzzle. 1,000 pieces, 26 5/8″ L x 19 1/4″. $17.99. Features a full-color portrait of Woolf as a stamp.
    • Essential Book Covers Puzzle. 1,000 pieces, 27.5″L x 19.7″. $25.99. Features the Vanessa Bell cover of To the Lighthouse. The puzzle is described as including the covers of the “50 Best Classic Books.”

      A Woolf puzzle no longer available that mimics the look and theme of the iconic Barack Obama poster from his 2008 presidential campaign.

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Polish your nails with colors inspired by Virginia Woolf

Posted in commodification, tagged , , , on Friday 6 January 2023| Leave a Comment »

Just a bit of whimsy today — a collection of nail polish colors inspired by Virginia Woolf.

One is called “The London Scene” and is described as “rich medium grey with a distinct urban feel revived by a multi-chromatic blazing hologram.”

The description for the vegan polish, which is part of A England’s Moments with Virginia Woolf collection, quotes Woolf’s The London Scene:

The grey stone, ancient as it is, changes like a live thing under the incessant ripple of changing light

Another polish is simply named after the author and is described as “dark garnet red bursting with blazing hologram.”

More about the Woolf collection

The website describes Woolf’s interest in color this way: “Colour was central to Woolf’s writing, allowing her to seamlessly enhance imagery and represent characters and settings.”

Here are the other colors in the Woolf collection.

  • Mrs. Dalloway
  • Orlando
  • The Waves
  • To the Lighthouse
  • Shakespeare’s Sister

Of the six Woolf-inspired nail polish colors listed on the company website, only two seem to be available for purchase. “The London Scene” is priced at £5 and “Virginia Woolf” at £11.50.

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Two more for your Virginia Woolf puzzle stash

Posted in commodification, tagged , , on Monday 5 December 2022| Leave a Comment »

Even though I wasn’t looking for puzzles that include Virginia Woolf, my search for a Christmas puzzle led me to two more puzzles that do.

Years ago, Cecil Woolf sent me an envelope with this canceled Virginia Woolf stamp.

As readers of this blog know, I have written about Woolf puzzle finds several times before — in May of 2020,in September of that year, and  just last month.

Today I share a puzzle that features a Woolf stamp, although I cannot find any evidence that the stamp of Vanessa Bell’s portrait of Woolf, was actually produced. The other puzzle features Bell’s cover of To the Lighthouse.

Two latest finds

Woolf puzzles from the past

The Woolf stamp is in the second row from the bottom, third from the left.

To the Lighthouse is the book cover in the top row, second from right.

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Woolf in the heartland

Posted in commodification, Jacob's Room, Virginia Woolf, tagged , , , on Wednesday 14 September 2016| 2 Comments »

Beaumont is a small high desert city in Southern California’s “Inland Empire,” about 80 miles east of Los Angeles on the road to Palm Springs. I don’t know anything about the community’s literary and cultural climate and certainly don’t mean to slight residents when I say that it doesn’t strike me as a place where one would find many Woolfophiles.

But hey, I could be selling the heartland short. When my writer/musician friend Bill Bell, who lives in neighboring Banning, was prowling around the Beaumont swap meet one day recently, he too was surprised to come across this one-of-a-kind treasure. Happily he thought of me and generously paid $2 to buy it for me. It’s a wooden paintbox, about 12” x 16.” Both sides are painted, one with a whimsical winged elf. The other side is a fair-to-middling copy of the Beresford portrait of young Virginia Stephen next to a quotation I wasn’t familiar with. I traced it to Jacob’s Room:

It’s not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases that age and kill us; it’s the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of the omnibuses.

I wonder how someone, having created this gem, could bear to part with it, but it’s found a good home here in my study, surrounded by my books and an assortment of compatible Woolfiana.

 

 

 

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Wearing Woolf and Her Female Contemporaries

Posted in 25th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, commodification, tagged , , , on Thursday 30 April 2015| Leave a Comment »

If you are attending the 25th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: Virginia Woolf and Her Female Contemporaries, held June 4-7 at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, Pa., you can add the conference T-shirt to your collection. Just place your order for a shirt when you register. The cost is $12.

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