Vanessa and Her Sister
Summary (from the publisher): For fans of The Paris Wife and Loving Frank comes a captivating novel that offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of Vanessa Bell, her sister Virginia Woolf, and the controversial and popular circle of intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury Group.
London, 1905: The city is alight with change, and the Stephen siblings are at the forefront. Vanessa, Virginia, Thoby, and Adrian are leaving behind their childhood home and taking a house in the leafy heart of avant-garde Bloomsbury. There they bring together a glittering circle of bright, outrageous artistic friends who will grow into legend and come to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. And at the center of this charmed circle are the devoted, gifted sisters: Vanessa, the painter, and Virginia, the writer.
Each member of the group will go on to earn fame and success, but so far Vanessa Bell has never sold a painting. Virginia Woolf’s book review has just been turned down by The Times. Lytton Strachey has not published anything. E. M. Forster has finished his first novel but does not like the title. Leonard Woolf is still a civil servant in Ceylon, and John Maynard Keynes is looking for a job. Together, this sparkling coterie of artists and intellectuals throw away convention and embrace the wild freedom of being young, single bohemians in London.
But the landscape shifts when Vanessa unexpectedly falls in love and her sister feels dangerously abandoned. Eerily possessive, charismatic, manipulative, and brilliant, Virginia has always lived in the shelter of Vanessa’s constant attention and encouragement. Without it, she careens toward self-destruction and madness. As tragedy and betrayal threaten to destroy the family, Vanessa must decide if it is finally time to protect her own happiness above all else.
The work of exciting young newcomer Priya Parmar, Vanessa and Her Sister exquisitely captures the champagne-heady days of prewar London and the extraordinary lives of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf.
London, 1905: The city is alight with change, and the Stephen siblings are at the forefront. Vanessa, Virginia, Thoby, and Adrian are leaving behind their childhood home and taking a house in the leafy heart of avant-garde Bloomsbury. There they bring together a glittering circle of bright, outrageous artistic friends who will grow into legend and come to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. And at the center of this charmed circle are the devoted, gifted sisters: Vanessa, the painter, and Virginia, the writer.
Each member of the group will go on to earn fame and success, but so far Vanessa Bell has never sold a painting. Virginia Woolf’s book review has just been turned down by The Times. Lytton Strachey has not published anything. E. M. Forster has finished his first novel but does not like the title. Leonard Woolf is still a civil servant in Ceylon, and John Maynard Keynes is looking for a job. Together, this sparkling coterie of artists and intellectuals throw away convention and embrace the wild freedom of being young, single bohemians in London.
But the landscape shifts when Vanessa unexpectedly falls in love and her sister feels dangerously abandoned. Eerily possessive, charismatic, manipulative, and brilliant, Virginia has always lived in the shelter of Vanessa’s constant attention and encouragement. Without it, she careens toward self-destruction and madness. As tragedy and betrayal threaten to destroy the family, Vanessa must decide if it is finally time to protect her own happiness above all else.
The work of exciting young newcomer Priya Parmar, Vanessa and Her Sister exquisitely captures the champagne-heady days of prewar London and the extraordinary lives of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf.
Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this book from Net Galley.
Vanessa and Her Sister is primarily about two of the Stephen siblings, Vanessa and Virginia. Vanessa goes on to become Vanessa Bell, while her sister becomes the famous writer Virginia Woolf. This is an epistolary novel, largely composed of Vanessa's fictional diary entries, but also of postcards and letters. Early in the novel, Vanessa, Virginia, and their two brothers are all single and living together, enjoying evening literary and artistic discussions with their large group of friends, the group of intellectuals who came to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. It's a fascinating fictionalized look inside the lives of many who would become famous.
As Vanessa marries and becomes caught up in her husband and family, Virginia grows increasingly jealous. Virginia is plagued by severe mental illness, which is referred to constantly throughout Vanessa's diary entries, "her voice had taken on the specific, tinny shrillness that presages a mad scene." Virginia's history of illness is obviously not a new phenomenon, as Vanessa says "A few years ago, Virginia talked for three days without stopping for food or sleep or a bath. [...] She sat up in her attic room speaking in low, frantic tones that rose and rose to shake the tall house by the shoulders. That time Virginia's words unraveled into elemental sounds." Vanessa is her closest companion and one of the few who can comfort her sister, yet Vanessa grows weary of her sister's games and her ultimate betrayal. After the death of their parents, Vanessa has been thrown into the role of chief guardian and caretaker of her erratic and absentminded siblings.
More than any other, the relationship between them define Virginia and Vanessa's lives in this novel. Both are brilliant, talented, and complex women. Although Virginia's betrayal causes lasting damage between the sisters, ultimately it is Clive who loses respect in the sisters' eyes.
I think this novel with Virginia Woolf as a character only works because Virginia is not the narrator. Her irrational logic, wild dives in mood, and at times deliberate distortion of the truth would have made her a wholly unreliable narrator and distorted the reader's perspective of many of the characters. Vanessa on the other hand is more dependable and honest. At times I was disappointed that the scope and depth of this novel wasn't greater (for example, Leonard Woolf only appears in the narrative beyond postcards in the final chapter.) Additionally, I was disappointed to read in the postscript that Vanessa went on to ditch Roger, the man she claims to be in love with at the conclusion of this novel, for another man, who would eventually father her daughter. In the end, it seems that most in the Bloomsbury Group were fickle and restless when it comes to love.
Stars: 3
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