Living in Squares, Loving in Triangles: The Lives and Loves of Viginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group

by Amy Licence

Overview

Sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf have long been celebrated for their central roles in the development of modernism in art and literature. Vanessa’s experimental work places her at the vanguard of early twentieth-century art, as does her role in helping introduce many key names – Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso – to an unsuspecting public in 1910. Virginia took these artistic innovations and applied them to literature, pushing the boundaries of form, narrative and language to find a voice uniquely her own.Yet their private lives were just as experimental. Vanessa’s marriage to art critic Clive Bell was shaken early on by his flirtation with her sister, and Virginia’s marriage to Leonard Woolf placed him more in the role of carer than husband as he tried to meet the needs of his wife’s fragile mental health. However, forming the core of the Bloomsbury Group, they welcomed into their London and Sussex homes a host of their talented peers, and caused speculation and scandal by following their hearts, not society’s norms, in their continued pursuit of love.In Living in Squares, Loving in Triangles, Amy Licence explores the brave, passionate and innovative lives these remarkable women lived, and discovers where their strength and talent came from.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781445660080
Publisher:	Amberley Publishing
Publication date:	06/15/2016
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

AMY LICENCE is a bestselling historian of women's lives in the medieval and early modern period, from Queens to commoners. She is the author of Red Roses and The Lost Kings (both THP).

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Part I Hyde Park Gate 13

1 The Birth of Bloomsbury, 1878 15

2 The Stephen Children, 1879-1887 21

3 Something in the Shadows, 1887-1895 35

4 Tragedy, 1895-1898 49

5 Into Society, 1898-1903 65

6 The Thickest Emotional Haze, 1898-1903 76

7 Cambridge, 1899-1904 89

Part II The New Edwardians 101

8 Freedom, 1904-1906 103

9 Love Triangles, 1907-1910 119

10 Post-Impressionism, 1910-1911 133

11 The Opposite Sex, 1911-1912 144

12 Leonard, 1912-1913 160

13 Omega, 1913-1914 174

14 Pacifism, 1914-1918 187

Part III A Radiant Maturity 205

15 Post-War, 1919-1921 207

16 Art and Life, 1919-1924 218

17 Ghosts, 1924-1927 232

18 Vita, 1927-1930 248

19 Straws to Cling to, 1931-1937 261

20 Darkening Skies, 1937-1941 276

21 Aftermath 297

Notes 298

Bibliography 309

Index 313

Acknowledgements 320

Editorial Reviews

… an introduction to Woolf’s life, work, and milieu, focusing on her relationship with her sister Vanessa Bell and six key figures: Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, Lytton Strachey, and John Maynard Keynes. Noting that sisters flaunted conventional mores of their time, the book delves into the motivations behind their marriage and relationship choices; Virginia was in a sexless marriage with a man but had a lesbian affair, and Vanessa had multiple male lovers but was lifelong partner to a male homosexual. The book draws on letters, diaries, photos, reviews, published and unpublished works, and other primary source materials. B&w historical and color contemporary photos are included, showing sites, murals, and paintings.

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