[Vwoolf] Two Google Alerts about Bloomsbury--Reviews of Clive Bell and This Dark Country

[Sarah M. Hall]

 Thanks, Vara, for pointing these out. I have to say that both annoyed me considerably. Look away now anyone who has an aversion to a review of a review (normally I'd join you).

In the Birrell article, Kathryn Hughes, though a seasoned Guardian writer, makes tries to score some very lazy class points by observing that Vanessa Bell's servants had to work hard and were underpaid. This was not a feature solely of Bell's household. However much we dislike the fact, that's how capitalism works: people pay others to do jobs they can't or would prefer not to do: more often than not, they don't pay them enough. And Woolf not knowing Winifred Gill's name is probably because, at the time, Gill was a shop assistant not an artist.

The Yahoo News piece is even worse. 'Their house [46 Gordon Square] became a magnet for cultural elites such as D.H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley, Pablo Picasso, and others.' Dubious grammar and even more dubious assertions. But the real insult is the vast underestimation of Mark Hussey's biography: 'gossipy and willy-nilly' is about the polar opposite of my reading experience: did the reviewer read a different book?

    On Wednesday, 1 September 2021, 17:20:18 BST, Neverow, Vara S. via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:  
 
  Greetings.
Below are links to two reviews: Mark Hussey's Clive Bell and the Making of Modernism (this review is from theWashington Examiner) and Rebecca Birrell's This Dark Country (published inThe Guardian).
I hope they are of interest.
Best,
Vara
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://news.yahoo.com/funny-little-creature-twitching-pink-030000412.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACXbCr_kB0hgoNWNTsM8ceIS2DuNLOCe-rJwRfal6bzuaZCCWg3hjQcQzxrxi_cjVna41TZPHorQPG5fGWOluRr9HqEt-Xys3fyJ4v5MketYiFsp7xRNAHefNbgxuOh23F_PmfTj7Ru84uScZVNritxX1Jkh2YFtWc88_h2caQYn__;!!KGKeukY!na4hsMsZ0m6-3EP3N0uh4yecyFb77FAbkOVVGihShmOGat3u1t0w52JDfw7IbgsPIQU$ 

|  | That funny little creature twitching his pink skinWith his receding hairline, Clive Bell was not especially attractive and felt socially inferior to his wife, her family, and his friends and lovers, who made snide remarks about him.news.yahoo.com |

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/20/this-dark-country-by-rebecca-birrell-review-bloomsburys-female-artists__;!!KGKeukY!na4hsMsZ0m6-3EP3N0uh4yecyFb77FAbkOVVGihShmOGat3u1t0w52JDfw7IGqQFXpg$ 

|  | This Dark Country by Rebecca Birrell review – Bloomsbury’s female artists | Art and design books | The GuardianWhether painting apples or Staffordshire dogs, these British female artists saw a radical side to domestic life According to Rebecca Birrell, there was nothing remotely still about the still lifes ...https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.theguardian.com__;!!KGKeukY!na4hsMsZ0m6-3EP3N0uh4yecyFb77FAbkOVVGihShmOGat3u1t0w52JDfw7IYd1Tex0$  |




Vara Neverow
Professor, English Department and Women's and Gender Studies ProgramManaging Editor,Virginia Woolf Miscellany
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515
203-392-6717
neverowv1 at southernct.edu_______________________________________________
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