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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000">
<DIV>I didn’t have any trouble, altho’ (of course) I’m not a subscriber.</DIV>
<DIV>Stuart</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><A
style='href: "https://www.spectator.co.uk/category/books/"'><SPAN
style="TEXT-DECORATION: ; COLOR: ; text-underline: none"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" color=#000000><FONT
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none">Books</FONT></FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The free-spirited sisters who galvanised the Bloomsbury
Group</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The Olivier girls’ summer camps and naked bathing may
not have appealed to Woolf or Strachey — but Rupert Brooke and Bunny Garnett
were enraptured</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><A
title="Posts by Anne Chisholm"
style='href: "https://www.spectator.co.uk/author/anne-chisholm/"'><SPAN
style="TEXT-DECORATION: ; COLOR: ; text-underline: none"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" color=#000000><FONT style="TEXT-DECORATION: none">Anne
Chisholm</FONT></FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US
style="mso-no-proof: yes"><IMG title=clip_image002
style="BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; DISPLAY: inline; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px"
border=0 alt=clip_image002 src="cid:20C4F52010A8424F930FA7EEC3BDAEA0@StuartHP"
width=780 height=523></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-US></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Growing up in the wooded hills round Limpsfield, the
girls climbed trees, built huts, made fires and skinned
rabbits</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><A
title="Posts by Anne Chisholm"
style='href: "https://www.spectator.co.uk/author/anne-chisholm/"'><SPAN
style="TEXT-DECORATION: ; COLOR: ; text-underline: none"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" color=#000000><FONT style="TEXT-DECORATION: none">Anne
Chisholm</FONT></FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">29 June 2019</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Noble Savages: The Olivier Sisters Sarah
Watling</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Cape, pp.416, £25</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">It was high time we had a proper look at the four
beautiful, original Olivier sisters. Hitherto, with one exception, they have
been seen in glimpses, playing marginal parts on the Bloomsbury stage after
about 1910. The exception was the youngest, Noel, who all her life and since has
been stuck with her invidious role as the girl who turned down a national hero,
Rupert Brooke. Even Sarah Watling cannot help beginning and ending her solid,
thoughtful book with that piece of the jigsaw. But admirably, if a trifle
laboriously, she goes on to consider each of them as an individual, and succeeds
in placing them firmly in the vanguard of the slow progress of women towards a
measure of personal and professional freedom.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Their lives were not plain sailing. In some ways, this
could even be seen as a cautionary tale: progress usually comes at a cost.
Margery, Brynhild, Daphne and Noel, the four daughters of Sydney and Margaret
Olivier, late-Victorian parents turned Fabian socialists, were considered by
their contemporaries an alarming bunch. Born between 1886 and 1892, they grew up
in the wooded hills around Limpsfield, Surrey, then still relatively untamed
countryside, presided over by the literary Garnett family and known as
Dostoevsky Corner — Constance Garnett being the first great translator of the
Russian classics. The girls climbed trees in their blue serge knickers, swam in
the muddy streams, built huts and tree houses, made fires and skinned rabbits.
One of their playmates was Constance’s son David, always known as Bunny; they
may not have skinned him but they unnerved him. It was he who later called them
‘cruel as savages’ and ‘ruthless Valkyries’ — perhaps because none of them was
among his many conquests. Their nanny wondered ‘if all socialist infants are so
exhausting’.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Encouraged to run wild, and separated from their parents
for long periods while Sir Sydney, as he later became, went off to govern
Jamaica, the girls formed close bonds, though sisterhood could be competitive
and demanding. They grew up serious-minded, emotionally intense, disinclined to
be dominated by men and intending to make a mark. Margery, the eldest, was
clever, protective, an active Fabian but emotionally fragile. Luckily they were
almost equally good-looking, though Brynhild, the artistic one who designed
jewellery, was the most classically beautiful. Daphne, who helped to bring
Steiner education to Britain, was idealistic and unworldly. Noel, the youngest,
was the most self-contained and the fiercest.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">At a time when education was still regarded as bad for
the female reproductive system, they were lucky enough to have parents of
advanced ideas who thought otherwise, sending them variously to Bedales, where
girls and boys were taught together, and naked swimming approved, to Cambridge,
where they could study but not take degrees, and, in Noel’s case, to medical
school: she set her heart early on becoming a doctor, and
succeeded.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Their impact on the boys and young men they met at
Bedales, at university or at Fabian Society gatherings was dramatic. They were
naturally soon caught up with what was not yet established as the Bloomsbury
group, the Cambridge-based circle which, despite the inclusion of the Stephen
sisters, Virginia and Vanessa, was fundamentally homoerotic, taking its tune
from Lytton Strachey and his admirers. Female sexuality was confusing and
threatening; Rupert Brooke’s idea of a compliment to Noel Olivier was to praise
her mind for being ‘clean and clear like a man’s’; and when James Strachey,
Lytton’s brother, who himself fell for Brooke, went on to fall for Noel, he was
berated for risking male friendship for ‘a creature with a
cunt’.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">It was Virginia Woolf, always beady-eyed, who around
1910 named the Oliviers the Neo-Pagans; she, along with Lytton, recoiled from
their hearty, outdoor activities, the summer camps at Grantchester or on the
Hamble river, where there was much naked bathing and sleeping side by side in
hay fields under the stars. Sex was, however, mostly sublimated in earnest talk,
even though Rupert Brooke sometimes emerged from a dive with an erection, and
Bunny Garnett was much moved by the girls’ smooth bare shoulders, soft skin and
flowing hair.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">It was the sisters’ opportunity, but also perhaps their
misfortune, to represent the New Woman, whose efforts to break free from
stifling conventions could make her vulnerable. Margery, after a narrow escape
from a traditional marriage and an obsession with a male lover of Lytton’s who
did not want her, had a schizophrenic breakdown from which she never recovered.
Watling gives a disquieting account of the inadequate care on offer for women
with mental health problems.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The other sisters all eventually married and had
children. The lovely Brynhild caused consternation by leaving her husband for
another man, struggled financially and died young. Noel, who had the good sense
not to succumb to Rupert Brooke (whose sexual confusion led to a severe
breakdown of his own), made a stable marriage to another doctor. She steadfastly
refused to hand over her Brooke love letters to a succession of avid biographers
after the publication of his poems and his death on a Greek island in 1915 made
him into a romantic hero. Watling rather admires her for this refusal to be
grist for the biographical mill.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN-US><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Golden lads and girls they once were; but Watling’s
sympathetic and conscientiously researched book reveals the darker side of their
story.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>Neverow, Vara S. via Vwoolf</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, July 3, 2019 5:25 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=vwoolf@lists.osu.edu>vwoolf listserve</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Vwoolf] Two items of possible interest for
Woolfians</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV
style='FONT-SIZE: small; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri"; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000000; FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline'>
<DIV id=divtagdefaultwrapper
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman',times,serif; COLOR: #000000"
dir=ltr>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px">Greetings, </P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px"> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px">Below are two Bloomsbury-related
items that may be of interest.</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px"> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px">The article below from
<I>T</I><I>he </I><I>Guardian</I> focuses on the film version of <I>Vita and
Virginia</I>:</P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px"> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px"><A id=LPlnk70543
class=OWAAutoLink
href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jun/27/gemma-arterton-vita-and-virginia-bloomsbury"
previewremoved="true">https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jun/27/gemma-arterton-vita-and-virginia-bloomsbury</A></P>
<DIV
id=LPBorder_BVTaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL2ZpbG0vMjAxOS9qdW4vMjcvZ2VtbWEtYXJ0ZXJ0b24tdml0YS1hbmQtdmlyZ2luaWEtYmxvb21zYnVyeQ.._15621702180270.8784785561722896
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cellSpacing=0>
<TBODY>
<TR style="BORDER-SPACING: 0px" vAlign=top>
<TD id=ImageCell_15621702180220.00989715839847305
style="WIDTH: 250px; POSITION: relative; DISPLAY: table-cell; PADDING-RIGHT: 20px">
<DIV id=LPImageContainer_15621702180220.41050065811396763
style="HEIGHT: 187px; WIDTH: 250px; POSITION: relative; MARGIN: auto; DISPLAY: table; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"><A
id=LPImageAnchor_15621702180230.8100455574478673
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; DISPLAY: table-cell"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jun/27/gemma-arterton-vita-and-virginia-bloomsbury"
target=_blank><IMG id=LPThumbnailImageID_15621702180230.08777280905930973
style="BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; MAX-WIDTH: 250px; HEIGHT: 187px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; WIDTH: 250px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: bottom; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; DISPLAY: inline-block; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; MAX-HEIGHT: 250px"
src="https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVF.uKtIhEtmi%2bVhDmz%2f40RMvw&pid=Api"
width=250 height=187></A></DIV></TD>
<TD id=TextCell_15621702180230.746190476291932
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; POSITION: relative; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; DISPLAY: table-cell; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px"
colSpan=2>
<DIV id=LPRemovePreviewContainer_15621702180240.499767045750549></DIV>
<DIV id=LPTitle_15621702180240.20842730518405195
style='FONT-SIZE: 21px; FONT-FAMILY: wf_segoe-ui_light, "Segoe UI Light", "Segoe WP Light", "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", tahoma, arial, sans-serif; FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: rgb(33,33,33); LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; TOP: 0px'><A
id=LPUrlAnchor_15621702180240.972530686464143
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jun/27/gemma-arterton-vita-and-virginia-bloomsbury"
target=_blank>'I felt kind of promiscuous': Gemma Arterton on Vita and
Virginia</A></DIV>
<DIV id=LPMetadata_15621702180240.07961521754162826
style='FONT-SIZE: 14px; FONT-FAMILY: wf_segoe-ui_normal, "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", tahoma, arial, sans-serif; FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); MARGIN: 10px 0px 16px; LINE-HEIGHT: 14px'>www.theguardian.com</DIV>
<DIV id=LPDescription_15621702180240.7929320514295086
style='FONT-SIZE: 14px; OVERFLOW: hidden; FONT-FAMILY: wf_segoe-ui_normal, "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", tahoma, arial, sans-serif; FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); DISPLAY: block; LINE-HEIGHT: 20px; MAX-HEIGHT: 100px'>With
director Chanya Button, the star has made an ambitious drama about the
passionate Bloomsbury love affair. They talk about female desire and the
rise in lesbian romances on screen</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>Below is
a review of Sarah Watling's <SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><I>Noble
Savages: The Olivier Sisters</I></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">.
T</SPAN>here is a paywall for <I>The Spectator</I>, so it would be lovely if
someone who has access to the review could share it. (<SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Unfortunately, t</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">he
pitch for the review starts with an </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">obvious
inaccuracy about Woolf, Strachey, and naked bathing.)</SPAN>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px"> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px"><A id=LPlnk282659
class=OWAAutoLink
href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/the-free-spirited-sisters-who-galvanised-the-bloomsbury-group/"
previewremoved="true">https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/the-free-spirited-sisters-who-galvanised-the-bloomsbury-group/</A></P>
<DIV id=LPBorder_GT_15621703097040.6177089369047246
style="OVERFLOW: auto; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 20px; WIDTH: 100%; TEXT-INDENT: 0px">
<TABLE role=presentation id=LPContainer_15621703097020.9748183296547455
style="OVERFLOW: auto; BORDER-TOP: rgb(200,200,200) 1px dotted; WIDTH: 90%; MARGIN-TOP: 20px; BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(200,200,200) 1px dotted; POSITION: relative; COLOR: #000000; PADDING-BOTTOM: 20px; PADDING-TOP: 20px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"
cellSpacing=0>
<TBODY>
<TR style="BORDER-SPACING: 0px" vAlign=top>
<TD id=ImageCell_15621703097030.46523973661580786
style="WIDTH: 250px; POSITION: relative; DISPLAY: table-cell; PADDING-RIGHT: 20px">
<DIV id=LPImageContainer_15621703097030.9962986044582292
style="HEIGHT: 140px; WIDTH: 250px; POSITION: relative; MARGIN: auto; DISPLAY: table; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"><A
id=LPImageAnchor_15621703097030.8376026775720122
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; DISPLAY: table-cell"
href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/the-free-spirited-sisters-who-galvanised-the-bloomsbury-group/"
target=_blank><IMG id=LPThumbnailImageID_15621703097030.23116867249573914
style="BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; MAX-WIDTH: 250px; HEIGHT: 140px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; WIDTH: 250px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: bottom; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; DISPLAY: inline-block; BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; MAX-HEIGHT: 250px"
src="https://spectator.imgix.net/content/uploads/2019/06/Figure-1.01-Olivier-sisters-in-a-tree.-Credit-the-heirs-of-Anne-Olivier-Bell1.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=250&h=140"
width=250 height=140></A></DIV></TD>
<TD id=TextCell_15621703097030.5554080472496823
style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; POSITION: relative; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; DISPLAY: table-cell; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px"
colSpan=2>
<DIV id=LPRemovePreviewContainer_15621703097030.8757447401047929></DIV>
<DIV id=LPTitle_15621703097030.5838173606513
style='FONT-SIZE: 21px; FONT-FAMILY: wf_segoe-ui_light, "Segoe UI Light", "Segoe WP Light", "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", tahoma, arial, sans-serif; FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: rgb(33,33,33); LINE-HEIGHT: 21px; TOP: 0px'><A
id=LPUrlAnchor_15621703097030.4543695454857033
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/the-free-spirited-sisters-who-galvanised-the-bloomsbury-group/"
target=_blank>The free-spirited sisters who galvanised the Bloomsbury
Group</A></DIV>
<DIV id=LPMetadata_15621703097030.5835974757834035
style='FONT-SIZE: 14px; FONT-FAMILY: wf_segoe-ui_normal, "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", tahoma, arial, sans-serif; FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); MARGIN: 10px 0px 16px; LINE-HEIGHT: 14px'>www.spectator.co.uk</DIV>
<DIV id=LPDescription_15621703097040.1659720890645655
style='FONT-SIZE: 14px; OVERFLOW: hidden; FONT-FAMILY: wf_segoe-ui_normal, "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", tahoma, arial, sans-serif; FONT-WEIGHT: 400; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); DISPLAY: block; LINE-HEIGHT: 20px; MAX-HEIGHT: 100px'>Books.
The free-spirited sisters who galvanised the Bloomsbury Group The Olivier
girls’ summer camps and naked bathing may not have appealed to Woolf or
Strachey — but Rupert Brooke and Bunny
...</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>Best,
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px"> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px">Vara<BR></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN-TOP: 0px"> </P>
<DIV id=Signature>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: calibri,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; MARGIN: 0px"
name="divtagdefaultwrapper">
<DIV class=BodyFragment><FONT size=2>
<DIV class=PlainText><FONT size=3 face="'Times New Roman', Times, serif">Vara
Neverow<BR>Department of English<BR>Southern Connecticut State University<BR>New
Haven, CT
06515<BR>203-392-6717<BR>neverowv1@southernct.edu</FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P>
<HR>
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