[Vwoolf] Homework (recommended)

Stuart N. Clarke stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com
Mon Dec 17 09:52:34 EST 2012


If I were writing an article that had no primary research in it – even if I were principally concentrating on theory – and I intended to begin thus:

“at the time of ‘Orlando’’s publication, Vita Sackville-West’s status as the inspiration and model for Orlando would not have been known to anyone but those familiar with Bloomsbury gossip.” (Virginia Woolf Miscellany, no. 82, Fall 2012, p. 11b)

I would still ask myself if that statement were true and whether I could substantiate such an opinion.  I might turn to a couple of books readily to hand, and I might come up with the following quite different conclusion:

If Orlando is a roman à clef, then the door is unlocked -- even if it’s not ajar.  The book is dedicated to ‘V. Sackville-West’.  Of the eight illustrations, the three of Orlando as a woman are all photographs of Vita.  Orlando was published on 11 October 1928 (the date is given in the last sentence of the book).  Arnold Bennett identified Vita in the photographs less than a month later (Virginia Woolf: The Critical Heritage, ed. McLaurin & Majumdar, 232 [Evening Standard, 8/11/28, p. 7]), but Woolf wrote to Vita the day after publication: ‘Enthusiasm in the Birmingham Post [Mail].  Knole is discovered.  They hint at you.’ (VW Letters #1938).  Without the dedication and the photos, identification would have taken much longer, for Knole was not given to the National Trust until after the War and until then was much less well known.  We must assume, therefore, that it was Woolf’s intention that Vita be identified.


Stuart
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