[Vwoolf] Leslie Stephen

[Harish Trivedi]

Yes, indeed, let's not to be too correct or presentist. To see LS just as a
father is rather like seeing VW just as a daughter. And to see him just
as Mr Ramsay is like seeing VW just as a woman with a tendecy to go 'mad'
from time to time, while disregarding completely what each of them wrote.
Patriarchy here seems well met by some shades of Feminism.

Of LS's DNB essays, one that has not stood the test of time too well is
that on Dickens, who is now 200 years old but was still (luke)warm is his
grave when LS wrote that entry.  As I recall, he said something to the
effect that D must be reckoned great if popularity with the semi-literates
was to be regarded as proof of greatness. Very sniffy -- but hardly more so
than VW on American Literature, where she prized Ring Lardner (!)
above Hawthorne.

All said and done, she was her father's daughter.

Harish Trivedi


On 12 September 2012 20:26, jeannette smyth
<jeannette_smyth at earthlink.net>wrote:

>  Noel Annan's bio is also enlightening; she seems to have inherited a
> great deal of his physical toughness, Stephen family mental high/low, and
> courage. She also inherited his place at the pinnacle of literary
> journalism and atheism. As an American I wondered for years how she found
> herself at the nexus of such a powerful group of friends, until I realized
> they'd all been friends for five generations, since the Clapham sect. This
> doesn't happen in America.
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Leslie-Stephen-Noel-Gilroy-Annan/dp/0226021068/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347461564&sr=1-4
>
>
>
> Don't some of his DNB essays still stand?
>
>
>
> Take care,
>
> Jeannette Smyth
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eleanor McNees **
> Sent: Sep 10, 2012 1:19 PM
> To: "vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu" **
> Subject: [Vwoolf] Leslie Stephen
>
> ************ ** **********************************
>
> Dear Woolf Colleagues,****
>
> ** **
>
> If one takes the time to read Leslie Stephen’s essays over the course of
> his life as well as his many entries in the Dictionary of National
> Biography which he initiated and edited for over a decade, one finds a
> rather different persona from the one so often criticized as a tyrannical
> and maudlin father. In addition his letters in the two-volume Bicknell
> edition present a far more human version. Woolf herself acknowledged
> especially in her retrospective piece for *The Times* how significant his
> literary influence on her was. ****
>
> ** **
>
> Regards,****
>
> Eleanor****
>
> ** **
>
> *[image: emailLogoNew]*
>
> * *
>
> *Eleanor McNees*
>
> Associate Dean****
>
> Professor of English****
>
> Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences****
>
> ** **
>
> Sturm Hall, 463****
>
> 2000 E. Asbury Ave.****
>
> Denver, CO 80208-0900****
>
> ** **
>
> *TEL:* 303.871.2057****
>
> *FAX:* 303.871.4436****
>
> ** **
>
> EMcNees at du.edu****
>
> www.du.edu/AHSS****
>
> ** **
> ****
>
> ****************
>
> _______________________________________________
> Vwoolf mailing list
> Vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
> https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20120912/ecb7ac5b/attachment.html>