[Vwoolf] Informal survey on teaching Eminent Victorians

Stuart N. Clarke stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com
Wed Apr 9 16:04:21 EDT 2014


I have recently reread EV and I have today finished reading Holroyd's 1994 
"Lytton Strachey: The New Biography" (I read the first 2-vol. version in 
1968 and I've also read bits of the later 2 vols that divided Strachey's 
work from his bio.).

I find the Continuum edn utterly bizarre.  It is called "The Definitive 
Edition" of EV, yet the critical essays (as I recall) have nothing good to 
say about EV!  I have just reread the crit. essay on Gen. Gordon: Strachey's 
essay "must now be buried except as a superb piece of writing. ... [he had] 
only a superficial knowledge when he repudiated Christianity at the age of 
sixteen. ... That valedictory service [at Khartoum], which reduced the stern 
impassive Kitchener to tears, is worth more than all Strachey's essay."

It's difficult for those of us who do not have specialised historical 
knowledge to judge, but Gordon seems utterly repellent to me: Xianity + guns 
are an unhappy combination.  John Pollock (the essayist and Gordon 
biographer) denies the drinking, but Holroyd argues that there is 
post-Strachey (post-Col. Long) evidence for it.

I was quite happy instead to reread EV from my old Collins edn (1959) with 
its short bio. of Strachey, which concludes delightfully: "He never married 
and, having gone in 1924 to live with his friends Mr. and Mrs. Ralph 
Partridge at Ham Spray House, Hungerford, it was there he died of cancer on 
January 21st, 1932."

Stuart

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mark Hussey
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2014 6:11 PM
To: 'Avery, Todd' ; 'VWOOLF listserv'
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Informal survey on teaching Eminent Victorians

Hi Todd,
When I've taught  a course called "Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group,"
I assign EV. In 2006, I used the version published by Continuum that
includes some critical essays.

mark

-----Original Message-----
From: vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Neverow,
Vara S.
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2014 1:03 PM
To: Claire Battershill; Eleanor McNees; Avery, Todd; VWOOLF listserv
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Informal survey on teaching Eminent Victorians

Hi Todd,

Over the years I've taught Eminent Victorians either in its entirety or
sections of it in both modern British literature courses and a Woolf and
Bloomsbury courses. I haven't done so recently, however.

Vara


Vara Neverow
Professor, English and Women's Studies
Southern Connecticut State University
501 Crescent Street
New Haven, CT 06515
Phone: 203-392-6717
Fax:    203-392-6731
email:  neverowv1 at southernct.edu





On 4/5/14 6:37 AM, "Claire Battershill"
<claire.battershill at alum.utoronto.ca> wrote:

>Dear Todd,
>
>A few years ago I was a TA for a second-year undergrad "Autobiography
>and Biography" course at the University of Toronto (taught by Heather
>Jackson) that included EV. Actually, it was an extract: the Preface and
>Florence Nightingale. I've never seen it on a modernism syllabus, though.
>Very curious to know the results of your search!
>
>Very best,
>Claire
>
>
>Dr. Claire Battershill
>SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow
>University of Reading
>Department of English
>www.clairebattershill.com
>
>________________________________________
>From: vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
><vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu> on behalf of Eleanor
>McNees <Eleanor.McNees at du.edu>
>Sent: 04 April 2014 19:49
>To: Avery, Todd; VWOOLF listserv
>Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Informal survey on teaching Eminent Victorians
>
>Dear Tom,
>
>This just popped up on my computer as I'm contemplating leaving my
>office at 5:45 on a Friday! I work on Virginia Woolf and the Victorians
>and so am very familiar with Eminent Victorians, have taught it
>periodically over the years in graduate classes and referred to
>Strachey's satirical portraits in other classes as well always with the
>caveat that his views are somewhat exaggerated and, from my
>perspective, rather unfair. I think this may also be taught
>occasionally in genre classes which focus on biography, but to my
>knowledge no one else at DU, for example, teaches it, and I suspect
>most haven't read it. It isn't particularly well known today though I think
it's still in print.
>
>I'm curious about the editor's query to you?
>
>Best regards,
>
>Eleanor
>
>Eleanor McNees
>Associate Dean
>Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
>University of Denver
>Sturm Hall, 463
>2000 E. Asbury Avenue
>Denver, CO 80208-0900
>
>TEL: 303.871.2057
>FAX: 303.871.4436
>
>emcnees at du.edu
>du.edu/ahss
>facebook.com/du.ahss
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: vwoolf-bounces+emcnees=du.edu at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
>[mailto:vwoolf-bounces+emcnees=du.edu at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On
>Behalf Of Avery, Todd
>Sent: Friday, April 04, 2014 5:44 PM
>To: VWOOLF listserv
>Subject: [Vwoolf] Informal survey on teaching Eminent Victorians
>
>Friends,
>
>I hope you all are well, that spring has sprung where you are (or that
>autumn is delightful a ways south of where I am, in New England) and I
>hope, too, that an inquiry about Lytton Strachey is appropriate for the
>list.  I'm really simply curious---this came up in a conversation with
>an editor---as to how widely and frequently Eminent Victorians is taught.
>I'll look into this further, with publishers, but I thought I'd begin
>here, at the center of the canon, rather than "on the fringes" (the
>editor's phrase).
>
>Many thanks for any information, however casual.
>
>Best,
>
>Todd
>
>Dr. Todd Avery
>Associate Professor of English
>Coordinator, Online English B.A. Program University of Massachusetts
>Lowell O'Leary Library 481
>61 Wilder Street
>Lowell, MA 01854
>978-934-4184
>________________________________________
>
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