[Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW

Mark Hussey mhussey at verizon.net
Tue Sep 1 10:02:46 EDT 2015


I'll be interested to see the 'evidence' and until that time I reserve
judgment.. 

 

From: Sarah M. Hall [mailto:smhall123 at yahoo.co.uk] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2015 6:12 AM
To: Mark Hussey; 'Leslie Hankins'; vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu;
'International Virginia Woolf Society'
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW

 

Dear All,





I've contacted Priya Parmar to ask about the source for the table 'incident'
and she says:



The incident with the table is definitely rooted in historical fact.  It was
valuable and she did ask Violet for it and appalled her family.  I think it
comes from a letter from Vanessa Bell.  It may be mentioned in a letter of
Virginia's as well.  I do not think it pops up in Lytton Strachey's
correspondence.  I wish I had my notes!  The dates I know are accurate.

 

I am not sure if that helps!  I have finally stored my research notes in
America and feel a bit bereft that I do not have them to hand! 

 

Obviously in a novel, the author will explore and speculate on people's
emotions ('particular favourite', 'thundered in'), which can lead to
difficulties if readers take it at face value. Also, when the (non-Woolfian)
reader passes on their interpretation of the events, they add their own
layer of emotion ('predatory', 'demanding', 'heirloom', 'horribly
embarrassed'). In fact, it has been filtered through three people by the
time it gets to us; not that I am questioning your interpretation of your
colleague's words, Leslie. 

 

But you're right, Mark. We can't help readers misinterpreting fiction as
fact; any more than we can help people believing uncorroborated 'facts' they
read in a non-fiction book or a newspaper, which it seems to me are more
dangerous and inexcusable.

 

All the best,

 

Sarah

 

 


  _____  


From: Mark Hussey <mhussey at verizon.net>
To: 'Leslie Hankins' <lhankins at cornellcollege.edu>;
vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu; 'International Virginia Woolf Society'
<ivwsociety at gmail.com> 
Sent: Saturday, 29 August 2015, 22:06
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW

 

Perhaps we need to institute a fact checking website to counter the endless
flow of misinformation coming from novelists and tv series writers,
film-makers and others who prefer fictional versions of VW et al. to
anything based on the historical record!

 

 

From: Vwoolf [mailto:vwoolf-bounces+mhussey=verizon.net at lists.osu.edu] On
Behalf Of Leslie Hankins
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2015 4:57 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu; International Virginia Woolf
Society
Subject: [Vwoolf] curiouser and curiouser: the desk(s) of VW

 

Hello again!  The desk plot thickens.  A colleague at dinner (not a VW
scholar) told me she had read somewhere that VW was really very predatory
and rude about asking for and demanding a desk from a friend, a desk that
was an heirloom, etc.  She said that Vanessa had been horribly embarrassed
by the whole thing, etc, etc.  

 

I felt at a loss because it didn't sound familiar, at least not the outrage
of it all.

 

Finally she tracked it down to the novel Vanessa & Her Sister by Parmar.  

 

The passage in the novel (set up as a journal entry) is rather harsh:

 

Saturday 5 May 1906--46 Gordon Square (end of a long day)

 

"Virginia asked Violet for a table.  Such an innocuous sentence, but what a
rumpus it has caused.  It is apparently a particular favourite of Violet's
and a valuable antique to boot.  Virginia just thundered in to tea at
Violet's one afternoon and told her that she would quite like to have it.
Mother would be so distressed.  Thoby and Adrian are appalled--"One simply
does not go about asking for other people's things, Ginia!"--and I am now
resigned.  I was unsettled at first, wary as I am for any signs of imbalance
or incongruity in Virginia, but seeing that it was just one of her peculiar
moments of directness at work, I relaxed.  Violet was an utter dear and had
the table delivered the next day.  Virginia is planning to have two of the
legs sawn off, which makes the gift quite irreversible.




      And--Virginia, after listening to a stinging lecture from Thobs, has
written twice today, pestering poor Violet for the price of the table."
(87)

 

I've looked at VW's letters to Violet (Vol 1 270, [May 1906] p 225ff  but
haven't found anything about Vanessa's reaction.  Does anyone have any more
information about this?  I've hardly looked at Patmar's book but my
colleague noted that it made VW out to be rather demonic.

 

I'll keep looking but it does seem curious.

 

leslie

-- 

Leslie Kathleen Hankins

Professor

Department of English & Creative Writing

 

"Moreover, however interesting facts may be, they are an inferior form of
fiction, & gradually we become impatient of their weakness & diffuseness, of
their compromises & evasions, of the slovenly sentences which they make for
themselves, and are eager to revive ourselves with the greater intensity &
truth of fiction."  

                                                         Virginia Woolf,
"How Should One Read a Book?"

 

_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20150901/8c65dde1/attachment-0001.html>


More information about the Vwoolf mailing list