[Vwoolf] Bloomsbury in the New York Times

Sat May 13 22:22:33 EDT 2017

Thank you so much for the posting!

I had read the article earlier today in the print version (which is titled "In Bloomsbury Country")  and thought it was rather misleading in spots. What I found most puzzling was how evasive Francine Prose was with regard the assertion that Vanessa Bell lived with "her lover" (!) Duncan Grant at Charleston. At least Prose didn't refer to the Bloomsbury Group as the "Bloomsbury Set" as did that article on Jo Malone's Bloomsbury scents.

Best,

Vara

Vara Neverow
Department of English
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515
203-392-6717
neverowv1 at southernct.edu

________________________________
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+neverowv1=southernct.edu at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Gretchen Gerzina <ozma at sover.net>
Sent: Saturday, May 13, 2017 8:03 AM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: [Vwoolf] Bloomsbury in the New York Times

This article by Francine Prose is appearing in the New York Times, celebrating Bloomsbury homes in Sussex and Kent:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/travel/britain-bloomsbury-group-gardens-sussex-kent-virginia-woolf.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0
[https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/05/14/travel/14BLOOMSBURY1/14BLOOMSBURY1-facebookJumbo-v2.jpg]<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/travel/britain-bloomsbury-group-gardens-sussex-kent-virginia-woolf.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0>

The Bloomsbury Bohemians in the British Countryside<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/travel/britain-bloomsbury-group-gardens-sussex-kent-virginia-woolf.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0>
www.nytimes.com
The artists, writers and intellectuals of the charmed Bloomsbury Group often retreated to the Sussex and Kent regions, where quite a few were avid gardeners.

Gretchen Gerzina

On 5/12/17, 2:12 PM, "vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu on behalf of vwoolf-request at lists.osu.edu" <vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu on behalf of vwoolf-request at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

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    Today's Topics:

       1. Compare, contrast -- and distinguish (Stuart N. Clarke)

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    Message: 1
    Date: Fri, 12 May 2017 19:12:21 +0100
    From: "Stuart N. Clarke" <stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com>
    To: <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
    Subject: [Vwoolf] Compare, contrast -- and distinguish
    Message-ID: <0B99C9249D974B74B051A7DDBB6385AF at StuartHP>
    Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

    (1) ?Emma was getting old, Frannie noted wistfully, as the rail-thin black maid tottered into the master bedroom with a breakfast tray in her hands.? (?More Tales of the City?, 1980)

    (2) ?Ellen, the discreet black maid, stood behind Mrs Chinnery?s chair, waiting? (?The Years?, 1937, ?1911? ch.)

    Why is Ellen black?  Because she?s old Mrs Chinnery?s maid.  She?s not a tweeny; she?s not a downstairs maid. If anyone needs serving with refreshments, it won?t be she doing it.  Therefore, she?s not wearing a white apron.  She?s dressed all in black.

    Incidentally, how is Mrs Chinnery getting to her room, since she?s in a ?wheeled chair??  Will she be able to get up the stairs with help, or is her room on the same floor as the drawing-room?  Possible but unlikely, I would have thought.  There wouldn?t have been a lift.  I like to think that a couple of strapping footmen will carry her in the wheelchair up the stairs.

    Let?s turn to a bit of social history.  If the photo. below comes out, it shows 3 black shop assistants in the late-1920s in the back garden of a department store.  Not that I think they would be called such, since shop assistants in a decent shop would always be wearing black.  (As little James in the film of ?To the Lighthouse? would say, ?My muvver is in the middle?.)  The hairstyles are a bit frightening ? perms at home.  Do you think the centre and right-hand dresses are homemade?  (My mother was a good sewer.)  I doubt if the material is of good quality.  How would you clean them?  You wouldn?t dare rub a spot like Mrs Robinson does in ?The Graduate?.  Perhaps a wet tea-towel and a hot iron might do.  The working classes couldn?t afford dry-cleaning until the 1930s, and only occasionally then.  And what about the sweat under the arms, turning the black to white or grey?  No deodorant of course, and baths once a week if you were lucky.  Well, what they did was wear !
 a pad
     ded crescent of material under the arms, tacked, I assume, to the straps of the petticoat. That mopped up the sweat and protected the dresses.

    This seems to me much more interesting than even considering for a moment that Ellen might have been imported from the Empire.

    Stuart

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