[Vwoolf] "The Pelican Guide to English Literature"

Wed Jun 16 11:53:49 EDT 2021

Cringeworthy. All too familiar and still lurking as indicated by André Aciman’s recent obnoxious observations about Woolf. Just another instance of the legacy of Woolf-loathing.

And definitely #grateful is the right term. I would argue that Woolf’s survival/revival as a recognized and respected writer can be attributed both to Leonard Woolf (obviously) but also to many graduate students in the US in the 1960s who fought with their dissertation directors and won the right to focus on Woolf or who independently pursued their interests in Woolf and then, as they gradually entered academia as assistant professors, started teaching Woolf and publishing on Woolf. And, of course, the Women’s Movement (in the US) was a major part of the surge in Woolf’s critical reception. And so was--and is--the founding of the Woolf Societies!! (I’m not listing the many sources that would support these statements).

Just curious about the evolution of Dalloway Day. Did the VWSGB launch the first iteration in 2018? That’s my recollection. But perhaps the Italian Woolf Society did it first? I know the VWSGB continued the tradition in 2019 since I was able to be there and that the British Library also hosted an event in 2019 (was that the first instance?). The Royal Society of Literature did an online 2020 event (and has one scheduled this year as well). Its website says it has been doing it for some time on this webpage: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://rsliterature.org/dalloway-day/__;!!KGKeukY!l0egEYG_Q2vYIFySo54SAXDmu2TqsnSDnHvzWkZ0GKdgzbITVhvOAj4hNdU_QZMQe5Q$ , but I can't find earlier instances. Paula Maggio's Blogging Woolf traces the event to 2018: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://bloggingwoolf.org/woolf-events-around-the-globe/events-of-2018/__;!!KGKeukY!l0egEYG_Q2vYIFySo54SAXDmu2TqsnSDnHvzWkZ0GKdgzbITVhvOAj4hNdU_616Dftk$  (and provides a robust page of archival materials from earlier Dalloway Day events https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://bloggingwoolf.org/category/dalloway-day/__;!!KGKeukY!l0egEYG_Q2vYIFySo54SAXDmu2TqsnSDnHvzWkZ0GKdgzbITVhvOAj4hNdU_RgqyBdA$ ).

Vara

Vara Neverow
Department of English
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515
203-392-6717
________________________________
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+neverowv1=southernct.edu at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Jean Mills via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2021 6:56:17 AM
To: Stuart N. Clarke <stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com>
Cc: Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <Vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] "The Pelican Guide to English Literature"

It’s a moment like this that I like to h/t #grateful for decades of feminist scholarship. Can I get an amen? -Jean

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 16, 2021, at 3:49 AM, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu> wrote:

This first appeared in 7 vols in 1961 and was frequently reprinted.  It was revised as "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature" in 1983.  My copy is the 1990 reprint.  In vol. 7 is the late (d. 1983) Frank W. Bradbrook’s "Virginia Woolf: The Theory and Practice of Fiction".  In “To the Lighthouse”:

The world of prose has been united with those of poetry and of art.  ‘Orlando’ (1928), though it has brilliant passages, has not the unity of ‘To the Lighthouse’ and the indulgence of fantasy is inclined to pall. ... There are beautiful passages [in ‘The Waves’], but there is not ‘an intimate autobiographical sense of life'. ‘The Years’ (1937) contains, near the beginning, a flash of the old satirical wit in the description of the hypocrisy of Colonel Pargiter and the death, after a painful, protracted illness, of his wife. The novel, as a whole, shows signs of tiredness, and is dull and monotonous. ... [In] ‘Between the Acts’ (1941) [the] heart has gone out of Virginia Woolf's work.

    That her genius had burned itself out is confirmed by the six previously unpublished short stories at the end of ‘A Haunted House’ (1944).  Her short stories, despite some brilliancies, tend to confirm the sense of a minor talent.

“A Haunted House” (1944) Contents:

6 from “Monday or Tuesday” (1921) :
A Haunted House
Monday or Tuesday
An Unwritten Novel
The String Quartet
Kew Gardens
The Mark on the Wall

6 published separately:
The New Dress - 1927
The Shooting Party - 1938
Lappin and Lapinova - 1939
Solid Objects - 1920
The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection - 1929
The Duchess and the Jeweller - 1938

6 unpublished (per Leonard Woolf, but he said “Moments of Being” may have been published; only that story and “The Searchlight” are finally revised):
Moments of Being: "Slater's Pins Have No Points" – published 1928
The Man Who Loved his Kind – [1925]
The Searchlight – [1939]
The Legacy – [1940]
Together and Apart – [1925]
A Summing Up – [1925]

Stuart
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