Portrait of a Marriage (Nigel Nicolson)
Idealistic Bibliomystic
I just finished _Portrait of a Marriage_ and it really wowed me!
These people are so fascinating, the way they're always writing -
letters, diaries, books - capturing their times so elegantly!
Could anyone put together a book like this anymore? Telephones have a
lot to answer for.
Anyway...I'm curious about other people's reactions to the book. On a
personal level, do you think Vita made the right decisions? Is it
wise to marry someone when your sexual feelings are elsewhere? Was her
marriage merely a consession to her times or the best solution for the
kind of person she was? I realize these aren't "literary" questions,
but it's a history, not a work of art (as a book, it leaves much to be
desired.)
Incidently, I think we could have a great RGROUP thread here, because
I'm dying to go out now and read all the works mentioned in the book.
_The Portable Dorothy Parker_ also similarly inspired me to attempt
Katherine Mansfield and Edmund Wilson (I'd already read Robert
Benchley ;-) ). Anyone want to tackle one or both of these
possibilities? I suppose I could, but I'm afraid of showing my
ignorance.
--
c2h...@ucscb.ucsc.edu - making the world safe for children's literature
"Everybody bet lots of money on the eggplant, thinking that if a
vegetable challenges a live animal with four legs to a race, then it
must be that the vegetable knows something."
Victor Eijkhout
>I just finished _Portrait of a Marriage_ and it really wowed me!
>These people are so fascinating, the way they're always writing -
>letters, diaries, books - capturing their times so elegantly!
>Could anyone put together a book like this anymore? Telephones have a
>lot to answer for.
Yes, these people are fascinating.
I read that book a few years ago and have been collecting
writings of and about them ever since. You may want to try and find:
- the biography of Vita by Victoria Glendinning. Well-written, insightful.
- the biography of Harold by ??? (forget his name; anyway, it is less
than Vita's, and all of the good passages are quoted from the next item:)
- Harold's diaries and letters. Edited (mainly cut down) by someone Olson (?)
Very interesting and well-written. Documents the London life very well.
(I like the entry where he writes that over the weekend he read two books,
wrote a review, his radio talk, and two articles, and concludes 'bad weather
has it good points after all' (loosely quoted).)
- Some People by Harold. Very witty collection of stories.
- All Passion Spent by Vita. Incredible book. One of the best I've ever
read. I only know of an edition with two other novels in a Virago collection.
- some travel stories of theirs have been translated into Dutch, and
I have those. But I'm afraid that won't be of much use to the
majority of the netters.
- the letters of Vita and Virginia Woolf have been published, but they
are unsatisfying, because there was not that much correspondence (they
lived in the same city after all), and all of it is one-sided. You have
to buy the conplete correspondence of VW to read the other half.
- but Orlando by VW is in a sense a portrait of Vita. Weird book.
Victor.