17 June 2012

Scenes from Monk's House, July 2012

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lovely to see the home of Virginia Woolf in the newest World of Interiors issue. Monk's House still carries the marks of the writer's presence. Caroline Zoob lives in house and it's photographed in June issue by Caroline Arber.
I get many magazines- let me say rather-too many-and they often go unopened, however -never World of Interiors.
Like a billet doux, it promises sweet sweet words, caressing images:

O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soever,
But falls into abatement and low price
Even in a minute! so full of shapes is fancy,
That it alone is high-fantastical.-
William Shakespeare Twelfth Night, Act I Scene I



I am "rebinding all my Shakespeares-29 vols-in coulored paper"
 Virginia Woolf to EM Forester

Photograph by Caroline Arbor, World of Interiors, July 2012


"I told you in the course of this paper that Shakespeare had a sister; but do not look for her in Sir Sidney Lee's life of the poet. She died young--alas, she never wrote a word. She lies buried where the omnibuses now stop, opposite the Elephant and Castle. Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the crossroads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh." Virginia Woolf- A Room of One's Own



I've been staring at page 163, Vanessa Bell's portrait of her sister Virginia, probably painted in 1911 or 1912.


She loved the colour green, music, collecting china, the garden-and the light that pervaded her bedroom at Monk's House. She was much like Us.
As I leaf through the pages of beautiful photographs-there is no doubt Virginia was happy at Monk's House. There- she could be that "creature of laughter and movement," as friend and writer Elizabeth Bowen described her.



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8 comments:

  1. I'll have to find that magazine. My favorite description of VW, is of her lying prostrate on her couch with her arm draped across her head saying, "I'll never write again." Only a writer would get it.

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    1. Donna, It is always wonderful to hear from you. I love that quote.

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  2. If I had only one magazine to read, study, and ponder, it would be WOI. I have been a follower for many years now, and I still regret (foolishly and rashly) throwing out a decade or more of back issues when I moved fifteen years ago. Ah, well, fortunately it is (still) published, and I have something to look forward to every month. That is, if I can find it on the news stands in New York, as it sells out fast! RD

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    1. RD, How could You? I do wonder-when? why? they have never done a compilation of some of their best issues? maybe it would be impossible to select the contents? Each issue is a pleasure to sit down with and I love their creative presentations outside of the main articles. pgt

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  3. I'm not a fan of decorating bookshelves with uniform covers (all white, for example), but I'd make an exception for sets, and I have to admit that Virginia Woolf's solution is smashing. I imagine that at a distance the set looks somewhat like marble.

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    1. For me it is tempting-I have an old set of Jane Austen-to the degree that they are falling apart-they were irresistible though and doing something like VW-so lovingly seems kind. pgt

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  4. I always welcome your presentations on Woolf because you always bring out another facet in a figure who simply never stops being admirable and completely humane. All I can do, basically, is "read her," because in all honesty I am very much less interested in her "set" and their lives than I dutifully tried to be, who were such a vogue (again) with Holroyd's bio of Strachey. I think the most stunning image, and the only one I'll ever need, honestly, of her existence comes in a notation in her diary, "Tom came for dinner, and read his new poem..." She refers of course to Eliot, and The Waste Land, and I think nothing can place a person on a more staggering plane than to have held his confidence at this moment in the course of poetry. Still, I like seeing the fact that she enjoyed green.

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    1. Laurent-as always you can find the essence of a character or personality. It is harder for me-I continue to fall in love with Virginia a little more with each and every nuance. Though I haven't been to Monk's House it is a pilgrimage I want to take. Poor lady-even her sister laughed at the green. pgt

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