I have started Rereading Books

Much to my surprise in my old age I have started rereading books, something that I vowed never to do with the exception of The Bible.

The book that started it all was Still Life by Sarah Winman. This book is a 5 star standout for me. Based across 50 years it follows the lives of 2 disparate but connected people through their shared love of Florence and art. The book commences in the last days of the second world war in Florence when Temps, a British soldier in his twenties meets Evelyn, a noted British art historian sent to recover and restore art works to their rightful owners. Temps has been the driver for an upper-class English officer, Captain Darnley, a very cultured man, who has introduced his driver to works of art as they have followed the English Allies up Italy as far as Florence.

Temps is a bar man from the Est End of London and Evelyn is an educated academic in her 60's.

There is a very satisfying cast of characters in support. A must read for those who love travel, art, history, wine, Florence and cross cultural experiences.

So far I have read the book 4 time and I'm on my 5th run through now. I have also listened to the audiobook twice. I am captivated and in love with this book. Each read has brought out new things.

You might like to try it for yourself.

DK

The Voyage Out - Introducing Mr and Mrs Dalloway

Todays quotes might be a surprise you you. They certainly were to me!

While Captain Vinrace was thinking about passengers, 

Here he began searching in his pockets and eventually discovered a card, which he planked down on the table before Rachel. On it she read, “Mr. and Mrs. Richard Dalloway, 23 Browne Street, Mayfair.” p20

and 

The truth was that Mr. and Mrs. Dalloway had found themselves stranded in Lisbon. They had been travelling on the Continent for some weeks, chiefly with a view to broadening Mr. Dalloway’s mind. p20

There are several more paragraphs about The Dalloways.

Mrs Dalloway was the first Woolf book I studied in depth at university. I thoroughly enjoyed it but it never occurred to me that Clarissa and Richard had already been introduced in Woolf’s first novel.

It was a backward and welcome step to see the prequel in a sense of characters who would burst out of this book and get a book of their own.

 

 

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The Voyage Out Quote 2

They were free of roads, free of mankind, and the same exhilaration at their freedom ran through them all (p14).

The passengers are now out on the ocean and enjoying the sense of freedom. After London the sea must have appeared to be very empty and devoid of other people. 

It does our soul good to have a place of solitude away from the madding crowds.

 

The Voyage Out

Virginias first published novel was The Voyage Out. The story focuses around Rachel Vinrace, a young woman whose father is a Ships Captain. She is travelling with him to a tropical port where she disembarks and stays with her Uncle and Aunty.

She falls in love with a young man…

I won’t spoil the plot, but the writing is lovely and clearly stamped with her views and philosophy.

I will start today sharing the portions I have enjoyed. My only qualification for doing this is that I’m an avid albeit common reader. Don’t expect any literary or critical gymnastics!

This quote is on p6

Observing that they passed no other hansom cab, but only vans and waggons, and that not one of the thousand men and women she saw was either a gentleman or a lady, Mrs. Ambrose understood that after all it is the ordinary thing to be poor, and that London is the city of innumerable poor people. Startled by this discovery and seeing herself pacing a circle all the days of her life round Picadilly Circus she was greatly relieved to pass a building put up by the London County Council for Night Schools. “Lord, how gloomy it is!” her husband groaned. “Poor creatures!” What with the misery for her children, the poor, and the rain, her mind was like a wound exposed to dry in the air.

This observation is made by Helen Ambrose, Rachel’s Aunty.

In her writings Woolf often mentions vehicles. She was a keen driver and enjoyed jaunting around Sussex and London in her car. Often Leonard and Virginia went touring abroad as well by car. Three modes of transport are mentioned here but for most people in London were poor and had to walk. The reference to Night Schools expresses the interest she had for such institutions and she herself lectured to WEA members. 

 

A Romp through the Novels of Virginia Woolf

I have started re reading Virginia's novels so I can have all those wonderful words running over my synapses. So it seems an opportune time to continue the blog after some time away from it. 

As I did with the Diaries I will post excerpts from the books and comment on them.

Now I am finally retired I have more time to spend on my literary interests.

I will be reading the novels chronologically starting with The Voyage Out

Virginia Woolf on Second hand bookshops

Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.

A quote from The Death of the Moth and other essays

I like most keen readers like to forage in second hand bookshops. They are great places full of surprises and often serendipitous discoveries.

My favourite second hand bookshop is in Alnwick. I found a pristine first edition of Flush by Woolf there.

Bird Watching - a Woolf Perspective

She was becoming more and more interested in birds. It was a sign of old age, she supposed, as she went into her bedroom.

The Years, Virginia Woolf.

I found this fascinating quote today in "The Years". It just popped up without warning.

I have no idea whether she actually became a birdwatcher in latter life. Does anyone know? Just drop a comment on this post.

I'm becoming older but bird watching holds no fascination to me.

I do remember the birds in the garden when I visited Monks House in Sussex. The property had a lovely vegetable garden and the rest of the grounds and orchard are preserved as they were when Virginia and Leonard lived there.