Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Women's Lives a la Bloomsbury
NB: a week earlier than we all get out -- I just don't believe anyone will have time the week of the 12th
TIME/PLACE -- 7:00 for 7:30 pm -- at Cecilia's house. (Address to follow by email)
BOOK(S):
A few classics to choose from -- all from the Bloomsbury group looking at women's lives. It would be great if everyone could read all three as all are relatively short, but it is a hectic season... do your best!
As an starter, I have an old (1995) New Yorker article by Janet Malcolm called "A House of One's Own", re the lives of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vannessa, which I have kept all these years because it was so good. I scanned it into a PDF file (or, rather, a=several PDF files, as it's a long article (22 pages). But the photos are worth looking at, if nothing else.
Mahalo.com do a nice page of links on Virginia Woolf, e.g., want to hear her speaking on BBC Radio Four? (NB: You may have to download RealPlayer to run the file, but there's a link to do that on the BBC website.)
1) A Room of One's Own -- by Virginia Woolf
It's quite short. Here's an online version.
2) All Passion Spent -- by Vita Sackville-West
From a book review blurb: "This is not merely a fictive work but a meditation on Victorian women's freedom, expected roles and status and in particular one woman's ruminations on life and bring true to oneself, this woman being not just Lady Slane but Sackville-West herself."
There are two copies of this book in the National Library system. And it comes up in Kinokuniya's online catalog. Here's a link to the map showing where in the store it's located:
I took the liberty of scanning the first three pages of the book, All Passion Spent -- so you can see if her style appeals to you. Have a read: 
PDF_ALL PASSION SPENT.pdf
3) "Florence Nightingale" chapter in Eminent Victorians -- by Lytton Strachey
An online version can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg -- just search for "Florence" on the page to find the Florence Nightingale chapter
See the Wikipedia entry on the book.
Cathy mentioned another book -- "Moments of Being" by Virgina Woolf (here's a review, if you're interested). Kinokuniya doesn't seem to have a copy, but the National Library has three.
November 2007
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
October 2007
A Spot of Bother
September 2007
Don Quixote
June 2007
Kurt Vonnegut -- also see his essay on Biafra from Wampeters, Foma, & Grandfalloons: Kurt Vonnegut Biafra0001.PDF (which relates to the May book)
May 2007
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie -- which is about Biafra.
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