Young Bloomsbury: the generation that reimagined love, freedom and self-expression

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The most baffling part of the book, for me, came in the last chapters and the exploration of James Strachey's life that lead him to the USA and the bohemian scene there. I have long known of and been interested in the Bloomsbury Group - they are an incredibly well documented, romanticised and, dare I say it, likely overdone in many ways… However, bringing a fresh new lens to the second generation of the group, particularly as written by a direct descendent really reignited this for me. For those who are quite familiar with the Bloomsbury group and their output of work, Young Bloomsbury will be a lethargic reading experience.

I found the sort of contents page that introduced the significant players a useful tool to refer back to as it was occasionally hard to keep track of who was who. The group had always celebrated sexual equality and freedom in private, feeling that every person had the right to live and love in the way they chose. It was refreshing to see a thriving queer community that accepted homosexuality and especially bisexuality, and openly embraced the concepts of open communication and consensual non-monogamy That being, once I had forced myself to read line by line for the first half of the book, I did start skim reading, as the cast of those involved was too wide for me to feel attached to their individual goings on. The younger friends and relations of the Bells, Stracheys and Woolfs lived, worked and loved freely, finding their own ways to personal and artistic fulfilment.Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author. Above all else, Bloomsbury was a liberating force, as Nino Strachey shows in her sparkling new book. Unfortunately, my knowledge and interest in art is so minuscule as to have been detrimental in my understanding of several Bloomsbury figures. Pansexuality runs through everything from their discussions to their rowdy parties to the work they produce. They all fall in love with each other, they all sleep with each other, and jealousy and heartbreak are rampant.

But for those looking to acquaint themselves with these changemakers for the first time, this book is a good starting point. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. I picked this book up, because I thought it would be great to learn about the Bloomsbury group from a family member. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.They pushed boundaries, turned heads and sparked discourse aplenty - and most importantly, revelled in it. For each rising generation there’s reason to illuminate again their particular, if fleeting, triumphs. She also doesn't really sum up their overall impact on British culture, ie she gives the stories of the key players, but not their lasting impact. I don’t think these people acted from any desire to free up society as much as to get as much sex as possible with either gender which fair enough, provided it was consensual and I’m not entirely sure it always was. The survivors, riven by the upheaval of the Second World War and the loss of their beloved contemporaries, drift into the conventionality they so staunchly fought against.

I was surprised that she gave the young women such short shrift, though, after pages and pages of handsome Oxford and Cambridge men and their gay affairs. I will say, however, that if you’re going to read this book, you should definitely read LOTE by Shola Von Reinhold as well. M. Forster, and Lytton Strachey among them—began to make a name for themselves in England and America for their irreverent spirit and provocative works of literature, art, and criticism. And my first introduction to the Bloomsbury Group, though I've heard of and read some of the individuals.Young Bloomsbury explores the transgressive lives of the second generation of the Bloomsbury Group looks at the impact new ideals and ways of being had on original members of the group. The hardcover has helpful photographs of everyone, but the Audible version is read by the author, which I found delightful, especially since one could trust that she wasn't mispronouncing the names. I went back to Eminent Victorians after this in an effort to really grasp its significance - more to come on that soon. An “illuminating” ( Daily Mail , London) exploration of the second generation of the iconic Bloomsbury Group who inspired their elders to new heights of creativity and passion while also pushing the boundaries of sexual freedom and gender norms in 1920s England. I had thought it would also be about the group referred to as the Bright Young Things- The Mitfords and Evelyn Waugh , for example.

This lively group biography offers an intimate glimpse of the Bright Young Things, the artistic coterie that emerged in the nineteen-twenties as successors to the prewar Bloomsburyites. Young Bloomsbury introduces us to this colorful cast of characters, including novelist Eddy Sackville-West, who wore elaborate make-up and dressed in satin and black velvet; artist Stephen Tomlin, who sculpted the heads of his male and female lovers; and author Julia Strachey, who wrote a searing tale of blighted love. Written, of course, by a member of the Strachey family who had access to privately-held documents from family and friends, Nino Strachey brings some more obscure figures into the light of day while also presenting the more familiar figures such as Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Lytton Stratchey, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, E. I think I’m also a fairly shallow audience when it comes to biography: like Virginia Woolf I’m all about gossip, love affairs, and intimate emotional portraits.It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. Revealing an aspect of history not yet explored and with “effervescent detail” (Juliet Nicolson, author of Frostquake ), Young Bloomsbury celebrates an open way of living and loving that would not be embraced for another hundred years. Their abiding ethos is to challenge the stodgy, restrictive conventions of the Victorian Era and burst newness upon the world of arts and letters. I am mostly left with a newfound appreciation for found queer families and clubs, and am happy to report they were alive and well in 1920s London.