Vanessa and Her Sister: A Novel
Priya Parmar, 2014
Random House
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780804176378
Summary
An intimate glimpse into the lives of Vanessa Bell, her sister Virginia Woolf, and the controversial and popular circle of intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury Group.
London, 1905: The city is alight with change, and the Stephen siblings are at the forefront. Vanessa, Virginia, Thoby, and Adrian are leaving behind their childhood home and taking a house in the leafy heart of avant-garde Bloomsbury. There they bring together a glittering circle of bright, outrageous artistic friends who will grow into legend and come to be known as the Bloomsbury Group. And at the center of this charmed circle are the devoted, gifted sisters: Vanessa, the painter, and Virginia, the writer.
Each member of the group will go on to earn fame and success, but so far Vanessa Bell has never sold a painting. Virginia Woolf’s book review has just been turned down by The Times. Lytton Strachey has not published anything. E. M. Forster has finished his first novel but does not like the title. Leonard Woolf is still a civil servant in Ceylon, and John Maynard Keynes is looking for a job. Together, this sparkling coterie of artists and intellectuals throw away convention and embrace the wild freedom of being young, single bohemians in London.
But the landscape shifts when Vanessa unexpectedly falls in love and her sister feels dangerously abandoned. Eerily possessive, charismatic, manipulative, and brilliant, Virginia has always lived in the shelter of Vanessa’s constant attention and encouragement. Without it, she careens toward self-destruction and madness. As tragedy and betrayal threaten to destroy the family, Vanessa must decide if it is finally time to protect her own happiness above all else.
The work of exciting young newcomer Priya Parmar, Vanessa and Her Sister exquisitely captures the champagne-heady days of prewar London and the extraordinary lives of sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Hawaii
• Education—Mt. Holyoke College; Oxford University; University of Edinburgh
• Currently—lives in London, England, and in Hawaii, USA
A former dramaturg and freelance editor, Priya Parmar was educated at Mount Holyoke College, The University of Oxford and The University of Edinburgh. She is the author of Exit the Actress (2011) and Vanessa and Her Sister (2014). Priya and her husband and their French bulldog Herbert divide their time between Hawaii and London. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Rarely do you encounter a woman who commands as much admiration as does the painter Vanessa Bell in Priya Parmar's multilayered, subtly shaded novel…. Parmar's portrait brings Vanessa out of the shadows, into fully realized, shining visibility. The world remembers Virginia better than her enigmatic older sister: Parmar restores the symmetry of their relationship in the familial landscape, showing how essential Vanessa's steadying force was to Virginia's precarious balance.… Parmar's fabricated journal is an uncanny success. Its entries, plausible and graceful, are imbued with the same voice that can be found in letters by or about Vanessa. And Parmar's decision to interleave the invented diary with invented correspondence heightens the authentic feel of the portrait…In Vanessa and Her Sister, Parmar gives truth and definition to the character of a woman whose nature was as elusive as her influence was profound.
Liesl Schillinger - New York Times Book Review
In her gossipy, entertaining historical novel about the British bohemians, Priya Parmar conjures a devastating fictional portrait of one of those triangles—the great writer Virginia Woolf; her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell; and Vanessa’s husband, art critic Clive Bell.... Parmar’s perceptive and well-informed fill-in-the-blanks approach—and her elegant, accessible style—makes for some tasty, frothy Bloomsbury pie, indeed.
USA Today
An elegant, entertaining novel that brings new life to the Bloomsbury Group’s intrigues.
Dallas Morning News
The pretzeled plot unfolds at a steady pace, in crisp period prose, and rarely feels inevitable.
New York
Captivating...a subtle exploration of the sisters’ complicated emotional life.... Through letters and Vanessa’s journal entries, [Parmar] captures the excitement of social experimentation.
BBC
In this delightful novel, Parmar reimagines the brilliant, fragile writer and her turn-of-the-century bohemian friends, the famous Bloomsbury set, through the eyes of her painter sister Vanessa.... You’ll be spellbound (Book of the Week)
People
You’ll get lost in the worlds of Vanessa Bell and her sister, Virginia Woolf, as they struggle to make it as a painter and an author, respectively, in prewar London—but more so than art, this is a story of sisterhood.
Glamour
Parmar ambitiously attempts to show us through the eyes of Vanessa Bell, a celebrated painter in her own right, in her inventive, meticulously researched Vanessa and Her Sister.... The Bloomsbury Group were famous for their weekly salons, which were fueled by intellectual discourse, banter and booze; in Parmar’s story, you can almost hear the glasses tinkling. But the author’s greatest triumph is giving voice to the steady, loyal, motherly Vanessa, who lived nobly in her sister’s shadow only to experience a heartbreaking betrayal.
Good Housekeeping
Parmar inhabits the gilded "bohemian hinterland" of Virginia Woolf and her sister Vanessa, creating a vibrant fictional homage.
Oprah Magazine
Vanessa and Her Sister provides a fascinating take on this literary family, and the affection and exasperation Virginia’s sister might have felt living with a genius, who was prone to fits of madness. If you’re at all interested in Virginia Woolf, or just a fan of a good piece of historical fiction, in the vein of The Paris Wife, this book’s the one for you.
Bustle
(Starred review.) [E]xcellent.... Parmar’s narrative is riveting and successfully takes on the task of turning larger-than-life figures into real people. Readers who aren’t familiar with the Bloomsbury group might be overwhelmed at first by the sheer number of characters in the book, but Parmar weaves their stories together so effortlessly that nothing seems out of place.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) A devoted, emotionally intense portrait of the Bloomsbury group focuses in particular on sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, whose complicated relationship is tested to the breaking point by their competing affections for two men. [The Bloomsbury] group's extraordinarily intertwined history...[is] not exactly uncharted territory, but Parmar enters it with passion and precision, delivering a sensitive, superior soap opera of celebrated lives.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. When the novel opens, their father has died and the Stephen siblings have moved from their childhood home in Kensington to bohemian Bloomsbury. Why do you think Vanessa chose to uproot her siblings and move to such a radically different part of town? What sort of change is she trying to bring about for her family?
2. Vanessa tells us that her family value words and books over painting and visual arts. How do you think growing up in such a family affected Vanessa's view of herself as an artist? Would you rather be a writer or a painter?
3. Vanessa has always protected and supported Virginia, and has excused much of her difficult and unsocial behavior. Do you think Vanessa's tolerance gives Virginia permission to behave in the way that she does?
4. What is your opinion of Virginia and Vanessa’s relationship? Before Vanessa’s betrayal, did you find them to be legitimate friends, or do you feel something was missing between them even before Vanessa married Clive? How does Vanessa’s view of her sister change after she marries?
5. Vanessa turns down several proposals from Clive, but decides to accept him after Thoby dies. Do you feel that if Thoby had lived, Vanessa might have chosen a different path? Or that Virginia might not have behaved as she did? Do you think Vanessa and Clive are well-suited to each other?
6. Virginia feels contempt for Clive and thinks him an unsuitable husband for her sister. Why does she seek to "find a place" in Vanessa's marriage? What do you think Virginia hopes to achieve?
7. We often think of the early twentieth century as being a time of almost Victorian restraint, yet the Bloomsbury Group were open about both homosexual and heterosexual love. Do you think they were utterly unique? Do you believe such openness was actually more common at the time than we traditionally believe?
8. The Bloomsbury Group not only challenged the norms of the time, but challenged each other during their numerous discussions about art, writing, philosophy, economics and even love. Vanessa at times feels she is out of her depth, and marvels at Virginia’s brilliance. Do you agree with her assessment of herself? How difficult do you feel it would have been to be a part of such a talented and intelligent circle?
9. At one point Vanessa reflects, "If Virginia were not my sister, we would be a pedestrian cliche. Instead, we are a bohemian nightmare." How do you feel the ideals of the Bloomsbury Group influenced Vanessa’s reaction to not only Clive’s affair with Virginia, but his choice to resume physical relations with Mrs. Raven Hill? If you had been in her shoes, do you feel you would have responded differently?
10. The story opens with a letter from Virginia to Vanessa stating, "What happened cannot break us. It is impossible. Someday you will love and forgive me. Someday we will begin again." How did this letter color your reading of the rest of the novel? Did you expect Vanessa to forgive Virginia at any point? Do you think it is fair to say that Vanessa still loves her sister, despite that fact that she ultimately decides she cannot forgive her? Do you agree with Vanessa’s decision?
11. Vanessa and Her Sister is told largely through excerpts from Vanessa’s diary and her letters, with snippets of correspondence between her family and friends. What did you think of this narrative style? Was there any one person whose perspective you wished to see more often? How objective did you feel Vanessa’s portrayal of the story was?
12. Of the two sisters, Virginia is undoubtedly the more famous. Were you surprised by anything you learned about her in this novel? Did it challenge any previous ideas you had about her?
13. At the end of the novel, the author gives a brief description of what became of the members of the Bloomsbury Group. Was there anything in there you found unexpected? Disappointing? Particularly satisfying?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)