Web Resources for ENGL 395: The Bloomsbury Group
Below you'll find web links for the authors and works we're reading this summer, as well as recommendations for further reading. Some sites are better than others; as always when using the web, evaluate not only the quantity of the information presented, but its quality (the source of that information or its sponsor, date uploaded, etc.).
General Resources
On Art
- From Realism to Post-Impressionism: Take a look at a series of paintings that trace the developments in art from the mid-19th century to c.1920.
- A glossary of painting styles, including descriptions of impressionism and cubism.
- View Picasso's famous Les Demoiselles D'Avignon.
On Literary Periods, Genres, and Styles
Literary Periods
- W.W. Norton's site of web resources for the Norton Anthology of English Literature offers cultural and literary context for the periods in which our authors lived: The Victorian Period (1830-1901) and The Twentieth-Century.
- Alan Lui's Voice of the Shuttle page for English Literature offers links to resources for all periods of English literature.
- Jack Lynch's Literary Resources -- Twentieth Century British and Irish provides information on selected modern and contemporary authors.
- Modernism Timeline: 1890-1940 allows you to search for a particular year or key word and find the literary context for that year.
Literary Genres and Styles
- A comparison of Victorian and Modernist ideas and some characteristics of modernism.
- Modernism: An Overview.
The Group
- The Knitting Circle provides a fairly extensive overview of the Group, with hyperlinks to other areas in the site. The "Press Cuttings" provide some recent commentary about the Group.
- View a picture of 46 Gordon Square, where it all began.
- A web page on Charleston, the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, sponsored by the Charleston Trust.
- A site of web links on Virginia Woolf and British Gardens, including links to Kew Gardens, Talland House in Cornwall (childhood summer home of Woolf and site for To the Lighthouse), Hogarth House (original site of the Woolfs' Hogarth Press), and Sissinghurst (gardens of Vita Sackville-West). Also visit the pictures of the Woolfs' country home, Monks House, where Leonard and Virginia lived together from 1916 until her death in 1941. (Leonard continued to live here in the years following.)
- A collection of small photographs of members of the Group.
- "The Art of Bloomsbury," a special exhibit at the Tate Gallery (from 4 November to 20 January 2000) and now at the Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, CT May 20 — September 3, 2000), including Symposia on "The Art of Bloomsbury."
- bloomsburyart.com was set up to complement the exhibition at the Tate; this online exhibition provides links to several paintings by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and one by Roger Fry.
- Bloomsbury: Art, Books, and Design, an exhibition at Victoria University Library, Toronto (1997). From this page, you can view works by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Dora Carrington, Roger Fry, Quentin Bell, and Stephen Tomlin. You can also view the holdings according to the following categories: Portraits, Omega Workshops, Dust Jackets designed by Vanessa Bell, Hogarth Press Illustrated Dust Jackets, and Hogarth Press Handprinted Books.
- Information about the Omega Workshops and the Hogarth Press.
- A collection of paintings by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant I have assembled for our class.
Members of the Group
Clive Bell
Vanessa Bell
- A brief biography of Vanessa Bell and analysis of some of her paintings.
- A selection of Vanessa Bell's works on exhibit in 1997 in Toronto; Artcyclopedia's links to Vanessa Bell's work on the web.
- View the dust jackets Vanessa Bell designed for her sister Virginia Woolf's works.
E.M. Forster
- "Aspects of E.M. Forster" provides detailed biographical information about Forster, as well as information about his works.
- A biography of Forster at Spartacus with hyperlinks.
- Biographical and annotated bibliographical information provided by the Knitting Circle web page on Forster.
- "Only Connect..." offers some background information on Forster's life and works, including adaptations.
- Web resources on Howards End: Study questions by Professor James Berg.
Roger Fry
- Read about the Omega Workshops (initiated by Fry) and view some of its productions. Further information about Omega.
- A selection of Fry's work.
Duncan Grant
- The Knitting Circle's page on the artist Duncan Grant provides biographical and annotated bibliographical information.
- A selection of Grant's work.
John Maynard Keynes
- A biography of Keynes at Spartacus with hyperlinks.
- The Knitting Circle's page on the political economist Maynard Keynes provides biographical and bibliographical information.
Desmond MacCarthy
Molly MacCarthy
Adrian Stephen
Karin Costelloe Stephen
Lytton Strachey
- Biographical information about the author and historian Lytton Strachey at the Harry Ransom Research Library where Strachey's papers are housed.
- The Knitting Circle's page on Lytton Strachey provides biographical and annotated bibliographical information.
Saxon Sydney-Turner
Leonard Woolf
- Brief biography of Leonard Woolf at Spartacus with hyperlinks.
- Biographical information about Leonard Woolf and information about his papers, housed at theWashington State University.
- Information on The Nation at Spartacus, the liberal journal Leonard Woolf edited from 1923-1930.
Virginia Woolf
- The Virginia Woolf Web is the most comprehensive of all the sites on Woolf. It has four sets of links: Life and Works of Virginia Woolf, VWWI Links 1 (Woolf Studies on the Web), VWW Links 2 (Places of Interest, Hotch-Potch, and Film), and VWW Links 3 (The Bloomsbury Group and Others), as well as other resources.
- A biography of Woolf at Spartacus with hyperlinks.
- A series of links with biographical information and pictures at BBC Knowledge.
- A detailed chronology of Woolf's life at the Virginia Woolf Web. (Note: many links do not work, but the information in the chronology is accurate.)
- The Knitting Circle's page on Woolf provides some biographical and annotated bibliographical information.
- Read The New York Timesobituary for Woolf.
- View several portraits of Virginia Woolf:
- The famous (and most popular) portrait taken in 1902 by George Charles Beresford, housed at the National Portrait Gallery.
- A collection of other portraits by Man Ray and Giselle Freund.
- Hear Virginia Woolf's voice as she speaks a few words about English speech from a link available at this site.
- Web resources on particular works:
- The Voyage Out: Author Michael Cunningham's essay at Salon magazine (adapted from his introduction to the Modern Library edition of The Voyage Out) provides a thoughtful discussion of this first novel and Woolf's career.
- "Thunder at Wembly": Woolf's 1924 essay responded to the extremely popular British Empire Exhibition, which ran from 1924 to 1925. "Creating Wembley: The Construction of a National Monument" not only provides a history of Wembley Stadium (which began life as part of the Empire Exhibition), but also a detailed look at the Exhibition itelf. Also view: some background and pictures of the Exhibition; a picture of the opening ceremony and commemorative stamps; an advertisement and picture of the grounds; souvenirs, with some further information about the exhibition.
- To the Lighthouse: Study questions by Cathy Decker; a reading of Woolf's narrative strategies in TTL in light of the male and masculine modernism of Woolf's contemporaries.
- The Waves: Some comments posted to the Virginia Woolf listserv about reading strategies for The Waves.
Related authors who missed this version of the syllabus...
Michael Cunningham
- A brief biographical sketch.
- His essay on Woolf's The Voyage Out, at Salon magazine.
Indigo Girls
- Read the lyrics to "Virginia Woolf," a song written and performed by the Indigo Girls (Emily Saliers and Amy Ray).
Alice Walker
- Anniina's Alice Walker Page offers detailed information about Walker's life and works, with links to bibliographies, book reviews, interviews, and the works themselves.
- Recommended reading: "In Our Mother's Garden" & the Pulitzer prize-winning The Color Purple (1982).
Vita Sackville-West
- A history of writer, poet and gardener Vita Sackville-West and her amazing family home, Knole, owned since 1566 when Queen Elizabeth granted the great house to Thomas Sackville. (Vita is the model for Woolf's mock biography Orlando, published 1928.)
- A picture of Vita at Sissinghurst.
Jeanette Winterson
- The Jeanette Winterson Reader's Site offers extensive information about Winterson and her work, as well as links to interviews, criticism, and other sites. Also visit Jeanette Winterson's own site.
