Leonard Woolf: A Biography - Rilegato

Glendinning, Victoria

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0771033338 ISBN 13: 9780771033339

Casa editrice: McClelland & Stewart, 2006

Riassunto

The first ever biography of the publisher, writer, activist, and husband at the heart of the Bloomsbury Group.

Many people today know Leonard Woolf through the surname of his wife, Virginia, or his role in supporting her through her mental illness, depicted in films like The Hours. Some critics see him as his wife’s oppressor. In Victoria Glendinning’s biography, for the first time we see the whole man.

As well as being a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group, Leonard was a formidable figure in his own right, first as an innovative civil administrator in Ceylon, then as a writer, leading light of the Fabian society, and publisher of T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Robert Graves, Katherine Mansfield, and of course Virginia Woolf.

Victoria Glendinning brings careful research and new material to bear on every aspect of Woolf’s life, painting an engrossing portrait of a man who was ahead of his time, an unapologetic socialist and passionate anti-racist. Her engaging biography brings new perspective to our understanding of the man, his work, and the Bloomsbury circle and its achievements.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

“Comprehensive and eminently readable . . . Victoria Glendinning has given us the measure — noble, engaged and quietly passionate — of the man.” — New York Times Book Review

“Victoria Glendinning has brought this admirable, principled and singularly appealing man exquisitely to life.” — Globe and Mail

“Exemplary . . . This lucid biography is enhanced by Glendinning’s humane and perceptive insight into Woolf’s conflicted personality as well as by her assessment of his signal role in the literary flowering and political issues of the early 20th century.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Exhaustive, intelligent and entertaining . . . superb.” — Winnipeg Free Press

“A thoroughly researched and elucidating account.” — The New Yorker

“He was an exemplary figure: balanced yet passionate, practical, generous and wise. Victoria Glendinning’s biography fills out the picture with a brilliant lightness of touch that takes into account the darknesses and depths of this remarkable man. . . . Moreover, she writes so well that we trust her.” — The Guardian
  
“It would be difficult to ask much more from a biography than what Victoria Glendinning offers in this.” — Edmonton Journal

“Her deft writing and striking sympathy for her subject make this a landmark biography.” — The Observer (U.K.)

“As a political thinker, a writer and a husband, Woolf mattered . . . as Victoria Glendinning’s biography illustrates in an irresistibly fascinating fashion.” — Vancouver Sun

“I never noticed the passage of time while I was reading this absorbing biography.” — The Spectator

“Victoria Glendinning is that rarity among biographers: an admirable stylist.” — Irish Times

“An astonishingly good life story of Leonard Woolf . . . Glendinning’s richly detailed portrait of Woolf comes alive.” — London Free Press

“At last, [Leonard Woolf] gets a full account of his life by an accomplished and sympathetic biographer.” — National Post

“Victoria Glendinning has done a captivating job of grabbing Leonard’s arm and hauling him out from under the shadow of his famous wife. . . . Glendinning has written more than a biography; she’s penned a wonderful love story whose denouement could be right out of Virginia’s classic novel, Mrs. Dalloway.” — Calgary Herald

“Leonard Woolf is one of the great unsung heroes of the 20th century. . . . It needed a biography as compelling as this to bring out Woolf’s full stature. Many will rate this as Glendinning’s finest biography.” — The Independent

“This much is certain: His life is very much worth reading about. In Victoria Glendinning he has found a sympathetic and able biographer.” — Toronto Star

L'autore:

Victoria Glendinning is the Whitbread Award-winning biographer of Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Bowen, Edith Sitwell, Vita Sackville-West, Rebecca West, and Jonathan Swift. Her novels, The Grown-Ups, Electricity, and Flight, were critical and commercial successes. She lives in London, England.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: McClelland & Stewart
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0771033338
• ISBN 13: 9780771033339
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 512