A New York Times Notable Book • An Entertainment Weekly “Must List” Pick • “Prepare to be dazzled.”—Paula McLain • “Quite simply astonishing.”—Sarah BlakeWhat if Virginia Woolf’s sister had kept a diary? For fans of The Paris Wife and Loving Frank comes a spellbinding new story of the inseparable bond between Virginia and her sister, the gifted painter Vanessa Bell, and the real-life betrayal … painter Vanessa Bell, and the real-life betrayal that threatened to destroy their family. Hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “an uncanny success” and based on meticulous research, this stunning novel illuminates a little-known episode in the celebrated sisters’ glittering bohemian youth among the legendary Bloomsbury Group.
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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.
Praise for Vanessa and Her Sister
“Fiction and history merge seamlessly in this dazzling novel.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Being related to Virginia Woolf can’t have been easy. In this delightful novel, Parmar re-imagines the brilliant, fragile writer and her turn-of-the-century bohemian friends. . . . You’ll be spellbound.”—People
“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.”—The New York Times Book Review
“[A] gossipy, entertaining historical novel . . . Parmar conjures a devastating fictional portrait.”—USA Today
“Captivating . . . echoes of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility emerge in Parmar’s portrayal.”—Newsday
“An elegant, entertaining novel that brings new life to the Bloomsbury Group’s intrigues.”—The Dallas Morning News
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Vanessa and Her Sister is $1.99 right now, and it’s a really lovely read if you’re interested in Virginia Woolf, her family, and the whole Bloomsbury Group. It’s structured as Vanessa Bell’s imagined diary, with letters, telegrams, and other documents scattered throughout. As Vanessa records her daily life, the reader gets sucked into her vibrant circle of artists and eccentrics. We see her grow as a painter and come of age, but the primary focus is her complicated relationship with Virginia. Anyone who knows anything about Virginia Woolf will (correctly) guess that this isn’t a very happy story. This book definitely bummed me out, but it was beautifully written and has stayed with me over the last year.
Rating:
Genre: Historical
This book is named Vanessa and Her Sister but it is more than that, it is about the whole Stephen family and their friends. And to be more specific it is about the Bloomsbury group of authors, critics, and artists. Such a fantastic debut novel by Priya Parmar. I’d say a very strong start for an author to write historical fiction about nonfictional characters and in such structure. The book feels like the diary of Vanessa Stephen (the elder sister of Virginia Woolf). Excerpts from their daily life from 1905 – 1912. There are also letters from different characters and telegraphs. It is hard to write a book in such a format and keep the reader’s focus and attention concentrated at the same time, but Priya was able to do it.
“I have the loose-ended feeling of looking, looking. What am I looking for? Looking for substance, looking for a moment I do not understand. Is that just how this part of life is? Do we ever have the sensation of finding, of arriving? I worry that life is always in the future and I am always here, in the preamble, straightening up the cushions so that life will go smoothly once it does begin.”
This book is slow when it comes to plot or events, it is more about characters and relationships. And to be more specific it is a study of the characters of these real people in a fictitious way. The author has done thorough research about all of them and presented them in an honest and sincere way. I was already very fascinated by Virginia Woolf, this book not just made me more fascinated by her life and character as a human being but also about the other people who surrounded her and had a role in her life.
“I wait for his regret, his guilt, but it does not come. He is a man who always sees the good in things. And in his mind, love is always good.”
The relationship between the two sisters was close and volatile at the same time. The way Virginia was looking at her sister was totally different from the way Vanessa was looking at their bond. I loved the voice of Vanessa and her interpretation of the way she read her sister and her illness. Vanessa lived in a marriage that she should have walked out of, maybe, she did that later but I don’t think officially. I did not like how she allowed or remained passive when it came to her husband Clive’s cheating on her. Of course, this is my own view of looking at things like that so it was still good to look at it from her own perspective.
“He was happy. All his life. ALL his life. There is an all now: beginning and end. But then I suppose no one gets out alive. Lately, in the last few years especially, he has been so happy. Surely that is a good life? That is enough? Dear God, I hope so.”
I had a really good time reading this book. It is not a feel-good story or anything but I just enjoyed all the different characters, they are real characters and the author was able to bring them alive in my imagination. I am very keen to read biographies about them specially Lytton Strachey and Clive Bell in addition to Vanessa and Virginia.
Couldn’t get through it. Put it down almost immediately.
Fascinating! I’d only read a bit of Virginia Woolf’s work but knew that she was one of the leaders of the erudite and influential circle that became known as The Bloomsbury Group. Sad to say I’d never heard of Vanessa Bell, but was mesmerized by both sisters’ life story. Best of all? The writing is superb and I suspect this author would have been much discussed at the colorful gatherings of the Bloomsbury gang. Virginia may have met her match!
I enjoyed learning so much more about the Bloomsbury group and how much they have contributed.
Unique take on the life of Virginia Woolf written from the POV
of her sister, Vanessa Bell, another Bloomsbury Circle member.
Very interesting.