All Passion Spent [Hardcover]

V. Sackville-West (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1990

Echoing the themes in A Room of One's Own by her great friend Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West remaps the destiny of the gentle, gracious eighty-eight-year-old Lady Slane in this classic modern novel. Having surrendered seven decades of her life to the exemplary, if often hollow fulfillment of her marriage, to the expectations of her statesman husband and the demands of her children, Lady Slane finally, in her widowhood, defies her family. She dismisses the wishes and plans of her six pompous sons and daughters for her future, and instead retires to a tiny house in Hampstead, where she chooses to live independently and free from her past. There she alters, and not without some success, the course of her personal history. There, too, she recollects the dreams of her youth and at last, with one last "strange and lovely thing," acts upon the passion she forfeited seventy years earlier to the narrow conventions of a proper Victorian marriage. "...Sackville-West has borrowed in her prose writing some ... function of poetry, the ability to suggest far more than she says." New York Times "Witty and charming and graceful and brilliant.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sackville-West has borrowed in her prose writing some . . . function of poetry, the ability to suggest far more than she says."  —New York Times

"Witty and charming and graceful and brilliant."  —Chicago Tribune

"Shades of Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Ivy Compton-Burnett. A very gifted writer of fiction."  —Gay Times

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) was born and educated at Knole. She and her husband Harold Nicolson created the famous garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Buccaneer Books (July 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0899667457
• ISBN-13: 978-0899667454
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #525,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable classic for women (of any age) who "Get It!", March 5, 2002

By 

gypsy18 (Ashburn, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Passion Spent (Hardcover)

I meandered my way to this book through Sarah Ban Breathnach's treasure of self-excavation, Simple Abundance. I had read Anne Morrow Lindbergh because of her recommendation too. AML & Charles Lindbergh were good friends with Vita Sackville-West & her husband, Nigel Nicholson. So I finally got around to Vita Sackville-West & this book. It was so moving, wonderful, unforgettable, that I will reread it. I laughed & cried. I will try to find older copies of this to give away to dear friends, old & new. It's one of those books. I'm 41 & have sacrificed much for the men & children in my life that I nonetheless love so dearly. This book helped me bring those feelings of ambivalence into focus. It also helped me realize I'm relatively young & still have time to live the life I've dreamed of since I was a little girl. Maybe this "child-bearing years" thing was just a detour.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A elegant, perceptive, polished gem of a book, August 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All Passion Spent (Paperback)

How effortlessly Ms. Sackville-West spins her surprisingly moving story of an aging aristocrat who, near the end of her life, decides to do those things she could never do before as she sublimated herself to her strong, successful and controlling husband. This classic British diplomat, who expected to be obeyed because such were the times, was, after all, so much more important than she was and what an interesting life she had in his shadow, didn't she - so conscientious and such a good wife and mother. What she does when he dies, how she perceives her existence and her place in her family - and how they respond - will catch you up in its wake and carry you to the ending, which is perfect and thus bittersweet. I found this a memorable novella.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply beautiful, March 23, 2002

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Passion Spent (Paperback)

This gorgeous novel reflects many of the ideas found in "A Room Of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf, with whom Vita had a famous affair. After the death of her husband, the Earl of Slane, Lady Slane shocks her staid family by asserting her own will, leaving the house she kept with her husband, and settling into a small house in the countryside. Finally after seventy years, Lady Slane is determined to live as she chooses, with a life full of contemplation, dreams, and memories. She reflects on her lost ambition to be a painter, but knows that the life she lived was not without merit or value. She finds passion in the freedom to choose, and this gift she bequeaths to the one member of her family who understands its importance.