A unique literary history explores the recent burgeoning interest in items related to the Bloomsbury group, a legendary circle that included writers who scandalized the country during the 1920s and 1930s with their books, love affairs, and feuds. 12,500 first printing.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Not so many years ago Virginia Woolf and other members of the Bloomsbury group were barely known to the common reader. But the publication of Quentin Bell's 1972 biography of Woolf stirred a popular and academic interest in these writers that has only grown over time. From academic journals to popular biographies, from photo books to popular art films, Bloomsbury has become big business. Regina Marler treats the Bloomsbury craze with respect and a sense of humor as she charts the growth of the industry and keeps her eye on who is making the profits. Thoroughly researched, filled with great gossip, and fueled by a love of literature Bloomsbury Pie is contemporary scholarship at its best.
From Library Journal
Attracted by their pacifism, unconventional behavior, and sexual liberty, the 1960s saw a dramatic rise in interest in the Bloomsbury group, the collection of writers and artists that included Virginia Woolf, Clive Bell, Lytton Strachey, E.M. Forster, and John Maynard Keynes, among others. This popularity has only increased, becoming a mass-market phenomenon that ranges from literary biographies to art production and memorabilia collecting and even to movies such as the recent Carrington (1995). In this delightful and witty book, Marler, who edited the Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell (Pantheon, 1993) and writes and lives in San Francisco, traces the social history of this interest in Bloomsbury, considering both its enthusiasts and its detractors. The result is a work of entertaining scholarship worthy of its subjects. For public and academic libraries where Bloomsbury interest is strong.?Thomas L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, Ga.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Structure of Literary Evolutions...,
This review is from: Bloomsbury Pie: The Making of the Bloomsbury Boom (Hardcover)
This superb book sparkles with both scholarship and wit. Much like Thomas Kuhn did in "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," Ms. Marler describes the external determinants of acceptance and repute. Ms. Marler traces the beginnings of the circle of writers, painters, designers, and other intellectuals (including John Maynard Keynes, Vanessa Bell, Lytton Strachey, E.M. Forster, and Roger Fry) known as Bloomsbury and, especially, its most famous literary member, Virginia Woolf. Bloomsbury and Woolf go in and out of fashion, sometimes together, sometimes separately, as various critical camps interpret the "real" meaning of her work. Passing through a decades-long literary gauntlet, Virginia Woolf's works are rudely characterized and discarded, rediscovered and reinterpreted, revived and revered (although some form of backlash seems never far away). Marler traces how Woolf's writing is subjugated to various forms of literary criticism and theory: Structuralism, post-structuralism, feminism, new criticism, psycho-biography, and, one is tempted to say, pseudobiography. In fact, after reading "Bloomsbury Pie" the reader may ponder what biography can realistically achieve. Marler also brings fresh insight into how familiarity may color a critic's evaluation of a subject, and how familial and proprietary considerations may clash with needs of scholars and sellers. While the author refers to Woolf's genius, the book's primary purpose is not to critique Woolf's literature or place in history, but rather to trace how literary history is forged within social, cultural, and financial contexts. It is to the author's enormous credit that she applies the same high rigorous standards to all Woolfian critics. (Perhaps it is this objectivity and specific purpose that irked some Amazon reviewers here.) In direct contradiction to many of these scholars, Marler seems to have no axe to grind, no theory to which the facts must fit. In the final section, she traces, with measured cynicism, the intersection of art and commerce, showing who benefits from Bloomsbury's ever-changing meanings. (As Clive Bell observed, reporters could not decide whether the term referred to "a point of view, a period, a gang of conspirators or an infectious disease." p. 275). If these sorts of ideas and issues appeal to you, or if you have some curiosity about "The Group," I strongly recommend this excellent volume. "Bloomsbury Pie" is well-researched, evenhanded, and particularly well written. Marler writes incisively and with great humor; commenting on one critic's smug, vitriolic dismissal of Bloomsbury, she observes: "It is easy to pick apart this sort of review, which lays its writer open like a filleted fish (p. 32)." Although not necessary, some familiarity with the group's works will help the reader fully appreciate the many rewards of this brilliant, insightful, and entertaining book. Definitely worth looking for!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
to the gentle reviewer from stanford,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bloomsbury Pie: The Making of the Bloomsbury Boom (Hardcover)
Your remarks about white males and radical feminism made me doublecheck the isbn on my copy. And I'm still not sure we read the same book. Bloomsbury Pie is easily the most engaging, down-to-earth study of the subject I've ever seen. Not only pro-feminist and thoroughly thoughtful, Marler's writing is full of wit and fun, which no doubt upsets readers who prefer their feminism-- and not their humor--very dry.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Give This Woman Her Own Comedy Hour!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bloomsbury Pie: The Making of the Bloomsbury Boom (Hardcover)
...Or at least a 3-book contract. She's pulled off the miracle of lucid scholarly assessment that entertains as it enlightens. And she's freed a bound subject from its constraints. The prose is beautiful--stinging--and X-Acto knife sharp. The book itself is also beautiful--a slim little curio book made to fit the hand. Marler's clarity and balance will no doubt alienate readers with agendas--but with any luck she'll offend all such readers (who need most to be offended); to this purpose she serves humanity and literature. Her perspective is welcome and her wit to be savored.
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