Vera Brittain a Feminist Life (Studies in Gender and History) [Paperback]

Deborah Gorham (Author)

Book Description

Series: Studies in Gender and History | Publication Date: January 2000

This is a biographical study of the English writer and social activist Vera Brittain, author of Testament of Youth .

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Brittain (1893-1970) was an English feminist and pacifist with some 20 books to her credit. She is remembered for a single book, however, Testament of Youth (1933). This famous autobiography covers the author's service as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse during World War I. Brittain lost her only brother, her fiance, and two close friends in the war, and she credited the experience with turning her into a pacifist. Vera Brittain: A Life is a thorough biography that offers a comprehensive picture of its subject. Written by two authors who knew Brittain and her family, the work discusses her personal life, university education, war experiences, and later civilian career as a writer and lecturer. We learn about her great friendship with the writer Winifred Holtby, Brittain's marriage to political scientist George Catlin, and the pleasure she took in motherhood as well as the courageous pacifist stance she adhered to during World War II, which damaged her career as a writer. Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life is a well-written study that concentrates on its subject's commitment to feminism. Gorham, a Canadian academic, argues that Brittain's feminism was the "central organizing principle of her personality." The author uses feminist theory and scholarship in a sensible, evenhanded way to illuminate Brittain's life against the backdrop of English society in the first half of the 20th century. (Gorham rejects, for example, the argument put forth by some feminist scholars that the relationship between Brittain and Winifred Holtby was lesbian in a "broader," nonerotic sense.) Both works provide a full portrait of an important 20th-century feminist and pacifist and are recommended for public libraries.?Caroline A. Mitchell, Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Gorham has written an important life of Vera Brittain that scholars and students of the period will not want to miss." American Historical Review, June 1997

"By far the most substantial product of academic interest in Brittain to have appeared to date." Times Literary Supplement

"Sensitive and compelling biography." The Toronto Star

"Gorham is to be commended for producing a balanced book, and for making extensive and intelligent use of feminist criticism. Gorham has been blessed with extensive source materials and has used them well in a fine, provocative, inspiriting biography." The Women's Review of Books, July 1996 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802083390
• ISBN-13: 978-0802083395
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,620,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended, June 15, 2005

By 

a reader (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vera Brittain a Feminist Life (Studies in Gender and History) (Paperback)

When Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life came out in 1996, Carolyn G. Heilbrun in The Women's Review of Books, praised it as a "fine, provocative, inspiriting biography". Susan Kingsley Kent, in the American Historical Review said: "Gorham has written an important life of Vera Brittain that scholars and students of the period will not want to miss. She has drawn a more complete and thus sympathetic portrait of this elusive figure than has existed to date, and her prodigious research fills many a gap left by her subject's own tellings."
Gorham's book is both scholarly and readable. It has been read with pleasure by general readers, and has been used as a text in several university courses in North America and in the U.K.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, April 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life (Hardcover)

THis 'feminist life' doesnt have the depth or insight of the brilliant authorised biography of Vera Brittain by Berry and Bostridge (published by Northeastern University Press). Gorham hardly touches on Brittain's pacifism, and her book ends in 1940, thirty years before Brittain's death. For a very readable and authoritative biography of Vera Brittain, try Vera Brittain: A Life by Paul Berry (Vera Brittain's friend) and Mark Bostridge (a young biographer)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Inaccurate, July 26, 2005

By 

Los Angeles Ph.D student (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life (Hardcover)

I have been studying Vera Brittain for my final year coursework and found the authorised life by Berry and Bostridge (1995) a good deal more authoritative, readable and enjoyable than Gorham's study. Gorham is inaccurate and weighed down by out of date theory. Susan Kingsley Kent clearly hadn't read the authorised biography when she recommended Ms Gorhams' book. After Testament of Youth itself, I would strongly urge readers interested in Brittain to buy the Bostridge-Berry biograhy.