Flush: A Biography [Paperback]

Virginia Woolf (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 4, 1976

This story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, Flush, enchants right from the opening pages. Although Flush has adventures of his own with bullying dogs, horrid maids, and robbers, he also provides the reader with a glimpse into Browning’s life. Introduction by Trekkie Ritchie.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A novel contribution to Browning material, which will interest anyone who saw THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET, anyone who is collecting Browning data, and most people who like to read about dogs. For with the slenderest material to work on, Miss Woolf has produced a sympathetic study of the famous spaniel, and made him a real and vivid personality. First owned by Miss Mitford, he roamed the country at will; after he was given to Miss Barrett, he settled down into the role of invalid's dog. When Robert Browning appeared on the scene, he showed keen resentment at sharing his mistress' attention, but eventually accepted him as inevitable. The move to Italy was a ticket to freedom. Though essentially Flush's story, Virginia Woolf has given interesting sidelights on the Brownings and those associated with them, and she has told it in her most delightful style, devoid of the indirection and obscurity of most of her fiction. (Kirkus Reviews )

About the Author

VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century. An admired literary critic, she authored many essays, letters, journals, and short stories in addition to her groundbreaking novels.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (October 4, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156319527
• ISBN-13: 978-0156319522
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941) was one of the major literary figures of the twentieth century. An admired literary critic, she authored many essays, letters, journals, and short stories in addition to her groundbreaking novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More than just Woolf being cute, March 12, 2005

By 

Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Flush: A Biography (Paperback)

FLUSH probably gets the least respect of all of Virginia Woolf's books, and many critics at the time of its publication in 1933 (and since) thought she was being more than a bit twee in telling the satory of the Elizabeth Barrett-Robert Browning courtship from the point of view of Barrett's adored cocker spaniel. But this experiment in biography is much more than that: it's an attempt to understand the world from a non-human point of view, and it also is Woolf's most overt look in her fiction at class difference and (more unusually) at the world of crime. It's also a terrific addition to Woolf's extended engagement from an early 20th-c. perspective with the world of genteel Victorian society and its snobberies and hypocrisies.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "You see this dog..." elizabeth barrett browning, October 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Flush: A Biography (Paperback)

I bought and read Flush with some scepticism. While I can't praise Virginia Woolf enough, I tend to shy away from animal stories. Flush, however, is the exception to the rule. My scepticism soon dissipated and I was thrown into a world more human than most written worlds. Flush is among the most sympathetic and beautiful character sketches I have ever come across. This is a very different book for Woolf and I couldn't be more glad that she took the chance to write something that seems so trivial. There is feeling of release in the way it is written, but it is not flippant. Rather, it makes the character of Flush that much more accessible to the reader.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful story., December 16, 2004

By 

I. Sondel "I. Sondel - lover of the arts" (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flush: A Biography (Paperback)

One of my very favorite reads this year. This is a biography of sorts - and a fiction of sorts. It's the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spanial Flush. An absolute charmer. This is one of those volumes that can truly be read in a single setting - it is possessed of a free flowing lyric quality often absent in this writer's more cerebral fictions. Still, this isn't a slight piece by any means, but a richly detailed work of the imagination by one of the great literary minds of the past century. This is the kind of book you'll want to recommend to all your friends.