Customer Reviews

Flush: A Biography

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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.

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.

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.

I found "Flush" a sentimental story of a moment in the life of Elizabeth Barret. Her romance with Robert Browning and some insight into her father's lack of understanding of his daughter's hunger. THIS BOOK REMINDED ME OF "White Fang" by Jack London which should be reread. Good insight into the Marlybonne area of London and the presence of deprived and poverty in London just in back of the elegance of Wimpole Street. I will try to get all my dog loving friends to read this book especially those with Cocker Spaniels. Flush's life is a metaphore for all those natural emotions of human beings and we do not know of the emotional hunger of animals. We have a very real imaginative feeling for the humanity of dogs who give so much love unselfishly to their masters who do not have to offer much. Flush gave up much to be a lap dog for Elizabeth. His waiting for the postman to ring the bell with the letter from Browing was a beautiful descriptive side to the book.

A good friend and I have an ongoing discussion about the anthropomorphization of animals in literature. He's agin' it. I'm not.

The beauty of FLUSH is that Woolf extends her technique of anthropomorphization to the humans. She figures out how to put you inside a dog's mind and desires and habits. Then she uses the same techniques on the humans. And while she is not unkind to any of these characters, she's not lenient toward any of them either.

That's the problem with most anthropomorphization. (Egad, do I have to type that word again?) It skins some poor animal to dress up a fictionally perfect human. Bad anthropomorphization (sigh) symbolizes a flat fraction of our human nature and represents it as the whole thing, or the most desirable part. This cheapens the human and disposes of the animal.

I love Woolf. She never cheapens anyone. She never makes cartoons of people (or of dogs). Read her if you're tired of shallow media portraits or snap judgments at the office water cooler. You know the kind. Comments on character that may be superficially correct, and you can't quite put your finger on it, but you feel the judgment's not fair at all... Woolf never does that to you.

Woolf observes her people (and her canine), lets you understand their most subtle good and bad impulses. With Woolf, we don't have to choose between knowing and loving another person. We can do both.

And we can love Flush, not as the idealized human, but as one actually does love a dog. Woolf has given us Flush - not a fantasy human in fake dog form - but a real dog, in print, a trusted and familiar companion. We feel his fur; we know where Flush is by the bed, in the dark; we know his eyes and their expression, and although Woolf tells us what Flush thinks, as with a real dog, there is something hidden, unhuman.

And then she goes and does the same thing with the PEOPLE. Brilliant.

So hang the critics, Virginia. This book may have been only a practice session for you, and a nuisance one at that, but we learn something about love and respect reading it. Now, can you think such a book unimportant?

Consciously imitating Jane Austen in the opening paragraphs, Virginia Woolf exercises more self-control in this novel than in any other and the result is prose which is less self-indulgent, more lucid, less experimental, more precise if less adventurous than you might expect of this author. The given facts exert a narrative discipline and perhaps Woolf intended it as a book for children. Whatever, it is the product of a gifted writer not straining for effect, a model for young writers to imitate: not the final word on an animal's sensibility and the narrative excitement comes mostly from the Barret-Browning storyline: but an easy, enjoyable, well-crafted read.

Woolf has 16 major works and I think this is one of her funnier works. It would be a good place to start reading Woolf's works.

Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941) was a well known writer, critic, feminist, and publisher. As background information, I read most of her work starting with her first novel "The Voyage Out" published in 1915, skipped her second novel - which is considered to be a flop, Night and Day from 1919 - and then read "Jacob's Room," her third, then went on and read "Mrs. Dalloway," her fourth, and next read "To The Lighthouse," etc. Also, I read some of Woolf's non-fiction and put together a Listmania list on Virginia Woolf.

What is her best work? That is a hard question to answer, but overall one I think her novel "To The Lighthouse" is a masterpiece. Her best non-fiction is "A Room of One's Own." I like the Oxford version of the latter published along with "Three Guineas."

But, the present novel or novella is fascinating and a fun way to get to know Woolf. Books to do not have to be long to be a great story or novel, and I point to Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilych" as an example. Is the present book equal to that? Of, course not but the present work is very entertaining. It is a fun read which takes about two hours. Most will be impressed and appreciate Woolf's writing ability.

It is a first person fictional narrative by a dog called Flush, a real dog that was owned by Elizabeth Barrett-Robert Browning. The real dog was stolen three times, but in the novella it is compressed into a story of one theft.

Woolf opens the novel sounding as if the book is non-fiction. After a few pages, it slips into the narrative form with the dog describing his life. She explores the dog's relation to the owner, and tells us what it is like to be a dog. The dog is very sensitive to the moods of the owner, and it is protective and becomes jealous on various occasions. One might say that Woolf gives the dog a soul. Does it all have a deeper meaning? Yes, it tells us about loyalty and love.

This is a fun read.

Upfront I have to confess we share our lives with two English Cocker Spaniels, and this in turn gives some insight into the minds of these dogs. Flush is very much the happy cocker spaniel and Virginia Woolf captures his character superbly. Virginia's portrayal of Flush shows a significant understanding of these dear animals (she did have one herself). This biography of Flush is very much an insight into the Cocker's mind. The primeval alusion to "span" is intriguing, if possibly mythical, but it gives a great depth of history to our cockers. This book is light hearted and avoids the heavy cloud of despair usually portrayed in the Barretts of Wimpole Street, although that is the setting of the first part of the book. Flush's last moment did bring a tear to my eye, but he was a lucky and well cared for dog. Although I purchased the paperback here at Amazon, I managed to find a first edition at a second hand book shop and I bought this without hesitation.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read a lot of Woolfs work. This little book is easily equal to her more critically acclaimed works like 'To the Lighthouse'. This story allows Woolf to be more playful than in any of the other piece she has done. The mix of fiction/ biography allows her to tell a story filled with heroes and villians that makes the book like an adult fairy tale. By the end I was fully engaged and completely consumed by Flush and his Life. This is a must for any fan of Woolf or anyone who has a love for animals.

The book "Flush" by Virginia Woolf was cleverly written from the perspective of a dog and was somewhat engaging. Woolf managed to really capture the personality of "Flush," Elizabeth Barrett's human-like cocker spaniel, from the moment of his birth to his long-expected death. Although this book will probably not dive deeply into your emotional core, it is an entertaining bit for those long, carefree summer hours when your brow is tired from being furrowed in confusion.