Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury [Hardcover]

Alison Light (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2008

A revealing and personal new perspective on the Bloomsbury set and the servants who shared their lives.

When Virginia Woolf wrote A Room of One’s Own in 1929, she established her reputation as a feminist, a woman who could imagine a more open and liberal reality, and an advocate for the female voice. Indeed the Bloomsbury set has often been identified with liberal, open-minded views; Woolf’s circle of artists and writers were considered Bohemians ahead of their time. But they were also of their time. Like thousands of other British households, Virginia Woolf’s relied on live-in domestics for the most intimate of daily tasks. That room of her own she so valued was cleaned, heated, and supplied with meals by a series of cooks and maids throughout her childhood and adult life. In Mrs. Woolf and the Servants, Alison Light gives depth and dignity to the long-overlooked servants who worked for the Bloomsbury intellectuals.  

The result is twofold. For one, Light adds revealing nuances to our picture of Virginia Woolf, both as a woman and as writer. She also captures a fascinating period of British history, primarily between the wars, when modern oil stoves were creeping into kitchens to replace coal, and young women were starting to dream of working in hat shops rather than mansions. 

Despite the liberal outlook of the Bloomsbury set, and their conscious efforts to leave their Victorian past behind, their homes were nevertheless divided into the worlds of "us" and "them." Alison Light writes with insight and charm about this fraught side of Bloomsbury, and hers is a refreshingly balanced portrait of Virginia Woolf, flaws and all. 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Virginia Woolf is a feminist icon, and her husband, Leonard, was a committed socialist and supporter of workers' rights. Yet, says Light, in this fresh take on Bloomsbury, the couple perpetuated the class system by paying a pittance to their charwoman. In her attempt to restore the servants to the Bloomsbury story, Light also ruminates about whether the dependence of Woolf and her sister, Vanessa Bell, on their assorted live-in maids and cooks plays havoc with the idealized image of them as bohemian, free women creating a new kind of life. Light also dissects Woolf's fictional servants as a window into contemporary social class prejudices and delves into the personal histories of Woolf's servants in context with their peers. British scholar Light (Forever England), the granddaughter of a live-in domestic, often seems to be pushing a personal agenda, and her insistence that without the hard work of the servants there would have been no Bloomsbury is unconvincing, yet her analyses of both the Bloomsbury notables and the servant class of their time are deft and engrossing. Illus. (Sept.)
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From The New Yorker

This engrossing portrait of Virginia Woolf and the women who looked after her explores how modern ideas of class and gender crucial to Woolf's writing ran up against her lingering ties to a waning Victorian domestic order. Woolf frequently pondered the "servant question," but her concern for those she employed was tinged with distaste. "I am sick of the timid spiteful servant mind," she wrote of Nellie Boxall, her cook for eighteen years. Though Woolf professed a desire for a time when masters and servants might be "fellow beings," and argued in her work for space and autonomy for women, her life was one of dependence; she did not learn to cook until she was forty-seven. Light deftly "restores the servants to the story," arguing that Woolf's relationships with them were "as enduring, intimate and intense as any in her life."
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Press (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596915609
• ISBN-13: 978-1596915602
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #863,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Researched, but also Interesting, September 24, 2008

By 

Lindsey R. Nichols (Forest, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury (Hardcover)

Alison Light clearly does her homework. "Mrs. Woolf and the Servants" is absolutely loaded with the products of her very thorough research. Not only does she tell us as much as humanly possible about the various servants who worked for Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, and others of the Bloomsbury set, but she tells us about the lives of their parents, as well. Light strives to create a clear picture of these servants, including where they came from, how they lived, and how their lives drew to a close. In addition, she pays a good deal of attention to the conditions of life and stratification along class structure in England during the early 1900's. Initially, I was worried that the book would prove to be too dry, as some books which prove to be information dumps can be. Thankfully, Light paints vivid portraits of these famous (and not so famous) figures, bringing them to life while keeping the reader's interest.

My main criticism of the book consists of there being occasionally too much information. We don't necessarily need to know the smallest details of the lives of these servants' parents. In addition, Light does stray away from the main topic of domestic servants and simply focus on Virginia Woolf for a good portion. Since my main attraction to this book was my thirst for all things Virginia Woolf, I appreciated that. However, those looking simply for a critical analysis of domestic service might not be as pleased. Light certainly goes above and beyond in her approach to discovering exactly what Woolf's view of domestic service was. Not only does she turn to diaries, correspondence, and interviews for her information, but she goes so far as to do her own interpretation of servants in Woolf's literary work in a manner that is well thought out and truly revealing of the famous writer.

Whether you're interested in England's history of household servants or solely here for the Virginia Woolf insight, I definitely recommend this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mrs. Woolf, September 19, 2009

By 

Janice Ruth Smith (Columbia Heights, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury (Hardcover)

For compulsive readers of Virginia Woolf. If you have been intrigued for years over the many references to Virginia`s "servant problem" in her diaries and letters, this is the book to read.

It throws new light on middle-class families in Victorian times, and right through WWI. Questions are answered, secrets are revealed, and there is a surprise at the end.

I liked it very much.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting perspective, materials poorly integrated, December 5, 2009

By 

Leslie Cheng (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury (Hardcover)

Interesting perspective, but the materials tend to be repetitive and have a "patched-together" feel. The scarcity of records on these servants may be the cause of it, the effect, though, is an ironic one. The "thinly" portrayed lives of the servants almost reinforce the snobbish views of their masters, Virginia Woolf in particular, that their lives are insignificant.
Several "slips" also demonstrate how the materials taken from various sources are not well integrated. For example, on p. 270, the author mentions a friend "Morgan Forster". This "Morgan Forster" is no other than E.M. Forster. The passage must be directly taken from Woolf's diary or letters. Morgan is always the way she addresses him but "Morgan Forster" would not mean anything to most readers. Same thing happens on p. 287, the "Tom Eliot" who goes to church is actually T.S. Eliot! It is inexcusable that the editors did not catch these.