Bloomsbury and France: Art and Friends (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Sarah Bird Wright (Author)
Key Phrases: Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This richly illustrated volume documents the influence of all things French on the lives and work of some of the major figures in the Bloomsbury group, including Roger Fry, Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Virginia Woolf. Relying heavily on memoirs, diaries, and lettersAsome of which remain unpublishedACaws (comparative literature, CUNY) and Wright (Edith Wharton A to Z) provide a detailed account of the group's activities on the other side of the channel: the foods they ate, the wines they drank, the plays they attended, and the people they befriended. They argue that, despite differences in language and cultural heritage, Bloomsbury's encounter with French artists and intellectuals, from Andr? Gide to Charles Mauron, "resulted in a remarkable reshaping of their aesthetic and literary ideals." A solid piece of scholarship, this thorough study is best suited for graduate students and scholars, particularly those interested in a comparative approach.AWilliam Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A collective biography of painters, art critics, and writers who evolved from a tight-knit company of Cambridge friends to form the Bloomsbury groupwith a particular, generally pedestrian, focus on their visits to France between 1910 and 1940. France suffused the Bloomsbury group in several ways: through the assimilation of French artistic trends in Bloomsbury art, through the more forthright promotion of French culture in England by Bloomsbury figures, through the group's literary translations. Lured by the warmth and bright colors of Provence, Bloomsbury artists created numerous studies of beaches, bathers, landscapes, and harbor scenes. Vanessa Bell's and Duncan Grant's paintings clearly parallel the art of such French masters as Czanne and Derain. The Parisian scene offered the group a chance to mingle with the European cultural elite, including Gide, Picasso, Matisse, Russian artists Larionov and Goncharova, and Ballet Russe founder Diaghilev. Among the Bloomsbury contributions to the advancement of French culture: Duncan Grant was invited by Jacques Copeau to design costumes for his theatrical productions; Roger Fry organized post-impressionist exhibitions in London and lectured on Czanne; Clive Bell was made Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur for his efforts on behalf of French art abroad. In addition, Fry became the first English translator of Mallarm, whose work was crucial to the appreciation of symbolist poetry in England. Conversely, Charles Mauron's translations of the most eminent Bloomsbury writers, Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster, introduced English literature to the French reading public. Though Anglo-French cultural relations are aptly rendered in the chapters on literary translations and creative interchange between French and English painters, insignificant issues predominate. Too many dates, places, itineraries, and gastronomical preferences make for a drabness broken only by the odd sexual liaison. (211 halftones, 1 map, 14 color illus.) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; illustrated edition edition (December 2, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195117522
• ISBN-13: 978-0195117523
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #542,520 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's an awesome book!!!, September 28, 2003

By	"newnole2001" (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews

My Aunt wrote this book so you should buy it!!! She's really cool, and her co-author's (Mary Ann Caws) son is the lead singer of Nada Surf, a really cool band. If you buy this book then you're cool, too!!!