Charleston

If you read my last post, you'd know I'm a fan of Virginia Woolf. Coincidentally she spent much of her time in Sussex, not far from where I live, both at her house in Lewes and Charleston, the house of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant which became a popular meeting point for The Bloomsbury Group for much of the 20th Century. I've visited once before, but having learnt a little more since then, I was eager to go back and look around again.

The location is perfect, and began as a working farm - Grant was a conscientious objector of World War II and so had to farm instead of fight in the war - sounds good to me! The gardens are beautiful, incredibly colourful and romantic as they are adorned with sculptures. You can see why this was a perfect location for the Bloomsbury group to spend time thinking, creating and writing.

 Unfortunately you can't take photos inside but I got a bit snap happy in the garden!!

As you step inside the house you are greeted with a story of tangled relationships and friendships, and this is certainly reflected in the decor! Grant and Bell decorated Charleston themselves, painting, sculpting, and pioneering a new way for art and life as they went, shunning old conservative traditions with colour, circles and expression. Everywhere you can possibly imagine is painted, from the doors to the tables and along with the hundreds of paintings, it creates a really unique atmosphere.

Regular visitors to the house included Roger Fry the artist and critic, Vanessa's sister Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey and E.M Forster the novelist. As you go round the house a tour guide explains the story of Charleston and it's inhabitants which really aids the visit as I think a lot of details in the house would be left unexplained. My favourite room is the studio, as it acts as a culmination of the whole house and is left in a sort of working order with paints and easels left  out, and I love all the photos and drawings on the fireplace!!

If you like art/houses/interiors/want a good day out I'd definitely recommend a visit! Especially on a sunny day :)

First Year Round Up #1

Having just about pulled myself out of the usual 'post university laziness' (eating/sleeping/watching as much crap tv as I can handle), I'm already missing academic life and found myself getting way too excited over a reading list compiled mainly of middle english poetry. Consequently, I have decided to amuse myself by a review of what I've studied this year and compile a roundup of a few of my favourite literary discoveries! 

There certainly hasn't been a lack of reading material, I think I counted 31 texts read back to back (!) Not all of it has been entirely pleasant (sorry Malory) but my eyes have definitely been opened to some great writers and reminded me why I love Literature so much...

Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway

Quite a daunting and challenging read, however is totally worth it. Woolf's 'stream of consciousness' style is intoxicating and intellectually stimulating and enabled me to get one step closer to understanding what modernism is all about... While we only get a single day, Woolf draws individual lives and memories together with the portrayal of a whole city and is definitely worth a read.

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

Perhaps it's easy to fall under the impression that all literature is English with a capital E, however Achebe's story of a Nigerian tribe under the pressure of colonial power swiftly became one of my favourite reads ever as it is refreshingly different without being inaccessible.

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and J.M Coetzee's Foe

I group these together as the latter is a rewriting of the former. If you can get through Robinson Crusoe I salute you (whatever happened to chapters eh?) But having read Defoe's classic in conjunction with Coetzee's rework was a really good way of unpicking the classical themes we might overlook in Crusoe. 

Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own

One of the few things I enjoyably read as part of my revision of feminist theory. Enough said.

Indra Sinha's Animal's People

Based on the Bhopal Disaster of 1984, this novel is not only a great read, it also does the important job of informing people of the absolute atrocity that occurred in Bhopal and still haunts many victims today. It is funny and very human; Sinha does not hold back in terms of language!

Now it's time to start the reading for next year, hello Chaucer :(

Alice in Wonderland: A New Perspective

“I can't explain myself, I’m afraid, sir,” said Alice, “because I’m not myself, you see.”

Alice in Wonderland has always been a source of fascination and wonder to me. While as a child I adored the magical storylines and the memorable characters, I recently studied it at university as part of my Victorian  module, introducing me to a whole new way of seeing the beloved 'Alice' books.

Having to re read the entire novel was something I'm so glad I had to do, I admit that I had fallen victim to the simplicity of the storyline and characters that is sometimes the result of such a well known phenomena. Not having seen the recent films entirely I clutched onto my childhood interpretations of Carroll's much celebrated stories and retained an all too simplistic reading of what I now feel is an incredibly rich and rewarding reading experience for both adults and children.

I read both the 'Alice' stories in just over one evening, Alice in Wonderland tells the story of an inquisitive and confident young girl and her adventures literally in a land of wonder. As she experiences a plethora of nonsensical and slightly disturbing adventures (I never realised how almost scary the concept of being faced with a lifesize Dodo was...) the reader is truly rewarded with a myriad of memorable characters; I'm sure we've all heard of the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts. 'Off with their heads!' The sequel to Wonderland: Through the Looking Class is equally as enjoyable - tracking Alice's progress through a metaphorical chess game as she tries to reach the end and become a queen herself.

What struck me as I read the stories as an ever analyzing literature student was the way in which Carroll cleverly weaves and intertwines philosophical musings and universal feelings. While one may see Alice's frustrating conversation with the Duchess mere silliness: 'flamingoes and mustard both bite. And the moral of that is - Birds of a feather flock together' we could see this as a deep exploration of the position of morals and their weight in a modern society. Should we take things for concrete evidence just because they are steeped in rhetoric and value, taking them literally when really they are nonsense? The courtroom scene while is a humorous portrayal of the King and Queen of Hearts, leads the reader into considering the role and use of the justice system - should someone be punished for something they haven't done? Obviously not, but Alice makes us question the leadership and authority of people in power - even a child would recognize the tyrannical qualities of the Queen!

For me, I see the 'Alice' stories as a musing on growing up - Alice is stuck between a limbo of being too big and too small, I see her in a constant state of flux and unease at the changing state of her body and mind. She is getting to the stage where she is stuck between childhood and young adulthood, something that is often overlooked. Perhaps I'm being a bit too metaphorical when I see the chessboard as her movement through growing up? Maybe, but I think this is the lovely quality of Alice as Carroll creates a wonderland not just for Alice, but so too for the readers. We can interpret Alice just about any way we like, and constantly read it in a different light.

Have you read Alice? What are your thoughts?

Rose x