Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook68 pages56 minutes
The London Scene: Six Essays on London Life
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Take a stroll through London with Virginia Woolf as your guide in this beautifully illustrated book.
Virginia Woolf relished any opportunity for a stroll around London. She found great pleasure in observing the city and its people - noticing the subtle details that others often miss. In this collection of stunning essays, Woolf gives us an intimate tour of her beloved hometown. We venture through unfamiliar pockets of London and revisit its most famous landmarks; we smell the salty air of the East End docks and hear the echoing sounds inside the Houses of Parliament; Woolf transports us to the bustle of Oxford Street and the more peaceful moments on Hampstead Heath.
Originally published bi-monthly in 1931 by Good Housekeeping, the essays in The London Scene exhibit Virginia Woolf at the height of her literary powers and present an unparalleled and meditative portrait of an extraordinary metropolis - capturing the London of the 1930s and also the eternal city we recognise today.
‘While it might not list the hottest restaurants and the newest boutique hotels, The London Scene gives us an amalgam of intelligence and beauty that few, if any, guidebooks provide.’ - Francine Prose
‘1930s London comes alive in these six evocative essays . . . a discerning, affectionate tour of her beloved city.’ - Washington Post
Virginia Woolf relished any opportunity for a stroll around London. She found great pleasure in observing the city and its people - noticing the subtle details that others often miss. In this collection of stunning essays, Woolf gives us an intimate tour of her beloved hometown. We venture through unfamiliar pockets of London and revisit its most famous landmarks; we smell the salty air of the East End docks and hear the echoing sounds inside the Houses of Parliament; Woolf transports us to the bustle of Oxford Street and the more peaceful moments on Hampstead Heath.
Originally published bi-monthly in 1931 by Good Housekeeping, the essays in The London Scene exhibit Virginia Woolf at the height of her literary powers and present an unparalleled and meditative portrait of an extraordinary metropolis - capturing the London of the 1930s and also the eternal city we recognise today.
‘While it might not list the hottest restaurants and the newest boutique hotels, The London Scene gives us an amalgam of intelligence and beauty that few, if any, guidebooks provide.’ - Francine Prose
‘1930s London comes alive in these six evocative essays . . . a discerning, affectionate tour of her beloved city.’ - Washington Post
Unavailable
Author
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf was an English novelist, essayist, short story writer, publisher, critic and member of the Bloomsbury group, as well as being regarded as both a hugely significant modernist and feminist figure. Her most famous works include Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and A Room of One’s Own.
Read more from Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Room Of One's Own: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOrlando: A Biography Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Orlando, A Biography: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Room Of One's Own (annotated): The Virginia Woolf Library Annotated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Dalloway: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Writer's Diary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To The Lighthouse: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Dalloway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flush Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night and Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To the Lighthouse Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Waves: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To The Lighthouse (annotated): The Virginia Woolf Library Annotated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Dalloway (annotated): The Virginia Woolf Library Annotated Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetween the Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJacob's Room Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Between The Acts: The Virginia Woolf Library Authorized Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Voyage Out Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Short Stories of Virginia Woolf Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The London Scene
Related ebooks
Literary London Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night Walks: And Other Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGenius and Ink: Virginia Woolf on How to Read Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Essays of Virginia Woolf Vol I: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poet and His Book: The Collected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Unwritten Novel: With the Essay 'How Should One Read a Book?' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeaves Of Grass Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Voyage Out Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Save Me The Waltz Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Very Italian Christmas: The Greatest Italian Holiday Stories of All Time Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tender Buttons: Objects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kew Gardens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monday or Tuesday: Eight Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Writings from The New Yorker 1927-1976 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Three Guineas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Stories Of Virginia Woolf: "The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages." Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Essays and Lectures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Waves Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Essays of Virginia Woolf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Common Reader - Second Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918–1923 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Kin to Sorrow - The Self Reflections of Edna St. Vincent Millay Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Short Stories of Virginia Woolf Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mrs. Dalloway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Writings of Zelda Fitzgerald Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monday or Tuesday & Other Stories: The Original Unabridged 1921 Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Travel For You
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spotting Danger Before It Spots You: Build Situational Awareness To Stay Safe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5RV Hacks: 400+ Ways to Make Life on the Road Easier, Safer, and More Fun! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes from a Small Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's Best Road Trips in the USA: 50 Epic Trips Across All 50 States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/550 Great American Places: Essential Historic Sites Across the U.S. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kon-Tiki Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's Bucket List USA: From the Epic to the Eccentric, 500+ Ultimate Experiences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everything Travel Guide to Ireland: From Dublin to Galway and Cork to Donegal - a complete guide to the Emerald Isle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpanish Verbs - Conjugations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFodor's The Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West: with the Best Scenic Road Trips Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's Bucket List Europe: From the Epic to the Eccentric, 500+ Ultimate Experiences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStar Wars: Galaxy's Edge: Traveler's Guide to Batuu Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disney Declassified Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's New Orleans Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Living the RV Life: Your Ultimate Guide to Life on the Road Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLonely Planet Mexico Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lonely Planet The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fodor's Essential Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDrives of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Spectacular Trips Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cool Japan Guide: Fun in the Land of Manga, Lucky Cats and Ramen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let's Build A Camper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The London Scene
Rating: 4.216980990566038 out of 5 stars
4/5
53 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A delightful, slim compilation of Virginia Woolf's short essays about London and London life, originally published in Good Housekeeping magazine 1931-1932. A joy to read as her writing on London is so evocative.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5'I love walking in London,' said Mrs Dalloway.'Really, it's better than walking in the country.'Mrs Dalloway by Virginia WoolfGiven the status of Virginia Woolf as an author in English literature, The London scene. Six essays on London life has received very little attention. This is all the more startling, as this small book provides a most lyrical and enticing description of the city of London, a city loved by the British and travellers alike. Moreover, London, as the capital of Great Britain, and, at that time, the empire at large, has always been a city filled to the brim with culture and literature, a well Woolf thankfully dips into.The London scene. Six essays on London life was published in the same year as her novel, The Waves, a mature work by an author known for her lyrical prose style. She had already published six novels, and her work was increasingly moving in the direction of essays and non-fiction. The writing of the six essays or articles about London was commissioned by Good Housekeeping, a women's magazine, which had launched its British edition in 1922. The essays were published in bi-monthly instalments, between December 1931 and November 1932. The first five essays were published in book form in 1981, but by that time the sixth essay was lost, until it was rediscovered at the University of Sussex in 2004. This prompted the Ecco Press to collect all six essays, and publish them for the first time in the United States in a small volume of just under 100 pages, with a gorgeous cover.The six essays are written as walks in London. As historical London has changed but little, is should be possible, almost, to retrace her steps and gaze up at towers, cathedrals and facades with one's own eyes. Then again, Virginia Wollf walking around London and describing the city provided an impressionistic image of Bloomsbury London. Besides the beautiful images she captured and framed with her mind, the essays provide a kaleidoscopic display of illusions and allusions of London and London's history or the Nineteenth and early Twentieth century.The first essay, "The docks of London" is perhaps not the most enticing, as even in Woolf's day the Thames estuary and the docks were becoming a derelict area, a messy fringe to the city, a wasteland too, of the literary imagination. However, the following essays bring the allure of London to full bloom. This contrast between the crudity of the docklands and the refinement of the City is intentional, as if the reader makes a transition from the leaden grey into the dazzling gold. In Virginia Woolf's prose, London is a warm place, a cosiness emphasized as she takes the reader into the homes of London's great writers, such as Dicken's house, Keats' house and Carlyle's house. However, Woolf's inimical style shines through in the haunting descriptions of statesmen's sculptures "gazing from white eyes". Haunting are also descriptions from Westminster Abbey, where "(f)rom every corner, from every wall, somebody leans or listens or bends forward as if about to speak."The London scene. Six essays on London life is not merely a book about London. We see London through Woolf's eyes, and through her eyes, we see Virginia Woolf.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is a short collection of five essays about London: The Docks of London, Oxford Street Tide, Great Men's Houses, Abbeys and Cathedrals, and This is the House of Commons.These diverse stories give us an idea of how much time has passed since they were written, how much has changed, how much remains unchanged. Through Woolf's eyes, I can share her view of London, together with a mental image of the metamorphosis to the modern city.Woolf's lyrical prose is so enticing that the reader is happy to read the same page over and over before reluctantly moving on. About Westminster Abbey she writes "The company seems to be in full conclave. Gladstone starts forward and then Disraeli. From every corner, from every wall, somebody leans or listens or bends forward as if about to speak. The recumbent even seem to lie attentive, as if to rise next minute. Their hands nervously grasp their sceptres, their lips are compressed for a fleeting silence, their eyes lightly closed as if for a moment's thought." "Voice and organ vibrate wirily among the chasings and intricacies of the roof. The fine fans of stone that spread themselves to make a ceiling seem like bare boughs withered of all their leaves and about to toss in the wintry gale. But their austerity is beautifully softened. Lights and shadows are changing and conflicting every moment. Blue, gold and violet pass, dappling, quickening, fading. The grey stone, ancient as it is, changes like a live thing under the incessant ripple of changing light"
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5These six essays, written in 1931, were first published in Good Housekeeping in 1931-1932. The essays were inspired by Woolfs favorite walks in London. Her love of London is evident in all the essays. I found these essays more accessible than any of her novels that I've attempted. (I've started three, never getting very far before giving up).
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An intimate look at London and Londoners from a writer who left us much, much too soon.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you enjoyed Orlando you should enjoy this as well. Both are about Englishness and both, to a certain extent, literature.