Gwen Raverat: Friends, Family and Affections
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Book Description
A fascinating portrait of Darwin's granddaughter, a key figure in the artistic and intellectual worlds of Cambridge and Bloomsbury.
Product Description
'The best of these Darwins is that they are cut out of rock - three taps is enough to convince one how immense is their solidarity.' So wrote Virginia Woolf affectionately of Gwen Raverat, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin. In this first full biography, Frances Spalding creates a fascinating, moving portrait of Gwen's character, her life and her art. It begins in late-Victorian Cambridge, which Gwen herself amusingly described in her childhood memoir Period Piece. But Frances Spalding looks behind and beyond the pages of this much-loved book. She explores Gwen's Darwin inheritance, her conflicts when she moves beyond her home environment to enter the Slade School of Art, her encounter with post-Impressionism, and her friendships with Stanley Spencer, Rupert Brooke, and members of the Bloomsbury set. At each stage, Gwen's artistic creativity is interwoven with her relationships and circumstances. She helps revive the medium of wood-engraving and with her husband, Jacques Raverat, celebrates the South of France in the art they produce while living in Venice. In the late 1920s her abiding love of Cambridge draws her back to a corner of England with which she is inextricably associated. Finally, her life comes full circle in old age when she moves into The Old Granary that once formed part of her childhood home. In this authorised biography, Frances Spalding draws on a huge cache of unpublished papers to bring us a life lived with bravery, humour, realism and integrity, surrounded by a remarkable cast of relatives, friends and associates. (20030513)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This fascinating portrait of Gwen Raverat, grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, is decorated with exquisite wood engravings. The book is beautifully produced - a joy to look at and to touch as well as to read - and Frances Spalding's sympathetic treatment of her subject conjures a rapidly changing world of women's emancipation and massive changes in the arts. I am now re-reading Raverat's Period Piece for the umpteenth time. Highly recommended.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This biography started off very promisingly, and indeed was a fascinating account of Gwen Raverat's life. Unfortunately it seemed to run out of steam somewhat in the last few chapters, rushing through the second half of her life. It also suffers from the fact that most of the illustrations are not captioned, and not always explained in the adjacent text, leaving the reader wondering about their original context. There are also many typos. Nonetheless, I shall now seek out a copy of Period Piece, which I have not read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I thoroughly enjoyed Frances Spalding's biography, she conveys the life of Gwen Raverat so interestingly - the places, the people and the attitudes towards the work she did, was captivating!
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