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'A beautiful, haunting novel about the love, the rivalry between two gifted sisters, and the real purpose of Art. The achievement here is an uncanny, utterly persuasive empathy for both sisters, and the world and times in which they lived.' John Burnside' Deftly, apparently effortlessly, Susan Sellers's novel of love, art, and sexual jealousy gives us convincing and intimate access to the relationship between two remarkable sisters. At once pellucid and sophisticated, Vanessa and Virginia is quite simply a pleasure to read.' Robert Crawford "In short, disconnected scenes of exquisite description and nuanced emotion, Susan Sellers invites us to assemble the pieces into a picture not only of the Bloomsbury circle, but of the exigencies of creative work as outlet, devotion, and anchor. A fascinating, compelling novel written with authority and tenderness." Susan Vreeland 'Reading Vanessa and Virginia is like swimming across the seabed of the minds of sisters Woolf and Bell - everywhere there are fragments of paintings and scenes from novels and lyrical phrases scattered like sunken treasure. It is a novel both exquisite and haunting. A triumph of the imagination.' Rebecca Stott, author of Ghostwalk
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In a gloomy house in Hyde Park Gate, two young girls are raised to be perfect ladies. But from the beginning Vanessa Bell and her sister Virginia Woolf pursue different dreams, and in their Bloomsbury household they create a ferment of free thinking and even freer living. Devoted to each other, yet fiercely competitive, both sisters fight to realise their artistic vision amidst a chaos of desire, scandal, illness and war. Traced with lyrical intensity, their intertwined lives gradually reveal an underlying pattern. Only at the end of this fascinating work does the real nature of the relationship between Virginia and Vanessa become clear.Susan Sellers' novel reveals a dramatic new interpretation of one of the most famous and iconic events in twentieth-century literature - Woolf's suicide by drowning - as the two sisters' life-long rivalry reaches its final crisis. An expert on Woolf's life and work, Susan Sellers is inspired by Woolf's own brilliant narrative technique - a sensuous, impressionistic, interior voice - to inhabit the mind of an artist at work, and recreate the tale of the two sisters as Vanessa might have told it. "Vanessa and Virginia" is a chronicle of love and revenge, madness, genius, and the compulsion to create beauty in the face of relentless difficulty and deep grief.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Entrancing and Cathartic Read,
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This review is from: Vanessa and Virginia (Paperback)
In her first novel, Vanessa and Virginia, Susan Sellers explores not only the events that marked the lives of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, but the mindset and emotions of the movement that shaped their art.
With distinctive sensuality, Sellers evokes a unique perspective on the genius of the famous Woolf, its effect on those around her, and the multi-faceted desires and divisions that ran through the controversial Bloomsbury Group. Her captivating take on the story is placed in a narrative that arouses clear and piercing images without compromising a lovely rhythmic style. Vanessa and Virginia certainly deserves a place on anyone's reading list, even - and perhaps especially - those who are not familiar with either Virginia Woolf or Vanessa Bell.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a beautiful, haunting novel,
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This review is from: Vanessa and Virginia (Paperback)
Vanessa and Virginia is a beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyable novel. Sellers's rich imagery is brilliantly evocative of setting and emotion and brings the bloomsbury group back to life, her writing is remininiscent of Woolf's while also full of innovative personal touches. I particularly enjoyed the illuminating new perspective Sellers offers on the lives of her characters, reading from Vanessa's point of view, and the intimacy created by Sellers's use of the second person. I found this a moving and memorable book, fascinating for Woolf fans and the perfect introduction for those new to her.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent first novel!,
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This review is from: Vanessa and Virginia (Paperback)
At once highly knowledgeable and superbly imaginative, Sellers presents us with an album of narrative snapshots, capturing the colourful cast of characters that inhabited the lives of the two artist-sisters while speaking to the highly visual nature of Vanessa Bell, a painter. In giving voice to Bell, one of the most influential figures in Virginia Woolf's life, the novel illuminates an often-overshadowed perspective. Simultaneously, the oblique portrait of Woolf affords an original and unusual glimpse at the famed author. Sellers' expert, lovingly-crafted prose cuts to the heart of the relationship between the two extraordinary sisters, quite probably each woman's most powerful and significant love affair. A must-read for anyone interested in the nature of love, family, creativity or the lives of artists.
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