Green VMCs and their Cover Art

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Green VMCs and their Cover Art

1BeyondEdenRock
Nov 2, 2021, 12:43 pm

Some time ago a painting caught my eye, and I realised that I recognised it because it was on the cover of one of my collection of green Virago Modern Classics. I picked up my book to find out the name of the artist and the artwork, and that sparked an idea.

The book covers are lovely, but the paintings really come alive when they are released from their green frames. Sometimes just a detail has been chosen, or the painting has been cropped because it wasn’t book-shaped. That may be the best way to make a good cover for a book, but it shouldn’t be the only way we see the art-work.

And so this is a thread to celebrate the books and the art that was carefully chosen to adorn them.

2BeyondEdenRock
Nov 2, 2021, 12:45 pm

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.



'Madchen Mit Schurze' by Adolph Dietrich

&

'Frost in May' by Antonia White (#1)

"Nanda Gray, the daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when, in 1908, she goes to the Convent of the Five Wounds. Quick-witted, resilient and enthusiastic, she eagerly adapts to this closed world, learning rigid conformity and subjection to authority. Passionate friendships are the only deviation from her total obedience. Convent life - the smell of beeswax and incense; the petty cruelty of the nuns; the glamour and eccentricity of Nanda's friends - is perfectly captured. But this is much more than a school story; it is a lyrical account of the death of a soul."

3BeyondEdenRock
Nov 2, 2021, 1:04 pm

This is the painting that I remember seeing and not knowing why it was so familiar.



Springtime in Eskdale by James McIntosh Patrick

&

Anderby Wold by Winifred Holtby (#65)

"Mary Robson is a young Yorkshire woman, married to her solid unromantic cousin, John. Together they battle to preserve Mary's neglected heritage, her beloved farm, Anderby Wold. This labour of love - and the benevolent tyranny of traditional Yorkshire ways - have made Mary old before her time. Then, into her purposeful life erupts David Rossitur, red-haired, charming, eloquent: how can she help but love him? But David is a young man from a different England, radical, committed to social change. As their confrontation and its consequences inevitably unfold, Mary's life and that of the calm village of Anderby are changed forever. "

4kaggsy
Nov 2, 2021, 2:36 pm

This is a lovely idea for a thread, and thank you so much for starting it! Will look forward to future posts! 😊😊

5bleuroses
Nov 2, 2021, 3:02 pm

Always my favorite posts of yours, Jane! 💚

6kayclifton
Nov 2, 2021, 4:31 pm

Most of the Virago books that I have read are from other publishers with no images on the cover so this is a real treat. The image of Nanda from Frost in May reminds me of the innocence and vulnerability of the character that I experienced while reading the book.

7LyzzyBee
Nov 3, 2021, 5:16 am

Thank you for these, Jane, lovely! I love when you get that spark of recognition, although sometimes the covers are only a fragment of the whole piece.

8Sakerfalcon
Nov 3, 2021, 6:34 am

What a lovely thread! I miss the classic green Viragoes now that so many are out of print and the new editions have changed design. The original green was a great example of branding done right, and the cover art was always so well chosen.

9BeyondEdenRock
Nov 3, 2021, 7:31 am

>4 kaggsy: Thank you!

>5 bleuroses: Some of the images will be familiar from those posts but I have many others that were in my waiting list

>6 kayclifton: I'm rereading 'Frost in May' at the moment and I completely agree with you.

>7 LyzzyBee: Yes. Most of the covers are cropped just a little but some of them are only a detail or a part of the whole, and the whole image can tell a very different story.

>8 Sakerfalcon: It was definitely branding done right, and I wouldn't have found my way from author to author without it. Most of the matches are good but there are a few that make me think that whoever did the choosing hadn't read the book.

10BeyondEdenRock
Nov 3, 2021, 7:47 am

A rare instance of writer and artist being one and the same.



'And Then We Saw the Daughter of the Minotaur' by Leonora Carrington

&

'The Seventh Horse & Other Tales' by Leonora Carrington (#326)

'From the land of Grimm, Lewis Carroll and Lear, from a place of shadows and glistening jewels come these tales: hallucinatory, hilarious, peopled with wolves, hyenas and giant white poodles. Since the first appearance of Leonora Carrington's stories in the late 1930s, a group of admirers has been tracking down the work which she herself, travelling continents and writing in three different languages, slougheed off like the skin of a snake. At last, her uncollected short fiction is bought together for the first time. Including such classics as "White Rabbits", "The Neutral Man", a story version of "The Stone Door", tales published in Mexican literary magazines, or previously unpublished, and many early French stories discovered amongst the papers of Max Ernst after his death, this spellbinding collection is for the surreal corners of everyone's heart.'

11BeyondEdenRock
Nov 3, 2021, 8:30 am

The first book I read by an author who is now a particular favourite.



A Peasant Girl by Martin Archer Shee

&

'Without My Cloak' by Kate O'Brien (#233)

'When Anthony Considine creeps into Mellick town with a stolen horse in 1789, it sets the destiny of his family for decades to come. By the 1850s, through thrift and hard work, his son Honest John has made the Considines a leading Mellick family. In turn, his son Anthony builds a fine house in the country for his wife and children—most especially for his adored son Dennis. Little does he know that when Dennis grows up he will threaten the toil of generations with his love for a peasant girl. A stirring family saga of divided loyalties and individual freedom; of matches made and lost; and of the constraints of religion and family pride.'

12lippincote
Editado: Nov 3, 2021, 9:18 am

The Anderby Wold one is lovely! I was first attracted to VMCs by the cover of At Mrs. Lippincote's. I also like the cover on The Loved and the Envied by Enid Bagnold and the 60s Dolly Bird cover of Up the Junction. To each his own of course, but I do like British scenery and street scenes. Edited to add - the covers I have in my bookcase which are all from the original VMCs I think.

13kaggsy
Nov 3, 2021, 10:39 am

>10 BeyondEdenRock: That's a stunning one, Jane - I love Leonora Carrington and it's wonderful they used one of her artworks to illustrate the cover of her book!

14LyzzyBee
Nov 3, 2021, 1:55 pm

>10 BeyondEdenRock: This is brilliant - I wonder how many could use the writer's art for their cover!

15bleuroses
Nov 3, 2021, 2:50 pm

>10 BeyondEdenRock: - This was the perfect pairing of cover art and book! Leonora Carrington at her most surreal!

>11 BeyondEdenRock: Mary Lavelle was my first O'Brien and I've loved her ever since.

16kayclifton
Nov 3, 2021, 4:42 pm

I have just searched the catalogue of the library system that I patronize and found this book published in 2019 and it's in many of the branches.

Out of this world: the surreal art of Leonora Carrington / written by Michelle Markel ; illustrated by Amanda Hall
Markel, Michelle

17BeyondEdenRock
Nov 4, 2021, 7:39 am

>12 lippincote: I agree. The earliest Virago covers for Elizabeth Taylor are better than the later ones, and I have tracked down nearly all of them.

>13 kaggsy: I thought you would like that one.

>14 LyzzyBee: I think Leonora Carrington is the only one but I am not 100% certain.

>15 bleuroses: I still remember my first visit to a new library, years ago now, finding a little line of green Viragos all by Kate O'Brien. I read them all and then started looking for copies to keep.

>16 kayclifton: A great find!

18BeyondEdenRock
Editado: Nov 4, 2021, 11:57 am

The collection of short stories shares a cover artist with the long series of novels that a group of us read together a few years ago.



A Corner Of The Artist's Room In Paris by Gwen John

&

'Journey to Paradise' by Dorothy Richardson (#321)

'Published together for the first time are Dorothy Richardson's short stories: delicate and slippery tales which range from the vast gardens of childhood and the anticipation of seaside holidays, to the shifts in perception as youth stutters towards maturity and on to the levelling experiences of old ages and death. Accompanying the range of fictional voices are her autobiographical sketches, offering insight into Dorothy Richardson's life and the development of her creative talent.'

19BeyondEdenRock
Nov 4, 2021, 11:56 am

The second green Virago I read, and a still a particular favourite.



'Self-Portrait' by Louise Jopling

&

'A Pin to See the Peepshow' by F Tennyson Jesse (#11)

"Julia Almond, born into drab suburban poverty in Edwardian London, longs for a better life, the fairy-tale world of romance she glimpsed in the toy peepshow of her childhood. She believes she is somebody special, always seeking - through her work, her conventional marriage and finally a young lover - the magic which will make her dreams come true. But these are peepshow fantasies. For Julia lives at a social level where convention and respectability - particularly for women - exert their most tyrannical hold. Julia cannot escape and in attempting to do so, she brings tragedy to herself and those who love her. "

20BeyondEdenRock
Nov 5, 2021, 11:27 am

Virago also used this image on a later edition of another book by the same author



'Lady in the Yellow Hat' by Norman Lewis

&

'The Living is Easy' by Dorothy West (#241)


'Cleo's marriage to Bart Judson is her ticket to higher things. Not for her the lifetime of hard work and poverty that her mother had known, or the invisibility which white society usually hands out to Black people. With Bart's money and her pale skin, Cleo intends to make use of the gifts in her favour - her "charming insincerity" and his generosity will see to that. Carefully manipulating the power which, since childhood, she has enjoyed in the face of others' weakness, she will stop at nothing to win a place for herself, her daughter and her sisters' children in Boston's Black society....'

21BeyondEdenRock
Nov 5, 2021, 11:28 am

A very interesting woman in translation



'The Belvedere' by John William Godward

&

Cassandra by Christa Wolf (#315)

'Cassandra, daughter of the King of Troy, is endowed with the gift of prophecy but fated never to be believed. Troy has fallen, her father has been killed, and Cassandra is being taken back to Greece as booty by Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. There she knows that death awaits, and in a stream of memories, associations, reflections, Cassandra confronts her own history and comes to an understanding of her life in the patriarchal world and a recognition that in war there is no real difference between the conqueror and the conquered.'

22kaggsy
Nov 5, 2021, 5:48 pm

>18 BeyondEdenRock: beautiful- a huge favourite of mine as I love Gwen John’s interiors! 😊😊

23kaggsy
Nov 5, 2021, 5:49 pm

>19 BeyondEdenRock: the perfect choice of image for the book, isn’t it? One of my all time favourite Viragos too.

24bleuroses
Nov 5, 2021, 8:11 pm

>18 BeyondEdenRock: A fan of Gwen John too - I recently acquired Susan Chitty's bio of her. And I love that her paintings are used on the covers of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage series!

>23 kaggsy: I agree! Her gaze is so perfectly direct yet so seemingly innocent.

25LizzieD
Nov 7, 2021, 12:42 am

What a great idea for a thread, Jane! I don't have time right now to research my favorites, but I'll surely come back for those of my Virago sisters. Thank you!

26BeyondEdenRock
Nov 8, 2021, 7:08 am

>22 kaggsy: >24 bleuroses: There is definitely something about Gwen John's art - I have the Susan Chitty book and really must read it soon.

>23 kaggsy: >24 bleuroses: Agreed!

>25 LizzieD: It is lovely to see you here, Peggy. I have a good number of paintings lined up, so please sit back and enjoy them.

27BeyondEdenRock
Nov 8, 2021, 7:16 am

My first favourite match of artist and writer



'Marriage at Cana, Bride and Bridegroom' by Stanley Spencer

&

'Our Spoons Came From Woolworths' by Barbara Comyns (#109)

"Sophia is twenty-one years old, she carries a newt around in her pocket and marries - in haste - a young artist called Charles. Swept into bohemian London of the thirties, Sophia is ill-equipped to cope: poverty, babies (however much loved) - and her husband - conspire to torment her. Hoping to add some spice to her life, Sophie takes up with the dismal, aging art critic, Peregrine and learns to repent her marriage - and affair - at leisure. Repentance brings an abrupt end to a life of unpaid bills, unsold pictures and unwashed crockery, plus the hope of joys in store."


28BeyondEdenRock
Nov 8, 2021, 7:19 am

The painting that drew me towards a lesser known writer



'Young Girl with Flowers' by Henri Lebasque

&

'Saraband' by Eliot Bliss (#223)

"Louie, intense and solitary, lives in a dreamland of her own until the arrival of her gifted cousin Timothy. He brings her companionship, music, and "the long looked-for stimulation of the mind." But Tim and Louie are parted when she is sent to convent school, a closed world of prayer and order, and of lasting, passionate friendships. Then comes the shattering advent of the First World War. On leaving school Louie determines to train for business, to "start life as a stern realist," but finds instead that she will need emotional courage if she is to be the woman her soul demands."


29lippincote
Nov 8, 2021, 8:55 am

Love the Comyns/Spencer match. He died in 1959. I was 8. I used to read my father's Evening News and there was an article about his death and the fact that he had been knighted the year before 'in his pajamas'. Apparently he often dressed over the top of them. I didn't discover his artwork until much later in life but I always remembered that obituary. Almost a perfect match for Comyns' writing style.

30Sakerfalcon
Nov 8, 2021, 11:14 am

>29 lippincote: Me too! Two of my favourites, perfectly matched by their surreal styles.

31LyzzyBee
Nov 8, 2021, 11:18 am

>27 BeyondEdenRock: I love that one and the pairing, too!

32kaggsy
Nov 8, 2021, 2:48 pm

>27 BeyondEdenRock: Spencer and Comyns really *were* the perfect match, weren't they? Thank you - this is wonderful!

33kayclifton
Nov 8, 2021, 3:22 pm

I just visited Spencer's Wikipedia page and looked at his gallery of paintings. Fascinating!

34BeyondEdenRock
Nov 9, 2021, 7:35 am

>29 lippincote: What a lovely memory to hold on to.

>31 LyzzyBee: >32 kaggsy: Yes, but he was paired successfully with two other Virago authors - those paintings are coming very soon.

35BeyondEdenRock
Nov 9, 2021, 7:37 am

Stanley Spencer & Elizabeth Taylor



'Interior at Cookham with Spring Flowers' by Stanley Spencer

&

'Palladian' by Elizabeth Taylor (#184)

"Young Cassandra is alone in the world, her father had just died. When she goes to Cropthorne Manor as a governess, its weary facade and crumbling statues are all that she could hope for. And Marion Vanbrugh is the perfect employer - a widower, austere and distant, with a penchant for Greek. But this is not a ninteenth-century novel and Cassandra's Mr. Rochester isn't the only inhabitant of the Manor. There's Tom, irascible and discontented, Margaret, pregnant and voracious, the ineffectual Tinty and the eccentric, domineering Nanny. Just as Jane Austen wittily contrasted real life with a girl's Gothic fantasies in Northhanger Abbey, so Elizabeth Taylor subtly examines the realities of life for a latter-day Jane Eyre in this sharply observed work, first published in 1946."

36BeyondEdenRock
Nov 9, 2021, 7:40 am

Stanley Spencer & Rose Macaulay



'The Angel, Cookham Churchyard' by Stanley Spencer

&

'The World, My Wilderness' by Rose Macaulay (#104)

"It is 1946, and the people of France and England are facing the aftermath of the Second World War. Barbara Deniston, seventeen, has grown up in the sunshine of Provence with her voluptuous, indolent but intelligent mother, allowed to run wild with the Maquis, experiencing collaboration, betrayal - and death. Banished by her mother to England, Barbara is thrown into the ordered formality of English life with her distinguished father and conventional stepmother. Confused and unhappy, she discovers one day the wrecked and flowering wastes around St. Paul's. Here, in the bombed heart of London, she finds an echo of the wilderness of Provence and is forced to confront the wilderness within herself."

37LyzzyBee
Nov 9, 2021, 9:51 am

Spencer is just the perfect artist for Viragoes!

38kaggsy
Nov 9, 2021, 11:04 am

Those are brilliant, and really work well with the books - lovely! :D

39bleuroses
Nov 9, 2021, 1:11 pm

40BeyondEdenRock
Nov 10, 2021, 6:56 am

The writer, the artist, the knitwear: all Scottish





'The Fair Isle Jumper' by Stanley Cursiter

&

'The Camomile' by Catherine Carswell (#261)

'Ellen Carstairs has spent two glorious years as a student in Frankfurt. Returning to Glasgow to teach music, she begins a journal for her college friend Ruby. Here she pours out her observations, her ambition to write and her frustrations. For the oppressive and religious attitudes of her peers are a great contrast to Ellen's own enlightened views about sex and independence. First published in 1922, this semi-autobiographical novel is a lively and sympathetic portrait of a young women's ideals. Ellen's engagement to Duncan, a young doctor, threatens to distance her from the freedom she seeks, but her friendship with a poor, ascetic scholar helps Ellen to realize that she must not be moulded by convention.'

41BeyondEdenRock
Nov 10, 2021, 6:57 am

A painting from one side of the Atlantic and a story from the other



'South of France' by Duncan Grant

&

'Death Comes for the Archbishop' by Willa Cather (#58)

'One summer evening in the year of 1848 three Cardinals and a missionary, dining in a villa near Rome, decide the fate of a simple parish priest, the Frenchman Jean Marie Latour. He is to go to New Mexico to win for Catholicism the South-West of America, a country where the Faith has slumbered for centuries. There, together with his old friend Father Vaillant, Latour makes his home. To the carnelian hills and ochre-yellow deserts of this almost pagan land he brings the refined traditions of French culture and Christian belief. Slowly, gently he reforms and revivifies, after forty years of love and service achieving a final reconciliation between his faith and the sensual peasant people of New Mexico: a harmony embodied in the realisation of his most cherished dream - a Romanesque cathedral, carved from the Mexican rock, gold as sunlight.'

42lippincote
Nov 10, 2021, 7:20 am

Thx for that Cate. So interesting! And ultimately very sad, yes?

43Sakerfalcon
Nov 10, 2021, 7:49 am

>41 BeyondEdenRock: This is one of my favourite novels, and the South of France cover is a surprisingly good match for it!

44kaggsy
Nov 10, 2021, 8:46 am

>40 BeyondEdenRock: Stunning picture, and so right for the book - Carswell was a great author!

45bleuroses
Editado: Nov 10, 2021, 12:14 pm

>40 BeyondEdenRock: I love everything about this painting and the book!

>42 lippincote: - Yes!

46BeyondEdenRock
Nov 11, 2021, 10:06 am

>43 Sakerfalcon: I agree - about the cover and the book.

>44 kaggsy: >45 bleuroses: I have yet to read the book, and clearly I must.

47BeyondEdenRock
Nov 11, 2021, 10:07 am

I wonder if the author might have read the magazine that provided an illustration for her book's cover ...



Illustration by Helen Dryden

&

'Treasure Hunt' by Molly Keane (#356)

'When old Sir Roderick dies in the stately but crumbling Irish mansion, his family discover that he's left nothing but debts. His brother Hercules and sister Consuelo cannot understand why they cannot continue their feckless, champagne-drinking ways. They are outraged when young Roderick and Veronica insist on stringent economies and taking in paying guests. Meanwhile dotty Aunt Anna Rose, ensconced in her sedan chair (which she fondly believes to be the Orient Express) has a Dark Secret and, just possibly some long-lost rubies...Originally a play, this 1952 novel sparkles with comedy, mystery and a gallery of eccentricities.'

48BeyondEdenRock
Nov 11, 2021, 10:09 am

The complete painting is much lovelier than the cropped cover image.



The Language of Flowers by George Dunlop Leslie

&

'The Semi-Attached Couple' and 'The Semi-Detached House' by Emily Eden (#16)

'Born the daughter of Lord Auckland in 1797, Emily Eden was a witty nineteenth-century aristocrat whose two delightful novels were first presented to an admiring world one hundred and fifty years ago. These matching masterpieces satirize the social world Eden knew, loved, and laughed at. Like Jane Austen she is concerned with love and marriage, money and manners. but her voice is distinct. Eden's charm and humour - both above- and below-stairs -- and her sharp social commentary make her work enduringly captivating.'

49Sakerfalcon
Nov 11, 2021, 10:55 am

50kaggsy
Nov 11, 2021, 12:18 pm

>48 BeyondEdenRock: it really is - what a gorgeous image!

51bleuroses
Nov 11, 2021, 9:02 pm

This is one of my favourite places to visit each day - thank you so much, Jane! It makes me want to read/re-read them all!

52BeyondEdenRock
Nov 12, 2021, 10:37 am

>49 Sakerfalcon: >50 kaggsy: I am glad that we agree.

>51 bleuroses: Thank you, that is so lovely to know. This is having the same effect on me. I am reading The Camomile and I have one of today's books lined up to read very soon.

53BeyondEdenRock
Nov 12, 2021, 10:38 am

A Persephone author on a Virago cover



'Julia Strachey' by Carrington

&

'The Judge' by Rebecca West (#33)

'Ellen Melville is a beautiful, red-haired suffragette who, at seventeen, wants passionately to experience all that life can give her. From her abandoned and impoverished mother she inherits only a capacity for love, and this she gives freely when she meets Richard Yaverland--charming, experienced, a man of the world. But Richard is the illegitimate son of a powerful and frustrated woman. Marion Yaverland uses her own betrayal by Richard's father to imprison her son, creating a murderous bond that destroys everything it touches. The struggle of Ellen and Richard to survive the sins of their fathers takes its inevitable course: giving freely to her passionate lover, Ellen commences a re-enactment of all that has gone before. . .'

54BeyondEdenRock
Nov 12, 2021, 10:40 am

A lovely choice for an epistolary novel.



'The Letter' by Mary Cassatt

&

'Fraulein Schmidt and Mr. Anstruther' by Elizabeth Von Arnim (#101)

'This enchanting novel tells the story of the love affair between Rose-Marie Schmidt and Roger Anstruther. A determined young woman of twenty-five, Rose-Marie is considered a spinster by the inhabitants of the small German town of Jena where she lives with her father, the Professor. To their home comes Roger, an impoverished but well-born young Englishman who wishes to learn German. Rose-Marie and Roger fall in love. But the course of true love does not run smooth, distance, temperament and fortune divide them. We watch the ebb and flow of love between two very different people and see the witty and wonderful Rose-Marie get exactly what she wants.'

55kayclifton
Nov 13, 2021, 3:04 pm

Almost all of the books that I read are from public libraries and none are Virago's and now I see what I have been missing I googled George Dunlop Leslie and found some of his other enchanting paintings. I will do the same for some of the other artists also. I tried to copy and past the photo of another of his works which was in the same style as the Virago cover and put it in a message for the thread but couldn't do it.

56BeyondEdenRock
Nov 15, 2021, 7:31 am

>55 kayclifton: As you have discovered, you can't post an image directly to a thread. You can link to an image anywhere on the internet with a little bit of HTML. You will find a lovely guide explaining exactly what to do in the group Wiki.

(The images in this thread all come from Pinterest)

57BeyondEdenRock
Nov 15, 2021, 7:33 am

It was lovely to spot a local artist, who painted many places I know well.



'Titbits' by Harold Harvey

&

'The New House' by Lettice Cooper (#263)

"Rhoda Powell wakes knowing that her mother's selfish and repining ways will impede their removal from Stone Hall to a new, smaller home. She feels as tethered to her mother's whims as when she was a child. Maurice, a parent himself now, seems similarly trapped by his boyhood role. only Delia, their younger sister, has moved South, leaving Swarfdale and its memories behind. And Aunt Ellen, the spinster of the previous generation, is a warning to Rhoda of the woman she will become if she does not break away..."

58BeyondEdenRock
Nov 15, 2021, 7:35 am

I think you might guess this author from the painting


L'Ambitiuse by James Tissot

&

Old New York by Edith Wharton (#179)

'The four novellas collected here, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Age of Innocence', brilliantly capture New York of the 1840s, '50s, '60s, and '70s. Originally published in 1924, this outstanding quartet includes 'False Dawn', about a rocky father/son relationship; 'The Old Maid', the best known of the four, in which a young woman's hidden illegitimate child is adoted by her best friend, with devastating results; 'The Spark', involving a young man and his moral rehabilitation -- "sparked" by a chance encounter with Walt Whitman; and 'New Year's Day', an O. Henryesque tale of a married woman suspected of adultery. Each reveals the codes and customs that ruled society of the time, drawn with the perspicacious eye and style that is uniquely Edith Wharton's.'

59lippincote
Nov 15, 2021, 8:21 am

Okay - explain that painting to me. Are the men looking at her with lust, or is everyone thinking 'What a HORRIBLE dress!'

60bleuroses
Nov 15, 2021, 11:42 am

>53 BeyondEdenRock: This is one of my favourite portraits! I printed this on cardstock to frame and never tire of her gaze.

>57 BeyondEdenRock: Harvey is wonderful. You're so lucky to live in Cornwall, Jane.

>59 lippincote: It's a pretty awful dress isn't it! Apparently she thinks she looks smashing!

61BeyondEdenRock
Nov 16, 2021, 8:25 am

>59 lippincote: Their expressions suggest the latter to me, and I feel sorry for the lady's maid who would have to look after the dress.

>60 bleuroses: I hadn't looked closely at that portrait before but now I love it.

Harold Harvey is probably my favourite of the Newlyn school artists, closely followed by Dod Procter.

Here are two favourite paintings - the first would have been lovely for A View of the Harbour and the second one would have suited a number of books but couldn't have been made-book cover-shaped..


French Crabbers (in Newlyn Harbour) by Harold Harvey





'Morning' by Dod Procter

62kaggsy
Nov 16, 2021, 10:35 am

>61 BeyondEdenRock: Love those, Jane - the first one really would have been perfect for the Taylor! :D

63BeyondEdenRock
Nov 16, 2021, 11:08 am

This book seemed impossible to find, but then a reissue came along ....



'Along the Shore' by J E Southall

&

'The Brontes Went to Woolworths' by Rachel Ferguson (#279)

"Pre-war London, and the idea of growing up looms large in the lives of the Carne sisters. Deirdre, Katrine and young Sheil still cannot resist making up stories as they have done since childhood; from their talking nursery toys to their fulsomely imagined friendship with real high-court Judge Toddington. But when Deirdre meets the judge's real-life wife at a charity bazaar the sisters are forced to confront the subject of their imaginings. Will they cast off the fantasies of childhood forever?"

64BeyondEdenRock
Nov 16, 2021, 11:11 am

One of four Margaret Kennedy novels that were on the Virago list


'The Arrival of the Jarrow Marchers in London' by Thomas Cantrell Dugdale

&

'Together and Apart' by Margaret Kennedy (#64)

"Betsy is married to Alec. They have three half-grown children, a Hampstead home, a holiday house in Wales and all the comforts of British middle-class life between the wars. It is 1936 and Betsy is thirty-seven. Alec, she discovers, has been having a desultory affair - one of no importance to him, and at first even Betsy is not too concerned about it. But where, Betsy feels, is the happiness which is her due? And she is tired; houses, servants, children make eternal demands upon her, family and friends constantly interfere - in this instance just once too often, with startling results..."

65LyzzyBee
Nov 17, 2021, 5:02 am

>63 BeyondEdenRock: I particularly like this one because I've always loved the Southall of Birmingham's Corporation Street at the top of the stairs in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/blog/posts/volunteer-selection-corporation-...

66kaggsy
Nov 17, 2021, 6:41 am

>65 LyzzyBee: What a wonderful picture, Liz!

67Sakerfalcon
Nov 17, 2021, 6:48 am

I am enjoying scrolling slowly down this thread seeing if I can guess the book title as each painting is revealed! It's such a pleasure to revisit these images and see them in their uncropped glory.

68BeyondEdenRock
Editado: Nov 17, 2021, 7:53 am

>65 LyzzyBee: Thank you, Liz. I love that painting.

69BeyondEdenRock
Nov 17, 2021, 7:56 am

A thoughtful match of writer and artist


'Woman with a Polish Shawl' by Moise Kisling

&

'Deborah' by Esther Kreitman (#108)

"All the world has heard of the great Yiddish writer Isacc Bashevis Singer, and of his brother Israel Joshua. Few have heard of their sister Hinde Esther who lived in obscurity and also wrote novels. Published first in Yiddish in 1936 and translated by her son in 1946, Deborah is an autobiographical novel. It takes us back with cinematic immediacy to the world of Polish Jewry in the middle of Europe well before the First World War. Deborah is the daughter of a feckless, unworldy rabbi, Reb Avram Ber, and his wife, Raizela. She is fourteen years old, sensitive, intelligent and romantic; but the two things she longs for are denied her: education and marriage to the man of her choice - a dark-eyed Marzist she meets in Warsaw's Jewish Ghetto. For Deborah is doubly oppressed: there is literally no hope for women in this society if the established order is not accepted. Propelled into an arranged marriage, she escapes her family and her country on the eve of the First World War to dream a terrifying dream of another - a portent of the horror that lay in store for millions of Jews in the decades to follow."

70BeyondEdenRock
Nov 17, 2021, 7:58 am

A striking still life covers a collection of short stories



'The Dutch Doll' by Mark Gertler

&

'The Gipsy's Baby and Other Stories' by Rosamond Lehmann (#69)

"In these captivating short stories we find perfect miniatures of Rosamond Lehmann's fictional world. Echoing the themes which permeate her finest fiction, here are delicate portrayals of the world of adults as seen through the eyes of curious children, fascination with different families - their otherness, the romance of separate worlds. Most moving are the stories set against the background of Britain at war: the world of women and children, the minutiae of daily life in rural England - all are recorded with unmatched sensitivity and precision."


71bleuroses
Nov 17, 2021, 4:15 pm

>63 BeyondEdenRock: This painting IS the Brontes on their way to Woolworths! Another fav.

>64 BeyondEdenRock: I love the glamour of this painting and again, another perfect match with the book.

>69 BeyondEdenRock: A beautiful poignant portrait and a heartbreaking story. 'Deborah' was originally published under the title 'Dance of the Demons'. 💔

>70 BeyondEdenRock: Interesting painting by Gertler. I've known of him but never looked into his work. Haven't read the book yet.

72BeyondEdenRock
Nov 18, 2021, 11:31 am

I should love to be able to step into the cover of this book.



'Betty and Babbin by a Fountain' by Mainie Jellett

&

Jenny Wren by E H Young (#177)

'On their father's death, Jenny and Dahlia Rendall, with their mother Louisa, move across the river to the heights of Upper Radstowe. Here they try to make a living by taking in lodgers. But their neighbours eye this all-female household with alarm and distrust -- especially when a local farmer takes to calling on Louisa, now an attractive, if not entirely respectable widow. Dahlia takes it all with a pinch of salt; fastidious, conventional Jenny cannot. Embarrassed by her mother's country ways, smarting at every slight, both real and imaginary, she longs for a different life. Then Jenny falls in love with a handsome young squire -- but certain of his prejudice and a prisoner of her pride, she dares not reveal her name ...'

73BeyondEdenRock
Nov 18, 2021, 11:49 am

A pleasant corner indeed


'A Pleasant Corner' by John Callcott Horsley

&

'The Perpetual Curate' by Margaret Oliphant (#243)

"Frank Wentworth, Perpetual Curate of St Roque's, has basked in the popularity of Carlingford, beloved in the gracious homes of Grange Lane and the slums of Wharfside alike. But there are some among the sober-minded citizens who would see him as a "dilettante Anglican, given over to floral ornaments and ecclesiastical upholstery" - a verdict shared by the new Rector who regards the presence of a young and energetic rival as an intolerable encumbrance. Imperceptibly, the tide starts turning against Frank Wentworth: his love for Lucy Wodehouse is threatened by his lack of prospects; his Evangelical aunts, in charge of a family living, disapprove of his high church ways, and rumours about a pretty shop-girl begin circulating. Slowly it dawns on Frank that he may well be doomed to a life of perpetual - and single - curacy. "

74LyzzyBee
Nov 19, 2021, 6:53 am

>73 BeyondEdenRock: That's a perfect spot, daylight and firelight!

75Liz1564
Editado: Nov 19, 2021, 5:17 pm

>40 BeyondEdenRock: I want that outfit! I am getting rid of most of my VMCs but I am keeping my favorite covers and The Camomile is one of them.

76kayclifton
Nov 20, 2021, 3:14 pm

I sent some of the pictures to a group of friends as an antidote to the doom and gloom that reflects our society in the US at this time. I got a number of replies from people who were really pleased at seeing the art work.

77BeyondEdenRock
Nov 21, 2021, 12:43 pm

>74 LyzzyBee: My thoughts exactly!

>75 Liz1564: I'd keep this one for the cover and the contents. I've been thinning out my books and I'm finding that the authors I'm less attached too have less appealing artworks than most.

>76 kayclifton: That is great - there are many more lovely paintings still to come.

78BeyondEdenRock
Nov 21, 2021, 12:46 pm

An excellent match.



'Vierges Modernes' by Jean Raoux

&

'Millenium Hall' by Sarah Scott (#214)

'Millenium Hall is an elegant mansion, surrounded by fragrant pastures and hedgerows of hyacinths and primroses. In this idyllic setting live six women of independent means who have eschewed the falsehoods of society and come together to establish a utopian community. Their backgrounds are very different but a common spirit unites them: all have rejected the image of woman as chattel, choosing instead to devote themsleves to a co-operative life founded on female friendship and support. Published anonymously in 1762, this forgotten, visionary work was one of the first novels to show that marriage need not be the ultimate ambition for a woman.'

79BeyondEdenRock
Nov 21, 2021, 12:47 pm

One of the first VMCs I read, courtesy of my local library.



'The Penitent Magdalen' by Georges de la Tour

&

'Women in the Wall' by Julia O'Faolain (#170)

'In the novel--as in history--Radegunda is the wife of Clotair, King of Gaul, seized by him as a prize of war. When she suspects Clotair of murdering her brother, she retreats from the blood-lust of the Dark Ages. Taking the young, innocent Agnes with her, she establishes a religious order where pain and denial are deemed the pathways to virtue and redemption. But the "calm" of self-renunciation cannot last when a sexual scandal involving Agnes is exposed. To expiate this sin, the "victim" fanatically decides to wall herself up. This decision sets off vicious rivalries among the women and draws Radegunda back to the kind of world she had escaped from.'

80kaggsy
Nov 21, 2021, 4:42 pm

>78 BeyondEdenRock: perfect choice - fits the book so well!

81kaggsy
Nov 21, 2021, 4:42 pm

>79 BeyondEdenRock: such a stunning image!

82LyzzyBee
Nov 22, 2021, 4:23 am

>78 BeyondEdenRock: is indeed completely perfect!

83BeyondEdenRock
Nov 23, 2021, 2:27 pm

I can't pick favourites, but I have to say that this is such a striking image.



'L'infante égarée' by Marion Elizabeth Adnams
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'Cassandra at the Wedding' by Dorothy Baker (#67)

'It is the hottest June 21st since 1912, and the longest day of the year. Casandra Edwards-tormented, intelligent, mordantly witty - leaves her doctoral thesis and her Berkeley flat to drive through the scorching heat to her family's ranch. There they are all assembled: her philosopher father smelling so sweetly of five-star Hennessey, her kind, fussy grandmother, her beloved, her identical, her inseparable (soon to be separated) twin sister Judith. For the occasion is Judith's marriage to a young Connecticut doctor; though it won't be if Cassandra can help it ...'

84BeyondEdenRock
Nov 23, 2021, 2:30 pm

This came before the more familiar television tie-in edition


'Orchids, Passion Flowers and Hummingbird' by Martin Johnson Heade

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'The Orchid House' by Phyllis Shand Allfrey (#73)

'Under the watchful gaze of their Black nurse Lally, three white Creole girls grow up at Maison Rose on the Island of Dominica, with its glades of glittering live trees , flaring hibiscus and milky-scented frangipani. But this drowsy heat-drenched lushness conceals decay, and the orchid house echoes with the strange whispered secrets of their enclosed world. To survive, the girls must abandon their island of disease and beauty for the cold northern lands of England and America. Lally watches as they leave, one by one, and waits for their return. As return they must - to their magic past, to the orchid house, and to the man whom all three sisters love...'

85kaggsy
Nov 24, 2021, 5:12 am

>83 BeyondEdenRock: That's gorgeous Jane - what a stunning image.

86kaggsy
Nov 24, 2021, 5:12 am

>84 BeyondEdenRock: Oh, that's so beautiful - I've only ever seen the TV tie in, and this is much lovelier!

87Sakerfalcon
Nov 24, 2021, 8:50 am

>84 BeyondEdenRock: I'm so pleased that my copy has this cover, it's gorgeous!

>83 BeyondEdenRock: I have the later Virago edition of Cassandra at the wedding which has a painting by Paul Delvaux on the cover. It's an effective choice but I like that the original cover painting is by a woman.

88lippincote
Nov 24, 2021, 9:02 am

Yes! I gave a little gasp when I saw the Cassandra pic. And my copy of The Orchid House has the actresses from the tv show.

89BeyondEdenRock
Nov 24, 2021, 10:55 am

>85 kaggsy: Yes, it was a wonderful choice.

>86 kaggsy: It was pure luck that I found a copy with that cover. I suspect it may not have been around for very long before being superceded by the photographic cover.

>87 Sakerfalcon: I hadn't known that there was a later green cover until you mentioned it. Now that i've seen it I like it, but not as much as my cover.

>88 lippincote: Cassandra's cover is one of the best. I have seen lots of tv tie-in copies of 'The Orchid House' over the years but only one copy with an original cover.

90BeyondEdenRock
Nov 24, 2021, 10:59 am

The lesser known sequel to a rather famous book



'Waiting' by Gordon Coutts

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'My Career Goes Bung' by Miles Franklin (#52)

'In this, Miles Franklin's sequel to her famous novel My Brilliant Career, once again we encounter the enchanting Sybylla Melvyn. She's a little older now, catapulted from bush obscurity into sudden fame with the publication of her autobiography. Meekly attired in white muslin and cashmere stockings, she goes to fashionable Sydney to become a literary lioness, but her patrons, her critics and her innumerable suitors meet more than they bargained for in the irrepressible Sybylla. When Sybylla complains of her lot as a woman, Ma has always said "You'll have to get used to it, there is no sense in acting like one possessed of a devil." But Sybylla is, she clamours for LIFE, and refuses to tolerate anything which stands in her way. She recounts her experiences, most particularly her love affairs, with the same spirit, sensitivity and forthright attack which characterised her first volume of memoirs and emerges once again undaunted: the most exceptional fictional heroine of her time, and ours.'

91BeyondEdenRock
Nov 24, 2021, 11:01 am

The unfinished final book in a trilogy that was to be a quartet



'Glitter' by William McGregor Paxton

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'Cousin Rosamund' by Rebecca West (#303)

' 'Cousin Rosamund 'unfolds the final chapters of the saga that began with 'The Fountain Overflows', Rebecca West's acknowleged masterpiece, and continued with T'his Real Night'. As the glitter of the 1920s gives way to the Depression, Rose and Mary find themselves feted and successful pianists. But their happiness is diminished by their cousin's unfathomable marriage to a man they perceive as grotesque.Lacking her cousin Rosamund's intuitive understanding, Rose looks to the surrogate wisdom of Mr Morpurgo, while quiet days with Aunt Lily and the Darcys at their pub on the Thames offer respite from the tensions of foreign concert tours. With approaching middle age Rose gains in perspective. Yet the most exciting development still awaits her: the discovery of and delight in her own sexuality.'

92Sakerfalcon
Nov 24, 2021, 11:48 am

>91 BeyondEdenRock: I SO wish she had written that final novel!

93BeyondEdenRock
Nov 25, 2021, 10:27 am

94BeyondEdenRock
Nov 25, 2021, 11:03 am

A good match of writer and artist - and a green cover for a green book



'Joueuses de Cartes' by Tamara de Lempicka

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'Smoke & Other Stories' by Djuna Barnes (#167)

'First published in New York newspapers between 1914 and 1916 these fourteen incisive tales wonderfully evoke Greenwich Village Bohemia of that time. Sketched with an exquisite and decadent pen are lovers and loners, schemers and dreamers, terrorists and cowards, and many, many more. There's the terrible 'Peacock', a 'slinky female with electrifying eyes and red hair' whom all men pursue but cannot entice; Paprika Johnson softly playing her pawnshop banjo above Swingerhoger's Beer Garden and Mamie Saloam the dancer who 'became fire and felt hell'. There's Clochetter Brin who 'knew that love and lottery went together', the silent Lena whose stolid appearance disguised her animal spirit and the cunning Madeleonette whose lovers enact the most dramatic rite of all.'

95BeyondEdenRock
Nov 25, 2021, 11:05 am

An American still life



'Still Life' by Henry Church Jr.

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'Losing Battles' by Eudora Welty (#208)

'On the hot dry first Sunday of August, three generations of Granny Vaughn's descendants gather at her home in Banner, Mississippi, for a family reunion in celebration of her ninetieth birthday. The action covers two days, but in memory many decades, for the members of this enormous family are wonderful raconteurs. Through a myriad of raised voices we enter their world - -both present and past - and as this magnificently orchestrated novel rises to its crescendo, Eudora Welty subtly reveals that battles seemingly lost can also be secretly won.'

96kaggsy
Nov 25, 2021, 4:27 pm

>94 BeyondEdenRock: perfect! I love de Lempicka!

97BeyondEdenRock
Nov 29, 2021, 5:34 am

>96 kaggsy: I had long suspected that!

98BeyondEdenRock
Editado: Nov 29, 2021, 5:37 am

I wish the book was as famous as the artist



'Regina Cordium' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

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'Red Pottage' by Mary Cholmondeley (#187)

'Rachel West and Hester Gresley have been friends since nursery days. Rachel, calm and practical, inherits a fortune after years of poverty in the East End of London but falls in love with a philanderer. Hester, imaginative and excitable, has published a successful novel, but her aunt's death forces her to live in the stifling atmosphere of her clergyman brother's house. This absorbing novel, first published in 1899, explores the ways in which two very different women search for fulfilment in a society bound by convention.'

99BeyondEdenRock
Nov 29, 2021, 5:37 am

Such a different impression when you see the whole painting



'Interior' by Duncan Grant

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'Rhapsody' by Dorothy Edwards (#204)

'Set in the leisurely world of country houses, rambling walks, afternoon teas and piano duets, these deceptively simple tales are of women and men who come together, sometimes ludicrously, often sadly - if at all. They tell of unrequited love and jealousy, of the separateness of one human being from another, all enacted beneath the smooth veneer of English life at its most civilized. The theme of music weaves in and out of this volume of enchanting stories, first published in 1927. Reminiscent of Katherine Mansfield in mood and texture, they are nevertheless the work of an absolutely individual talent.'

100LyzzyBee
Nov 29, 2021, 9:49 am

>99 BeyondEdenRock: What a fabulous interior this is!

101BeyondEdenRock
Nov 30, 2021, 10:26 am

>100 LyzzyBee: Yes, it is. And very appealing on a damp, grey, Cornish day.

102BeyondEdenRock
Nov 30, 2021, 10:28 am

Why Virago turned this painting black and white I shall never understand



'Portrait of a Midinette' by Herbert James Gunn

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'Good Daughters' by Mary Hocking (#340)

'Mary Hocking brings good humour and sympathy to her depiction of the Fairley sisters growing up in their close-knit West London neighbourhood before, during and after the war. Here, in the first novel of a trilogy, the girls are sheltered in a world whose traditions of hard work and frugality are upheld in their Methodist father, Stanley, and their strong quiet mother, Judith. But as love comes to Louise and adventures tempt Alice and her friend, unease lurks and terrible rumours travel from Germany - auguries of the catastrophe to come.'

103BeyondEdenRock
Nov 30, 2021, 10:31 am

A hefty Victorian novel



'Marjorie And Lettice Wormald' by Arthur Hughes

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'The Daisy Chain' by Charlotte Mary Yonge (#282)

'The May family live in the fine old town of Market Stoneborough where Doctor May is a respected figure at the centre of the community. His wife's untimely death in a carriage accident leaves eleven children in his care, the youngest, Daisy, a mere baby. But their mother's teaching has bequeathed to each child a sense of love and moral duty which will guide the separate paths - of scholarship, philanthropy, seafaring, marriage and politics - which shape this stirring family' chronicle.

104kaggsy
Nov 30, 2021, 3:50 pm

>102 BeyondEdenRock: No, that was a really odd move as it's a stunning picture!

105kac522
Nov 30, 2021, 4:04 pm

>102 BeyondEdenRock:, >104 kaggsy: I wonder if the dark blue of the picture clashed with the dark green Virago background? Still, the full color picture is superior--I have this book with the b&w/grayish cover and it does not do the painting justice.

All of these have been just beautiful--thanks for sharing and highlighting Virago books that are new to me.

106Sakerfalcon
Dic 1, 2021, 8:09 am

>102 BeyondEdenRock: I much prefer the colour version!

107lippincote
Dic 1, 2021, 8:25 am

I have a really new version of Good Daughters in a print on demand copy. At least I think it's print on demand because I bought a number of those at the same time and it has the same look and feel. I always thought the black and white cover was to cut printing costs but now you tell me we all got the same cover. Hmmmnnn.

108BeyondEdenRock
Dic 1, 2021, 9:19 am

All of the books in Mary Hocking trilogy have grey or tinted covers, so I suspect that it was a deliberate choice, maybe to give the book 'retro appeal'.

109BeyondEdenRock
Dic 1, 2021, 10:17 am

Maureen Lipman chose this painting as a her favourite for Country Life. She said: 'Its alabaster stillness, like a dream caught in time, appealed to my middle-class imagination'
 



'A Game of Patience' by Meredith Frampton

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'Year Before Last' by Kay Boyle (#225)

'Hannah leaves her husband to be with the brilliant writer and editor, Martin, in a chateau on the French Riviera. He had planned to buy lobster in celebration of her arrival, but there are unpaid bills and they must live hand to mouth. Drifting through these sensuous early days, they are pursued by Hannah's memories and the more vigilant shadow of Eve, Martin's rich and possessive aunt. And as their relationship develops life becomes a tangle of hotel rooms and prying eyes, caught between the luxuriance of love and Eve's malicious jealousy. This richly-textured novel, first published in 1932, reveals Kay Boyle's strength as an innovative Modernist writer. Exploring love - and the death of love - it is delicate, precise and lyrical.'

110BeyondEdenRock
Dic 1, 2021, 10:18 am

This is a particular favourite



Portrait Of Mrs. George Henry Boughton by George Henry Boughton

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'All Passion Spent' by Vita Sackville-West (#110)

'In 1860, as a young girl of seventeen, Lady Slane nurtures a secret, burning ambition: to become an artist. She becomes, instead, the wife of a great statesman, Henry, first Earl of Slane, and the mother of six children. Seventy years later, released by widowhood, she abandons the family home in Elm Park Gardens much to the dismay of her pompous sons and daughters. Retiring to a tiny house in Hampstead she recollects the dreams of youth and enjoys the mellow present in the company of those she has chosen. There is her French maid Genoux, her house agent Mr Buchtrout, her painter and carpenter Mr. Gosheron, and lastly Mr FitzGeorge, an eccentric millionaire who had met and loved her in India when she was young and very lovely. Lady Slane finds at last - in this world of her own - a passion, one that comes with the freedom to choose; this, her greatest gift, she passes on to the only one who can understand its value.'

111Sakerfalcon
Dic 1, 2021, 10:57 am

>109 BeyondEdenRock: This is one of my favourite covers!

112BeyondEdenRock
Dic 2, 2021, 11:18 am

A cover from the collection of the Imperial War Museum



'Spitfires attacking Flying Bombs 1944' by Thomas Monnington

&

'On the Side of the Angels' by Betty Miller (#197)

'Honor Carmichael and her two young children are uprooted to Lanfield, where her husband Colin, a dapper, small-town doctor, is stationed at the RAMC hospital. She is visited by her sister Claudia, whose friend, Andrew, waits to be invalided out of the Army. Whilst Andrew dismisses himsely as "damaged goods", Colin beomes absorbed by the petty feuds and power games of uniformed life - most particulary with the arrival of Captain Herriot, a commando and the C.O.'s current favourite. Apparantly peripheral to this "male pirouetting", Honor and Claudia are nevertheless deeply affected by this war. For its threat to notions of masculinity forces both women to reassess the roles they've always played.'

113BeyondEdenRock
Dic 2, 2021, 11:19 am

An excellent choice of cover image



'Medallion' by Gluck

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'The Well of Loneliness' by Radclyffe Hall (#76)

'Living in the baronial splendour of Morton Hall, at the foot of the Malvern Hills, Sir Philip and Lady Gordon long to complete their happiness with a son and heir. But their only child is born a girl -- and they baptise her Stephen. As she grows up -- tall, broad-shouldered, handsome -- it becomes apparent that Stephen is not like other girls. She learns to ride, fence and hunt, she wears breeches and longs to crop her hair. Instinctively the people of Great Malvern draw away from her, aware of something -- some indefinable thing -- that sets her apart. From a difficult, lonely childhood, through a tormented adolescence, Stephen Gordon reaches maturity and falls passionately in love -- with another woman.'

114kaggsy
Dic 2, 2021, 11:51 am

Both of those are stunning Jane. I’m really getting a sense from this thread of how well chosen all those cover images were, and how much they contributed to the imprint.

115Sakerfalcon
Dic 3, 2021, 8:07 am

>112 BeyondEdenRock: This painting is also on my copy of Between the acts! I've always liked it, and >113 BeyondEdenRock: too

116BeyondEdenRock
Editado: Dic 3, 2021, 8:15 am

>114 kaggsy: I completely agree. I credit the green covers for leading me from book to book, but I think the art and the overall look of the books played a significant role in getting the books noticed, into bookshops and libraries, and ultimately into the hands of readers.

Somebody clearly took a lot of trouble, and it is worth noting as well as the available artworks that can be shared here there are some that aren't available, because they were borrowed from private collections and from contemporary artists.

117lippincote
Dic 3, 2021, 8:27 am

I agree about the attraction of the cover art. My only real beef with Virago is that they abandoned the green covers.

118BeyondEdenRock
Dic 3, 2021, 9:57 am

>115 Sakerfalcon: I hadn't seen that cover of Between the Acts, and on my was to look at it I saw another edition that shared a cover painting with No More Than Human. I'd seen some VMC paintings on other books before but not those two.

119BeyondEdenRock
Dic 3, 2021, 9:58 am

>117 lippincote: I'd question some of the book choices in recent years, but the loss of the green covers is sadder.

120BeyondEdenRock
Dic 3, 2021, 10:21 am

The author and the artist were worlds apart



'Room in Brooklyn' by Edward Hopper

&

'None Turn Back' by Storm Jameson (#132)

'It is 6th May, the third day of the General Strike ... This is the story of that harrowing week seen through the eyes of the women and men of London as they move through that unreal city. We meet those who gave their all for the strike -and a vision of a better world. We meet, too, those who fought to break it with every weapon they had: power, politics, money - or brute force. There are masters and workmen, fascists and communists, politicians and trade unionists, wives and mistresses, artists, writers and scientists, all caught up in the web of each other's lives. But above all we follow the thread of Hervey Russell's life as she is swept up by the political ferment around her, by the difficulties of a new marriage, and by her hopes and fears for the future... '

121BeyondEdenRock
Dic 3, 2021, 10:23 am

An Australian author + An Australian Artist



'Souvenirs' by Thea Proctor

&

'Painted Clay' by Capel Boake (#231)

"Helen Somerset feels stifled by her loveless home with a repressive father who fears that, like her absent mother, she may be only "painted clay." She wants to know life beyond the confines of Packington, a Melbourne suburb overlooking Port Phillip Bay. And when she is sixteen her father dies, releasing Helen to seek the affection and independence she has been denied. With a clerical job and a room in a lodging house Helen launches herself into the excitement of Bohemian life and free love--only to discover that this liberation has a double edge."

122kaggsy
Dic 3, 2021, 10:29 am

>119 BeyondEdenRock: I'm actually with you both on that. I must admit I don't always feel drawn to the titles they choose nowadays, but the distinctive covers were a terrible loss to the imprint.

123LyzzyBee
Dic 3, 2021, 10:57 am

>109 BeyondEdenRock: I've never seen this one before as far as I know, and I love it!

124LyzzyBee
Dic 3, 2021, 10:57 am

>113 BeyondEdenRock: I love this book but didn't know who the artist was.

125Soupdragon
Dic 4, 2021, 1:30 pm

Thank you so much for these, Jane.

Those Edward Hopper covers on the Storm Jameson novels were part of the reading experience for me. I don't think I'd have enjoyed them as much in a different edition.

126BeyondEdenRock
Dic 6, 2021, 8:03 am

>122 kaggsy: I think it is a partly me and partly Virago. I miss the days when new books were new to me, which is in part due to my years digging in the library and second-hand bookshops; and I regret the watering down of the original ethos, but maybe that is due to hard commercial realities,

127BeyondEdenRock
Dic 6, 2021, 9:59 am

>125 Soupdragon: It is a pleasure.

When I just saw the names Edward Hopper and Storm Jameson seemed like a strange match, but when I looked at the covers they really worked.

128BeyondEdenRock
Dic 6, 2021, 10:07 am

What a difference when you see the whole painting!



Donna Sol Balcone by Ubaldo Oppi

&

'The Diviners' by Margaret Laurence (#323)

'Morag Dunn, now in her mid-forties, lives in a riverside farmhouse in Eastern Ontario. Through a series of flashbacks she looks at the painful and exhilarating moments of her earlier life: her childhood on the social margins of the small prairie town of Manawaka; her relationship with Jules Tonnerre which grows out of their shared alienation; her demeaning marriage and her escape from it into writing fiction, and her travels to England and Scotland and, finally, back to rural Canada, where she faces a different challenge - the necessity to understand, and let go of, the daughter she loves.'

129BeyondEdenRock
Dic 6, 2021, 10:08 am

An intriguing match of book and artwork



'Hector and Andromache' by Giorgio di Chirico

&

'Life Before Man' by Margaret Atwood (#68)

'Life Before Man chronicles with ironic precision, in masterful prose, the tragicomedy we call love between the sexes. Elizabeth - monstrous yet pitiable, Nate her husband - a patchwork man, gentle, disillusioned, and Leslie his lover, a young woman prehistoric in her simplicity, form a sexual triangle whose encounter illuminate profound truths about contemporary experience.'

130Sakerfalcon
Dic 6, 2021, 10:23 am

>128 BeyondEdenRock: Wow! That's the cover on my edition and I didn't even recognise it! What a stunning painting.

131kaggsy
Dic 7, 2021, 1:27 am

>126 BeyondEdenRock: totally agree. We know s much more about these authors now. And the commercial angle is inevitable because the imprint is no longer independent - but a great shame…

132BeyondEdenRock
Dic 7, 2021, 9:11 am

>130 Sakerfalcon: It was the exactly the same for me when I tracked down the painting!

133LyzzyBee
Dic 7, 2021, 10:05 am

I love the variety represented by these last two!

134BeyondEdenRock
Dic 7, 2021, 10:33 am

>133 LyzzyBee: Yes, there are similar colours but very different artworks.

135BeyondEdenRock
Dic 7, 2021, 10:36 am

The cover suggests that this book is not set in the author's usual milieu



'Studio Lunch' by Henry Siddons Mowbray

&

'The Fruit of the Tree' by Edith Wharton (#145)

'John Amherst, clever, idealistic and poor, is assistant manager of a cotton mill and has the makings of a working-class leader. While visiting a worker in hospital he encounters a young nurse, Justine, compassionate and principled, a woman who shares his aims and dreams. But Amherst is fatally distracted when he meets Bessy. A widow of great wealth, Bessy is charming, beautiful - and the new owner of the mill. The lives of all three become strangely interwoven as Amherst is forced to choose between sense and sentiment, between his care for the working classes and his infatuation with Bessy - a woman made for passion, but not for its aftermath.'

136BeyondEdenRock
Dic 7, 2021, 10:40 am

There are four figures in the painting but only two on the cover



'A Portrait Group' by James Cowie

&

'Another Time Another Place' by Jessie Kesson (#379)

'In 1944 Italian prisoners of war are billeted in a tiny village in the far northeast of Scotland. Janie, who works the land and is married to a farm labourer fifteen years older than herself, is to look after three of them. While her neighbours regard the Italians with a mixture of resentment and indifference, Janie is intrigued by this glimpse of another, more romantic world - with almost inevitable consequences. Much more than a simple love story, Another Time, Another Place is also a vibrant portrait of a rural community enveloped by an untamed landscape.'

137LyzzyBee
Dic 8, 2021, 9:12 am

>136 BeyondEdenRock: Oh that's fascinating!

138BeyondEdenRock
Dic 8, 2021, 10:11 am

>137 LyzzyBee: There is another Jessie Kesson cover that shows one girl though the painting has two. Luckily when they chose a painting with just one figure for a third book they didn't cut her in half!

139BeyondEdenRock
Dic 8, 2021, 12:11 pm

I have read some of this author's books for children but none of her VMCs



'Lupins & Cactus' by Paul Nash

&

'The Grain of Truth' by Nina Bawden (#387)

'Emma's anxious and manipulative plea, 'Someone listen to me', opens - and closes - this deliciously uncomfortable novel in which Nina Bawden explores myriad emotional disguises with her characteristeric acuity. When Emma's father-in-law falls down the stairs to his death, she is convinced she pushed him in an act of wish-fulfulment. To her husband Henry and her close friend Holly, this is unthinkable. Guilt is simply Emma's obsession in a humdrum domestic existence enlivened by romantic fantasy. For Holly, who successfully fields a string of love affairs, sexual pleasures are more easily attainable, whereas Henry, a divorce lawyer, prides himself on being a realist. Each tells their story in turn, illuminating and distorting their separate versions of the truth. As they do so, an intricate jigsaw of the private deceits with which they shore up daily life emerges.'

140BeyondEdenRock
Dic 8, 2021, 12:14 pm

A Book that has been Published by Both Virago and Persephone



'The Birdcage' by Henry Tonks

&

'The Squire' by Enid Bagnold (#246)

'At the Manor House on the village green, the household waits in restless suspense. The master is in Bombay, the mistress, its temporary squire, is heavy with child and languorous. Her four young children distract her with their demands, her friend Caroline tells the squire of her latest lover, her restless adventuring a sharp contrast to the squire's own mood. And watching and waiting for the birth, the squire contemplates the woman she was, "strutting about life for spoil" and the woman she is now, another being, "occupied with her knot of human lives" '.


141kayclifton
Dic 8, 2021, 1:46 pm

I read Jessie Kesson's Another Time, Another Place and really enjoyed it and I also loved her book {The White Bird Passes. There is a haunting quality to her work

142LyzzyBee
Dic 9, 2021, 3:16 am

>138 BeyondEdenRock: Ha - that's so funny! How strange they should do it to two of hers! And yes, a relief there ...

143kaggsy
Dic 9, 2021, 9:45 am

>139 BeyondEdenRock: I love the image here and I love Paul Mash's work, though I'm not a huge fan of Bawden's adult books.

144BeyondEdenRock
Dic 9, 2021, 10:21 am

>141 kayclifton: I loved those two books when I read them. It was years ago so the details escape me but I do remember loving the writing.

145BeyondEdenRock
Dic 9, 2021, 10:22 am

>143 kaggsy: I loved Carrie's War but Nina Bawden's other books don't call me at all.

146BeyondEdenRock
Dic 9, 2021, 10:23 am

Someone who knows the author's work better than I do might be able to explain this match to me.



'Seated Woman' by Pablo Picasso

&

'Two Worlds and Their Ways' by Ivy Compton-Burnett (#354)

'Sefton and his sister Clemence are dispatched to separate boarding schools. Their father's second marriage, their mother's economies, provide perfect opportunities for mockery, and home becomes a source of shame. More wretched is their mother's insistence that they excel. Their desperate means to please her incite adult approbrium, but how did the children learn to deceive? Here staccato dialogue, brittle aphorisms and an excoriating wit are used to unparalleled and subversive effect ruthlessly to expose the wounds beneath the surface of family life.'

147BeyondEdenRock
Dic 9, 2021, 10:26 am

I change my mind about this painting almost every time I look at it



'Portrait of a Young Woman' by Mainie Jellett

&

'The Rising Tide' by Molly Keane (#137)

'In 1900 Lady Charlotte French-McGrath continues to rule her family and household with a rod of iron. She is mistress of Garonlea--a huge gothic house in Ireland--, wife to Ambrose French-McGrath and mother of Muriel, Enid, Violet, Diana and Desmond. Their life flows on until two events, years apart, which irrevocably break Lady Charlotte's matriarchal hold. The first is Desmond's marriage to the beautiful, lively Cynthia. The second is the First World War bringing the grief of bereavement and finally shattering the rigid codes of the Edwardian era. Cynthia enters the jazz age and on the surface her life passes in a whirl of fox-hunting, drinking and love-making. But the ghosts of Garonlea are only biding their time: they know the source of their power, a secret handed on from one generation to the next...'

148kayclifton
Dic 9, 2021, 3:00 pm

>146 BeyondEdenRock: Beyond Eden Rock

I went through a period of trying to read a few of the books by Ivy Compton-Burnett and it was daunting. She was well thought of by the critics which impressed me but I finally had to give up.
The following blurb is from the "Guardian">

"Two of our greatest living literary Hilarys (Mantel and Spurling, who wrote a hard-to-find two-volume life of Ivy) are her champions. Mantel wrote: 'Ivy Compton-Burnett is one of the most original, artful and elegant writers of our century. To read her for the first time is a singular experience. There is almost no description or scene setting; the writing is pared to the bone, the technique is a gavotte on needles. The story unfolds in page after page of spiked dialogue. It is not always clear who is speaking; the words themselves are unlike any you have come across before.' Mantel wrote these words in the last century (Compton-Burnett died in 1969), but Ivy's originality, artfulness and elegance have hardly been eclipsed in the new millennium"

(Maybe the author's quotes are a key to the significance of the illustration)

149BeyondEdenRock
Dic 10, 2021, 5:08 am

>148 kayclifton: Thank you so much for that. The match makes more sense when you consider ICB's writing style, and I had been thinking more about her subject matter.

150lippincote
Dic 10, 2021, 9:47 am

The painting from 147 just screams Mean Girl to me. Others may see pensive, but I see icy with dead eyes.

151BeyondEdenRock
Dic 10, 2021, 11:14 am

>150 lippincote: I shift between the two, and I suspect that this is one of those images where you really need to see the painting itself.

152BeyondEdenRock
Dic 10, 2021, 11:52 am

A book that contains a marvellous journey



'Premium' by Carl 'Eric' Erickson

(The cover of Vogue USA 1st June 1933)

&

'Illyrian Spring' by Ann Bridge (#348)

'Even though she is a renowned painter Lady Kilmichael is diffident and sad. Her remote, brilliant husband has no time for her and she feels she only exasperates her delightful, headstrong daughter. So, telling no one where she is going, she embarks on a painting trip to the Dalmatian coast of Yugoslavia - in the Thirties a remote and exotic place. There she takes under her wing Nicholas, a bitterly unhappy young man, forbidden by his family to pursue the painting he loves and which Grace recognises as being of rare quality. Their adventures and searching discussions lead to something much deeper than simple friendship...

This beautiful novel, gloriously evoking the countryside and people of Illyria, has been a favourite since its publication in 1935, both as sensitive travel book and as unusual and touching love story.'

153BeyondEdenRock
Dic 10, 2021, 11:53 am

Virago published the memoirs of the subject of this portrait



'Portrait of Nina Hamnett' by Roger Fry

&

'Over the Frontier' by Stevie Smith (#19)

' 'Over the Frontier' was first published in 1938 and was Stevie Smith's second novel, closely following 'Novel on Yellow Paper', beginning where that famous novel ends. While sharing the poetic quality, the quirky humour and caustic wit common to all her work, 'Over the Frontier' is quite unlike anything else Stevie Smith wrote. It is a fantastic tale of adventure and intrigue -- one in which Stevie dons the unlikely mantle of John Buchan -- and a profound exploration of larger themes: ambition, militarism, nationalism, love, loyalty, death. It is 1936. Stevie's heroine and alter ego Pompey Casmilus lives in London with her beloved Aunt, bothered by the menace of German militarism, bothered too by the humbug which confronts it, bothered most of all by her hopeless love affair with Freddy. Its ending plunges Pompey into melancholy, six months rest and recuperation are prescribed and, 'savage, sick and cross', Pompey goes to Schloss Tilssen on the northern German border, only to fall in with a strange band of conspirators: the plum coloured Mrs Pouncer, the absent minded Colonel Peck, and the dashing Major Tom Satterthwaite, whom Pompey comes to love. How Pompey gets into uniform and becomes a spy is only one of the astounding events in this extraordinary novel which, on a serious level, is also a powerful investigation of power and cruelty in a world preparing for war.

154lippincote
Dic 11, 2021, 10:17 am

Ah Illyrian Spring - the one that got away from so many of us. My copy is a 1936 American hardback and the cover art is appropriate but unremarkable. How many of us, I wonder, ever found the VMC version? And at what price?

155CDVicarage
Dic 11, 2021, 10:39 am

>154 lippincote: I hope I don't sound smug but I have an original green copy, bought in July 2013, ready for AVAA, at a very good price. I found a good copy of Peking Picnic the following year, too.

156lippincote
Dic 12, 2021, 9:48 am

Oh, you lucky woman! I have PP in a good VMC copy and I have most of her other books in old hardbacks. But I have never found Illyrian Spring.

157kaggsy
Dic 12, 2021, 12:06 pm

>154 lippincote: Oddly, I found a copy online at a ridiculously low price - just a fluke, I guess, but I was very happy about it. Daunt have reissued it, though, so a modern version can be got!

158BeyondEdenRock
Editado: Dic 13, 2021, 10:07 am

I found an affordable copy in a charity shop too. Many sellers of second-hand books just see an old VMC and don't distinguish between the ones that are common and the ones that are scarce and in demand.

I have see the Daunt editions and they are lovely.

159BeyondEdenRock
Dic 13, 2021, 10:06 am

I don't think I could have cropped this image



'At The Dressing Table' by Harold Harvey

&

'Chatterton Square by E. H. Young (#242)

'Fastidious Mr. Blackett rules his home in Upper Radstowe with a gloomy and niggardly spirit, and his wife Bertha and their three daughters succumb to his dictates unquestioningly -- until the arrival next door of the Fraser family 'with no apparent male chieftain at the head of it'. The delightful, unconventional Rosamund presides over this unruly household with shocking tolerance and good humour, and Herbert Blackett is both fascinated and repelled by his sensuous and 'unprincipled' neighbour. But whilst he struts in the background, allegiances form between Rosamund and Bertha and their children, bringing changes to Chatterton Square which, in the months leading up to the Second World War, are intensified by the certainty that nothing can be taken for granted.'

160BeyondEdenRock
Dic 13, 2021, 10:08 am

One of a number of similar paintings - I had to look carefully to be sure I had the right one



'Wild Flowers With The Mussenden Temple In View' by Andrew Nicholl

&

'In a Summer Season' by Elizabeth Taylor (#112)

'Kate Heron is a wealthy charming widow who marries a man ten years her junior: the attractive, feckless Dermot. They live in commuter country, an hour from London. Theirs is an unconventional marriage, but a happy one. Their special love arms them against the disapproval of conservative friends and neighbours - until the return of Kate's old friend Charles, intelligent, kind, now widowed with a beautiful daughter. Happily, she watches as their two families are drawn together, finding his presence reassuringly familiar. But then one night she dreams a strange and sensual dream: a dream that disturbs the calm surface of their friendship - foreshadowing dramas fate holds in store for them all.'

161LyzzyBee
Dic 13, 2021, 10:41 am

>160 BeyondEdenRock: I love that one

162Sakerfalcon
Dic 13, 2021, 10:41 am

>153 BeyondEdenRock: I read Laughing torso by Nina Hamnett for AV/AA this year, and then found an exhibition of her work at Charleston, Vanessa Bell's house. She was a fascinating woman.

163kaggsy
Dic 13, 2021, 4:45 pm

>160 BeyondEdenRock: oh that’s stunning!!!!

164bleuroses
Dic 13, 2021, 5:44 pm

So much richness! I've been very busy and preoccupied these past few weeks, and scrolling through these posts this afternoon is the perfect balm. I'm going to settle down with a cup of hot chocolate and read through them again. Thank you, dear Jane!

165BeyondEdenRock
Dic 14, 2021, 10:45 am

>162 Sakerfalcon: She was. When I saw Laughing Torso mentioned I checked my library catalogue and was delighted to find a copy in reserve stock. I was swept along, but there were moments when I felt that Nina Hamnett was the anti-Dorothy Richardson. There was so much about her world but little about feelings, life events and her inner life.

166BeyondEdenRock
Dic 14, 2021, 10:47 am

>161 LyzzyBee: >163 kaggsy: Agreed, and I am sure that the artist loved it too as he painted that same scene a number of times from slightly varying places.

167Sakerfalcon
Dic 14, 2021, 10:56 am

>165 BeyondEdenRock:, Yes I was struck by that too.

168BeyondEdenRock
Dic 14, 2021, 12:02 pm

A book that was translated from French to English by another Virago author



'Innocentia' by Franz van Stuck

&

'I Will Not Serve' by Evelyn Mahyère (#142)

'Sylvie is a rebellious and impetuous schoolgirl of seventeen. Three months before she is due to take her Baccalaureate the convent of Sainte-Thérèse expels her - because she has fallen passionately in love with her teacher, the nun Julienne. So Sylvie retreats to the demi-monde of Paris in the 1950s: a world of bars, jazz and bohemianism. But she refuses to forget Julienne, bombarding her with letters, forcing her to confront a love which has for Sylvie the revelatory force of a religious experience. Sometimes she is in ecstasy, often in the depths of despair, always she is fervent, obsessed - until, driven by Julienne's ambivalence and the unyielding bourgeois world, she commits the rashest act of all...'

169BeyondEdenRock
Dic 14, 2021, 12:03 pm

A Painting from One Side of the Atlantic and a Story from the Other



'Dorelia McNeill in the Garden at Alderney Manor' by Augustus John

&

'Barren Ground' by Ellen Glasgow (#219)

'Set in 1925, this is the story of Dorinda Oakley. As a young woman she works in a general store whilst her parents eke out their existence on the starved Virginian land. To Dorinda, Jason Greylock seems to offer an escape from this monotony and she falls in love with him. But Jason seduces and then abandons her. For years Dorinda strives to quieten the bitterness of rejection. Turning back to the land, she works the soil with the intensity of feeling she offered Jason and, as a middle-aged woman, emerges, triumphant, self-possessed. Described by Ellen Glasgow as a work by which she would like to be judged as a novelist, this is a strong and deterministic work. "For once in Southern fiction" she wrote, "the betrayed woman would become the victor instead of the victim.'


170LyzzyBee
Dic 15, 2021, 4:37 am

>169 BeyondEdenRock: Dorelia and Dorinda! You couldn't mistake the artist for anyone else in that one, could you!

171BeyondEdenRock
Dic 15, 2021, 7:48 am

>170 LyzzyBee: Agreed! And the painting works very well on its cover.

172BeyondEdenRock
Dic 15, 2021, 12:00 pm

When I looked to see this books number on the list, I was surprised that it was so high



'Arum Lilies' by Vanessa Bell

&

'Lolly Willowes' by Sylvia Townsend Warner (#390)

'Lolly Willowes is a twenty-eight-year-old spinster when her adored father dies, leaving her dependent upon her brothers and their wives. After twenty years of self-effacement as a maiden aunt, she decides to break free and moves to a small Bedfordshire village. Here, happy and unfettered, she enjoys her new existence nagged only by the sense of a secret she has yet to discover. That secret--and her vocation--is witchcraft, and with her cat and a pact with the Devil, Lolly Willowes is finally free. An instant and great success on its publication in 1926, Lolly Willowes is Sylvia Townsend Warner's most magical novel. Deliciously wry and inviting, it was her piquant plea that single women find liberty and civility--and her pursuit of the theme Virginia Woolf later explored in A Room of One's Own... '

173BeyondEdenRock
Dic 15, 2021, 12:04 pm

Many cover paintings are cropped - this one had a frame added.



'Flora Fairy Child' by Peter Blake

&

'The Doves of Venus' by Olivia Manning (#149)

'Red-haired, eighteen-year-old Ellie leaves her home in the provincial seaside town of Eastsea and goes to London in search of independence, employment and experience. She finds a bedsit in Chelsea, a job painting "antique" furniture and a middle-aged lover called Quintin Bellot. Quintin's life is spent under the beady eye of his neurotic es-wife Petta who haunts King's Road pubs with assorted Bohemians, nurturing virulent feelings towards Quintin's "little girls". And Ellie, having given her heart with the impetuosity of youth, gradually discovers the eternal complications of a love affair with a married man...'

174LyzzyBee
Dic 16, 2021, 6:20 am

>172 BeyondEdenRock: It's a funny one for that book, I find ... I'd have expected more of a wood or something!

175BeyondEdenRock
Dic 16, 2021, 7:26 am

>174 LyzzyBee: My thought exactly. Summer Will Show has another flower arrangement, so clearly inspiration was lacking when it came to picking STW cover images.

I really don't understand how words like this failed to inspire someone to find something more more fitting:

'Laura looked at the bottled fruits, the sliced pears in syrup, the glistening red plums, the greengages. She thought of the woman who had filled those jars and fastened on the bladders. Perhaps the greengrocer’s mother lived in the country. A solitary old woman picking fruit in a darkening orchard, rubbing her rough fingertips over the smooth-skinned plums, a lean wiry old woman, standing with upstretched arms among her fruit trees as though she were a tree herself, growing out of the long grass, with arms stretched up like branches. It grew darker and darker; still she worked on, methodically stripping the quivering taut boughs one after the other.'

'As Laura stood waiting she felt a great longing. It weighed upon her like the load of ripened fruit upon a tree. She forgot the shop, the other customers, her own errand. She forgot the winter air outside, the people going by on the wet pavements. She forgot that she was in London, she forgot the whole of her London life. She seemed to be standing alone in a darkening orchard, her feet in the grass, her arms stretched up to the pattern of leaves and fruit, her fingers seeking the rounded ovals of the fruit among the pointed ovals of the leaves. The air about her was cool and moist. There was no sound, for the birds had left off singing and the owls had not yet begun to hoot. No sound, except sometimes the soft thud of a ripe plum falling into the grass, to lie there a compact shadow among shadows. The back of her neck ached a little with the strain of holding up her arms. Her fingers searched among the leaves.'

176BeyondEdenRock
Dic 16, 2021, 7:38 am

I should add that I do like the painting, it is the match of painting and book that I question.

177BeyondEdenRock
Dic 16, 2021, 12:02 pm

A collection of short stories by an interesting author



'Portrait d'Odette Frizac' by Maurice Denis

&

'She Knew She Was Right' by Ivy Litvinov (#277)

'These piercing and economical stories, several of which are autobiographical, range from England to Russia and back again, travelling across almost a century. They begin in 1895 with the world seen through Eileen's nursery eyes, progress towards her youth, a loathed clerical job at the Prudential, and her marriage to a Russian émigré with whom she responds to the summons of the Revolution. Moving on to Russia Ivy Litvinov recreates everyday life at a country dacha; the suppressed antagonism between a woman and her dying mother-in-law, and the story of the chuckling Slava who disappears from Moscow without a trace. We are then transported to a very different setting - London of the 1970s, coffee-bar encounters and leisurely family meals. Including two previously uncollected stories, She Knew She Was Right (1971), skilfully and sympathetically delves into the hidden corners of life.'

178BeyondEdenRock
Dic 16, 2021, 12:03 pm

A book that seems to divide opinions



'Fraulein Voss' by Manfred Hirzel

&

'The Saltzburg Tales' by Christina Stead (#229)

'The old princely city of Salzburg is the setting for the famous Festival where, one August in the 1930s, a group of visitors meet by chance. Amongst them are the Festival Director, small and stout; a Viennese conductor like a tasselled reed; a Scottish doctress, jolly and fresh-complexioned; an Archbishop grey as a gravestone; a Frenchwoman whose conversation dismayed the dull; and an English country gentleman who speaks of foxhounds in unconscious hexameters. These and others pass their free time in telling a rich and varied collection of idealistic and extravagant tales. In its scope, sheer fantasy, and range of characters, 'The Salzburg Tales', first published in 1934, is comparable to 'The Decameron' and 'The Canterbury Tales'.'

179LyzzyBee
Dic 17, 2021, 2:15 am

>176 BeyondEdenRock: Yes, indeed, ditto!

180BeyondEdenRock
Dic 17, 2021, 11:57 am

The cover gives a different - and equally lovely - impression of this view.



'In Broad Daylight' by Jane Freilicher

&

'The Collected Stories' by Katherine Anne Porter (#181)

'Miranda pines for a reality beyond the family myths which surround her, but she is young and naive in thinking she won't ever delude herself: Granny Weatherall, a grande dame of the Old South, drifts into death, recalling a frontier spirit now diminished; and ordinary Mr Thompson, driven to despair on a small Texan farm, discovers his underlying violence. Katherine Anne Porter explores the hostilities which smoulder between parents and children, and the limitations of relationships between husbands, wives and lovers. Contrasted with such introspective characters are those from the Mexican stories of her early career, such as Maria Concepción, embodying the passions and spontaneity of women and men whose experience of life is unquestioning'

181BeyondEdenRock
Dic 17, 2021, 12:00 pm

I think that this is the only instance of the author appearing on the cover of her own green VMC



'Portrait of Katherine Mansfield' by Anne Rice

&

'The Aloe' by Katherine Mansfield (#174)

'Linda Burnell dreams, listless and distant, whilst downstairs her mother, Mrs Fairchild, sets in order the family's new home in the New Zealand countryside...Her vigorous and exhausting husband, Stanley, is at the office, but will return with eager and admiring eyes...Her children, Kezia, Lottie and Isabel, prepare lunch on a concrete step - daisy-head poached eggs and fuchsia-petal cold meat...Her sister, Beryl, sings love songs to an imaginary young man who will release her from her stifling existence...This is 'The Aloe', the evocative tale of the Burnell family which Katherine Mansfield began writing in 1916 in an attempt to crystallise the memories of her childhood and "make our undiscovered country leap into the eyes of the old world". It was later reworked and shortened to become her acclaimed 'Prelude'. But this, the original, is very different - in style, detail and texture - giving us both a wonderful short novel and a fascinating insight into a classic of modern literature.'

182kaggsy
Dic 17, 2021, 4:24 pm

>177 BeyondEdenRock: one of my favourite Viragos and a good match I think! She was such a fascinating woman!

183kaggsy
Dic 17, 2021, 4:25 pm

>181 BeyondEdenRock: how interesting - I wasn’t aware of that before!

184bleuroses
Dic 18, 2021, 6:05 pm

>181 BeyondEdenRock: Oh I adore this portrait of Katherine.

I was interested in reading more about the artist and found this on the Museum of New Zealand website. https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/41995

Anne Estelle Rice painted this portrait of the writer Katherine Mansfield in Looe, Cornwall. Mansfield had joined her there for part of the spring and summer of 1918 in hopes of regaining her deteriorating health. Of the occasion of the portrait she wrote, ‘A. came early and began the great painting — me in that red, brick red frock with flowers everywhere. It’s awfully interesting, even now. I painted her in my way as she painted me in hers: her eyes … little blue flowers plucked this morning.’1 Rice, an American by birth, had travelled to Europe for the first time in 1906. She met Mansfield in her Paris studio, and the two women became close friends.

Strong colours, an emphasis on line, and the use of pattern repeated over the entire surface are the main features of Portrait of Katherine Mansfield. The predominant colour was suggested by Mansfield who, like Rice, loved red. The colour is used expressively, its vibrant intensity enhanced by the contrasting green shadows on neck and hands.

There are no softened outlines, and contours are left boldly as literal lines at the jaw and ear, and around the figure’s left leg and hip. Rice was unconcerned with ‘finish’, and the raw canvas shows through in places, as does the under-drawing. Nor is there any of the fine detailing of face and hands found in conventional portraiture. Rice’s main concern was the integration of the figure with the background, and she achieved this by bringing the background forward, the repeating floral patterns of a jug of flowers, wallpaper — or maybe a patterned shawl — drawing attention to the surface.

Rice’s style was formed in Paris, where from 1907 she was part of the circle around Scottish expatriate artists John D Fergusson and Samuel John Peploe. She quickly absorbed the expressive colour of the fauve painters, including their method of juxtaposing primary and secondary colours. Her innate feeling for decorative line and pattern was also stimulated by the brilliant costumes and sets of the Ballets Russes.

Vicki Robson

This essay appears in Art at Te Papa, (Te Papa Press, 2009).

1. Katherine Mansfield, letter to John Middleton Murray, 17 June 1918, cited in Vincent O’Sullivan and Margaret Scott (eds), The collected letters of Katherine Mansfield, vol. 2 (1918–1919), Clarendon Press, Oxford, and Oxford University Press, New York, 1987, pp. 244–45.

185BeyondEdenRock
Dic 20, 2021, 7:47 am

>182 kaggsy: The book does look good and I really need to read it soon.

186BeyondEdenRock
Dic 20, 2021, 7:48 am

>183 kaggsy: I was aware, but I have only just learned that the picture was painted so close to where I am now.

187BeyondEdenRock
Dic 20, 2021, 7:51 am

>184 bleuroses: Thank you so much for this, Cate!

I love the painting too and am glad that it hangs in New Zealand's National Gallery - though that rather crushes my ambition to see it one day.

There is another Virago cover painting in the Te Papa collection that I tracked down recently ...

188BeyondEdenRock
Dic 20, 2021, 10:09 am

I love this match of book and artwork



'Costumes pour un ensemble' by Bernard Boutet de Monvel

&

The Little Ottleys by Ada Leverson (#98)

'The heroine of the three novels collected here--'Love's Shadow', 'Tenterhooks', and 'Love at Second Sight' --is the delightful Edith Ottley. As we follow Edith's fortunes we enter the enchanting world of Edwardian London. We will be bewitched by the courtships, jealousies, and love affairs of Edith's coterie--and indeed of Edith herself--and unfailingly amused by her husband, Bruce, one of the most tremendous--if attractive--bores in literature.'

189BeyondEdenRock
Dic 20, 2021, 10:14 am

A book that was a group read not so long ago



Madame de Chauffe by John Callcott Horsely

&

Salem Chapel by Mrs Oliphant (#228)

'Arthur Vincent, "fresh from Homerton, in the bloom of hope and intellectualism", arrives in Carlingford to take up the reins as Dissenting minister of Salem Chapel. A mixture of hope and ignorance prompts him to imagine that he will take his place amongst the cream of Carlingford society. But a six-o'clock tea at the home of Mr. Tozer the butterman, senior deacon of the Chapel, throws cold water on the young man's aspirations. For there he meets Mrs. Tozer and her daughter Phoebe, "pink, plump and full of dimples", and his congregation of greengrocers, dealers in cheese and bacon, milkmen, dressmakers and teachers of day-schools. To add to his problems he falls head-over-heels in love with "a beautiful, dazzling creature", Lady Western, only to find himself caught up in a crime most horrible to contemplate...'

190LyzzyBee
Dic 20, 2021, 12:44 pm

>188 BeyondEdenRock: I adore this one and agree it matches so very well!

191BeyondEdenRock
Dic 21, 2021, 10:50 am

192BeyondEdenRock
Dic 21, 2021, 12:34 pm

This is a possibility for January's themed read



'Froanna - Portrait of the Artist's Wife' by P Wyndham Lewis

&

I'm Not Complaining by Ruth Adam (#124)

'Madge Brigson is a teacher in a Nottinghamshire elementary school in England in the 1930s. Here, with her colleagues - the beautiful, "promiscuous" Jenny, the ardent communist Freda, and the kind, spinsterish Miss Jones - she battles with the trials and tribulations of their special world: abusive parents, eternal malnutrition, inspectors' visits, staff quarrels and love affairs. To all this Madge presents an uncompromisingly intelligent and commonsensical face: laughter is never far away as she copes with her pupils, the harsh circumstances of life in the Depression, and her own love affair. For Madge is a true heroine: determined, perceptive, warm-hearted; she deals with life, and love, unflinchingly, and gets the most out of the best - and worst - of it.'

193BeyondEdenRock
Editado: Dic 21, 2021, 12:37 pm

A portrait of the author's wife - on the cover of the story of a spinster


The Artist's Wife Mornington Crescent by Spencer Gore

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Poor Caroline by Winifred Holtby (#192)

'Caroline Denton-Smyth is an eccentric, remarkable for her vivid costumes trailing feathers, fancy beads and jingling lorgnettes. Sitting alone in her West Kensington bedsitter, she dreams of the Christian Cinema Company - her vehicle for reform. For Caroline sees herself as a pioneer, one who must risk everything in the "Cause of Right". Her Board of Directors are a motley crew; Basil St. Denis, upper crust but impecunious; Joseph Isenbaum, aspiring to Society and Eton for his son; Eleanor de la Roux, Caroline's independent, left-wing cousin from South Africa; Hugh Macafee, a curt Scottish film technician; young Father Mortimer, scarred from the First World War; and Clifton Johnson, seedy American scenario writer on the make.'

194LyzzyBee
Dic 21, 2021, 1:21 pm

>193 BeyondEdenRock: That's about the only Holtby I haven't read. What a fab picture!

195BeyondEdenRock
Dic 22, 2021, 12:13 pm

>194 LyzzyBee: I can highly recommend it but understand if you are hanging on to your last Holtby. I just have 'Mandoa
Mandoa' left to read.

196BeyondEdenRock
Dic 22, 2021, 12:14 pm

The writer and the lady in the painting moved in the same social circles



'Mrs Fairbairn' (Nancy Cunard) by Alvaro Guevara

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'Pirates at Play' by Violet Trefusis (#416)

'Set in the frenetic, fantastical Twenties, this romantic comedy begins as Elizabeth Caracole (pronounced 'Crackle') is sent by her aristocratic parents to be finished in Florence with the family of a Papal count - and Papal dentist. There are no less than five sons, as well as the beautiful ambitious Vica, who has plans of her own. As does the formidable old Principessa Arrivamale - for her nephew, Gian Galeazzo. The arrival of two Englishmen sets in motion an intricate emotional dance which weaves around Italy and England, and includes a vivid and splendid cast of supporting characters.'

197BeyondEdenRock
Dic 22, 2021, 12:15 pm

I should love to step into this room



'At Home, a Portrait' by Walter Crane

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'Marcella' by Mrs Humphrey Ward (#155)

'Marcella Boyce, a Pre-Raphaelite beauty of the 1880s, is passionately in love with the ideals of socialism. A 21-year-old art student, she lives in a Kensington boarding house until her father inherits the family estate, Mellor Park, in the Midlands. Leaving her studies, her philanthropic work in the East End, and the company of her Bohemian friends, she embarks on her new life at Mellor Park, determined to alleviate the poverty she sees around her. Then Aldous Raeburn, Tory candidate and heir to Lord Maxwell's estate, falls in love with Marcella. But Marcella is torn between her longing to become mistress of Maxwell Court and her burning idealism. Before she can reconcile the two, Marcella must learn - through bitter experience - the real barriers that divide one human from another.'

198LyzzyBee
Dic 22, 2021, 1:51 pm

>195 BeyondEdenRock: No, not at all, and I have read some more than once! I should just get a copy!

199LyzzyBee
Dic 22, 2021, 1:51 pm

>197 BeyondEdenRock: Those tiles! Nice cat, too!

200Sakerfalcon
Dic 23, 2021, 8:12 am

>197 BeyondEdenRock: I love the cat! I enjoyed the book too, it reminded me very much of Dorothea's storyline in Middlemarch.

201BeyondEdenRock
Editado: Ene 12, 2022, 11:00 am

>200 Sakerfalcon: That is lovely to know. I read the first couple of chapters and have the book in mind for names in titles month of the themed read.
Este tema fue continuado por Green VMCs and their Cover Art (part 2).