Bloomsbury Aesthetics and the Novels of Forster and Woolf

273 Pages·1985·66.62 MB·English

by  David Dowling (auth.)

BLOOMSBURY AESTHETICS AND THE NOVELS OF
FORSTER AND WOOLF
By the same author
NOVELISTS ON NOVELISTS
BLOOMSBURY
AESTHETICS AND
THE NOVELS OF
FORSTER AND
WOOLF
David Dowling
M
MACMILLAN
© David Dowling 1985
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1985 978-0-333-35474-2
All rights reserved_ No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, without permission
First published 1985 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Dowling, David
Bloomsbury aesthetics and the novels of Forster and
Woolf. 1. Forster, E. M. - Criticism and
interpretation 2. Woolf, Virginia- Criticism
and interpretation 3. Literature - Aesthetics
I. Title
823' .912 PR6011.058
ISBN 978-1-349-17675-5 ISBN 978-1-349-17673-1 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-17673-1
To Shawna
How difficult cnt1c1sm is! Not a single word has the
same meaning for two people.
Virginia Woolf, Letters, III, p. 20
If we wheel up an aesthetic theory - the best attainable,
and there are some excellent ones - if we wheel it up
and apply it with its measuring rods and pliers and
forceps, its calipers and catheters ... we are visited at
once by a sense of the grotesque. It doesn't work .
. There is no spiritual parity.
E. M. Forster, 'The Raison d'Etre
of Criticism in the Arts', in
Two Cheers for Democracy
Contents
List of Plates IX
Acknowledgements XI
Editions Cited xu
Introduction: Painting and Writing 1
1 Bloomsbury Aesthetics 11
2 Two Connections 29
Charles Mauron 29
'Goldie' 34
3 Forster and the Arts 37
4 Forster's Novels 44
Where Angels Fear to Tread 44
A Room with a View 49
The Longest journey 54
Howards End 60
Maurice 67
A Passage to India 71
5 Forster and Woolf 85
6 Woolf and Painting 95
7 W oolr s Novels 108
The Voyage Out 108
Night and Day 117
Jacob's Room 124
VII
Vlll Contents
Mrs Dalloway 136
To the Lighthouse 148
Orlando 162
The Waves 170
The Years 189
Between the Acts 203
Conclusion 217
Notes 233
Index 248
List of Plates
1 Screen ( 1913) by Vanessa Bell
2 Screen (1912) by Duncan Grant
3 Roger Fry Lecturing (c. 1911) by Walter Sickert
4 Charles Mauron ( 1931) by Roger Fry
5 G. L. Dickinson (1925) by Roger Fry
6 E. M. Forster ( 1911) by Roger Fry
7 St Gregory Announces the Death of Santa Fina (1475) by
Ghirlandaio
8 The Ascension of Stjohn the Evangelist (c. 1311-14) by Giotto
9 The Barn (c. 1916) by Roger Fry
10 Nude ( 1923) by Duncan Grant
11 The Hookah Smoker (c. 1924) by Duncan Grant
12 Gassed (1918) by John Singer Sargent
13 Virginia Woolf (c. 1912) by Vanessa Bell
14 Bathing (1911) by Duncan Grant
ix