Ages and Waves: Portraits of the Bloomsbury Group

Author: (British) Rosenbaum
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-07-01
Features: The famous Bloomsbury Group was a world-influential elite salon in the art world of 20th-century Britain, composed of a large number of talented and thoughtful individuals who were highly charming and worth studying. The core members included: writer Virginia Woolf, writer Leonard Woolf (Virginia's husband), artist Vanessa Bell, art critic Clive Bell (Vanessa's husband), biographer Lytton Strachey, literary critic Desmond McCarthy, economist John Maynard Keynes, painter Duncan Grant, art critic Roger Fry, and writer E.M. Forster, among others. In addition, philosophers Bertrand Russell, poet T.S. Eliot, novelist Henry James, and Aldous Huxley were also closely associated with the Bloomsbury Group. Most of these "European golden brains" were outstanding students of Cambridge University. This book chronicles the lives and works of the Bloomsbury Group members, based on the recollections and comments of 12 founding members about the group. It is translated from the revised edition of the book, which has added considerable new materials and a new chronology. Morgan Forster would show almost agonizing joy when praised; Maynard Keynes was full of talent but utterly convinced of his own superiority; Clive Bell was a creator of happiness and an atmosphere adjuster, yet he was actually melancholic and pessimistic; Roger Fry, with his unique artistic sensitivity, became a first-class critic, but his talent for painting seemed pale and meager; Virginia Woolf could immerse herself in the world of creation like a genius, and also roam the realm of children like an angel. The members of the Bloomsbury cultural circle portrayed each other's images with emotions intertwined between love and criticism, presenting us with a vivid and lively group portrait.