The Handbook to the Bloomsbury Group - (Bloomsbury Handbooks) by Derek Ryan & Stephen Ross (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Handbook to the Bloomsbury Group is the most comprehensive available survey of contemporary scholarship on the Bloomsbury Group - the set of influential writers, artists and thinkers whose members included Virginia Woolf, Leonard Woolf, E.M. Forster, John Maynard Keynes, Vanessa Bell, Clive Bell, Duncan Grant and David Garnett. With chapters written by world leading scholars in the field, the book explores novel avenues of thinking about these pivotal figures and how their works are opened up by the new modernist studies. It brings together overview essays with detailed illustrative case studies, and covers topics as diverse as feminism, sexuality, empire, philosophy, class, nature and the arts. Setting the agenda for future study of Bloomsbury, this is an essential resource for scholars of 20th-century modernist culture.

Review Quotes

"Bloomsbury is everywhere: books, films, plays, even anime. Indeed, has any other group of friends had a more potent influence on the 20th-century ethos? Ryan (Univ. of Kent, UK) and Ross (Univ. of Victoria, Canada) demonstrate that the influence extends into the 21st century too, in essays covering sexuality, the arts, empire, feminism, philosophy, class, Jewishness, nature, politics, and war. Each essay is followed by a case study. Some essays (those on sexuality, class, the arts, and philosophy) reiterate well-established contentions; others force a new reckoning of the interconnectedness between the members and the pervasiveness, both positive and negative, of the group's influence. The essays in this latter group are provocative and sometimes antagonistic, so they will be terrifically exciting for Bloomsbury scholars. Most fascinating are the essays devoted to the men of Bloomsbury, who were often relegated to the darkness in relation to Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. This collection reminds one that the reverberations of Bloomsbury are still felt in every aspect of modern society, from the arts (including literature, painting, textiles, pottery, and museum acquisitions) to politics and economics, and even social policy. Summing Up: Essential." --CHOICE

"A particularly fine collection of essays on a wide range of Bloomsbury activities, enriching our understanding of this eclectic group of individuals and the worlds in which they moved." --Times Literary Supplement

"A dense and detailed examination of the interactions, writings, behaviors, and influences of this diverse and eclectic group of individuals on both their own time period and succeeding generations." --American Reference Books Annual

"This does everything a handbook ought to do, and much more. While providing its readers with an unsurpassed panorama of perspectives on that elusive term 'Bloomsbury', its innovative pairing of overview chapters with focused case studies animates a scholarly conversation which is as vibrant and diverse as Bloomsbury itself." --Bryony Randall, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Glasgow, UK

About the Author

Derek Ryan is Senior Lecturer in Modernist Literature at the University of Kent, UK. His previous books include Virginia Woolf and the Materiality of Theory (2013) and Animal Theory: A Critical Introduction (2015).

Stephen Ross is Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is Past-President of the Modernist Studies Association (2015/16) and General Editor of The Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism Online.