Flush by Virginia Woolf

I'd been planning for weeks to start reading Flush, and finally it was time.  It's in the Persephone catalog, so it was top on my TBR list for that reason; also, Amanda from The Zen Leaf chose it for me last year in our first-ever Reading Swap.  And it's been sitting around on my TBR shelf for a couple of years now, so my timing was perfect. 

Now that it is time to put words on the blog I find I'm at a bit of a loss.  This is a short little book about a dog written by Virginia Woolf; specifically, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's dog.  Ostensibly, it is a biography, but is it about a dog or a poet?  Or is it just an excuse to start reading Virginia Woolf, who scares me?


Flush is not a hard read, and I suppose it's not one of the Woolfs that is studied and discussed and analyzed extensively by the literati.  (Which I am not, believe me!)  It begins when young Flush is given as a gift by his owner to Ms. Barrett (not yet Mrs. Browning), an invalid.  He must give up his days of sniffing and running and exploring the outdoors to be the indoor companion of this bedridden poet.  He loves her and becomes extremely protective and suspicious of Mr. Browning, and he is along for the ride during their elopement and marriage and journeys to Italy and back.  The story moves back and forth in places between his point of view and that of his owner.  

I know next to nothing about Elizabeth Barrett Browning but now I am intrigued by her life as well.  I do remember Browning and Flush are included in a book called Shaggy Muses, which is a nonfiction work about the lives of several women writers and their pets.

Like the life of a dog, Flush is sadly short.  This was the first of Woolf's fiction that I really liked, and I wish I'd had more of it to read.  I am glad, however, that the ending wasn't terribly sad -- there are so many tearjerking stories about beloved pets these days, I really did not want to cry at the end of this book.

Virginia Woolf seems to be all over the blogs the past couple of weeks.  My good friend Amanda was baffled by Orlando; Carolyn at A Few of My Favorite Books brought To the Lighthouse to Florida for a beach read!  To the Lighthouse has been sitting on my shelves unread as long as Flush, but it scares me -- it's such a short little book but I've heard it's challenging.  Stream-of-consciousness is not really my thing.  

The endpapers from the Persephone edition of Flush

I did read Mrs. Dalloway and was underwhelmed, but that was a few years ago when I had just started reading classics.  Maybe I didn't know enough about her work to appreciate it.  Last year, my classics book group at the library read A Room of One's Own, which I quite liked, but that's really a long essay, so I don't know I'd like her fiction.


This probably isn't the best review I've written, but I feel like I don't know enough about Woolf or her writing to think of something clever and insightful.  I would love to hear other people's thoughts -- how does this compare to other works by Virginia Woolf?  Should I take the plunge and read To the Lighthouse or start with something a little easier?

This is my third book for Persephone Reading Weekend, hosted by Verity and Claire.  Check out their blog links for more thoughts on Persephone books!

A Reading Swap

So, this is not exactly a challenge, because the only challenge to which I have absolutely committed myself this year is to clear off my unread bookshelves, aka The TBR Dare.  However, my good friend Amanda from The Zen Leaf -- yes, the very same blogger that got me sucked into the world of book blogging -- asked if I'd like to do a reading swap in 2011.

Basically, she chose five books for me, and I chose five books for her.  Here's what she chose for me:

1.  The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.  I was underwhelmed by Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but Amanda swears this is so much better.  And there's an audio version narrated by Alan Rickman, need I say more?

2.  Flush by Virginia Woolf.  Because it's on my to-read shelf, and Amanda really liked it.  And she knows how much I love dogs.  And it's a Persephone!

3.  East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  Because we both love Steinbeck and I still haven't read it.  And Amanda says it has the best villain ever.

4.  Kindred by Octavia Butler.  A great time-travel novel about the antebellum South.  Enough said.

5.  Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov.  Because Amanda swears it's nothing like Lolita.

Amanda and I both have eclectic tastes -- sometimes wildly different.  Sometimes she absolutely hates books I love, and vice versa.  I'm really excited about the first four books (especially because I own copies of East of Eden and Flush, so that counts for the TBR challenge!).  The one book on this list that scares me a little is the Nabokov.  I read Lolita years ago, in college, and it still creeps me out.  But I am willing to give him another shot.

And in case you're wondering, here's what I chose for Amanda:

1.  Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh.  Because she was underwhelmed by Brideshead Revisited, and this is nothing like that.  If you haven't read it, it's hilarious.

2.  Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner.  Because it's on her to-read list, and I thought it was just wonderful.  One of my favorite books from the Modern Library Top 100.

3.  West with the Night by Beryl Markham.  Because she loved Out of Africa, and because it's one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.  Also a ML Top 100 Non-fiction pick.  If you haven't read it, go out and get it right now.  You won't be sorry.

4.  Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence.  Because she hated Lady Chatterley's Lover and I think she should give Lawrence another try.  I was afraid of this book but after one chapter I was really hooked.  The characters are kind of repulsive, yet I couldn't put it down.

5.  Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.  Because Amanda still hasn't read any DWJ and I think she'd really like this one.  DWJ is wildly unappreciated in this country and it is my personal responsibility to fix that.  Howl is brilliant, and I liked the movie but the book is soooo much better.

So -- we both have a year to finish these books.  I think it's doable.  Bloggers, have you read any of these books?  Loved them or hated them?