In it, we’re treated to a chronological telling of their complicated, impossible-to-define relationship. It contains curated letters between the two, as well as snippets from both of their diaries and letters from Vita to her husband, Harold Nicolson. Now comes along a new volume, Love Letters: Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, with an insightful introduction by Alison Bechdel. In 1933 a young woman told Vita she was writing a book on her relationship with Virginia, so the fascination goes back to its origin. There are volumes of biography, countless academic articles, at least one feature film, and a stage play, all exploring the world of Vita and Virginia. So it happens that I’ve been attuned to the relationship between Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf for a very long time. It meant lesbians were out there and all I had to do was meet the non-famous ones and everything would be sorted out. In that lonely time when I was coming out, anyone famous who had any kind of sexual relationship with another woman was a lodestar for me. I certainly knew who Virginia Woolf was, but I didn’t know she had a relationship with Vita until I read about Vita, and the news knocked me for a loop. She’s one of those literary figures in my life that I’m drawn to, every time I see her name. I quickly became enraptured by Vita, a flamboyant British aristocrat, and sought out information about her wherever I could find it, which in pre-internet days was hit or miss. I’d never heard of the woman before, but back then I liked any book about a lesbian. It was about a lesbian and she thought I’d like it. In 1980 my mother gave me a biography of Vita Sackville-West. Vita & Virginia: “A Longing Far Beyond The Sexual”
0 kommentar(er)
