Scan barcode
dizzymisslizzy's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and War
shellydennison's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Fascinating and enjoyable joint biography of five women - all writers and thinke s of different kinds - who lived on the same London Square. The connections between them aren't overplayed and the ways that their lives and work were changed during the period they lived in the Square are thoughtfully brought out.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War
Minor: Suicide
lelia_t's review
2.0
This book was a miss for me. I had expected more, which was probably unfair. Wade basically offers five mini biographies with the women’s common residence in Mecklenburgh Square as a novelty item. Occasionally Wade draws together the threads of their experiences - Dorothy Sayers renting the exact room H.D. occupied several years earlier, for example. My favorite section was Virginia Woolf’s, where Wade was able to draw on Woolf’s extensive writing in journals and letters to flesh out the year Virginia and Leonard owned a house on the square. But often Wade rehashes details of Woolf’s life and writing that Woolf fans will know about already.
Wade does a lot of telling instead of showing so that even the descriptions of the women who were unfamiliar to me were a little lifeless. “[Eileen] Power was entranced by Alexandria’s bazaars and open workshops, where she watched merchants at the roadside welding fine gold chains or weaving delicate tassels for vibrantly colored scarves.” While rich in adjectives, that sentence is dull. And there were many similar sentences that left me thinking, Francesca Wade must have gotten this information from somewhere - letters? journals? - why not use the subject’s words to breathe a little life into the narrative?
There are some delightful tidbits here, and it does seem that Wade may have been trying to put into practice Woolf’s idea to write “lives of people. Always follow the genuine scent - the idea of the moment.” Here are the lives of five women and the idea of the moment is Mecklenburgh Square, yet overall, the narrative was too rushed to be insightful, and seemed to be confused in its purpose. Are we learning about the Square, or the women’s lives which spanned far more places and years?
Wade does a lot of telling instead of showing so that even the descriptions of the women who were unfamiliar to me were a little lifeless. “[Eileen] Power was entranced by Alexandria’s bazaars and open workshops, where she watched merchants at the roadside welding fine gold chains or weaving delicate tassels for vibrantly colored scarves.” While rich in adjectives, that sentence is dull. And there were many similar sentences that left me thinking, Francesca Wade must have gotten this information from somewhere - letters? journals? - why not use the subject’s words to breathe a little life into the narrative?
There are some delightful tidbits here, and it does seem that Wade may have been trying to put into practice Woolf’s idea to write “lives of people. Always follow the genuine scent - the idea of the moment.” Here are the lives of five women and the idea of the moment is Mecklenburgh Square, yet overall, the narrative was too rushed to be insightful, and seemed to be confused in its purpose. Are we learning about the Square, or the women’s lives which spanned far more places and years?
lc200's review against another edition
4.0
A really interesting idea for a book, and it worked very well, and was clearly meticulously researched. A little depressing that, a century later, family money and help with childcare/no children, are still pretty essential for women to make their way in the worlds of academia and literature.
anhistorianabouttown's review
informative
medium-paced
5.0
I really enjoyed this- I find that the rise of group biographies has led to a lot of biographers looking at their subjects in a different light, and it certainly has paid off here!
deedralapray's review
3.0
To be fair, I've been pretty scattered while listening to this one. This is the story of five female writers whose lives are woven together by an address. That all of these women occupied the same address was quite amazing. Some of them had nothing else in common besides Mecklenburgh Square.
There were some interesting parts of the book, but it's just a lot of information I will never retain. There are so many different people in this book. It reads like a whos-who in literature, art, society, and politics. But these women were all over the place. There were at least 19,000 affairs. Many of them wide out in the open for the spouse to witness. I had a difficult time keeping everyone straight. I think it is just May brain, but I'm ready for a juicy story I can sink my teeth into.
There were some interesting parts of the book, but it's just a lot of information I will never retain. There are so many different people in this book. It reads like a whos-who in literature, art, society, and politics. But these women were all over the place. There were at least 19,000 affairs. Many of them wide out in the open for the spouse to witness. I had a difficult time keeping everyone straight. I think it is just May brain, but I'm ready for a juicy story I can sink my teeth into.
neve's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
honestly a lovely work of history ! did u know i have a history degree so i can comment on this- a great exercise in using geography as a historical lens and a really insightful comparison but not comparison of five super duper interesting women. nothing wrong with this except that there were a few moments when i would have liked a bit more conviction in admitting instances of wrongdoing or bits and pieces that may have been okay at the time but don’t hold up today. like there’s nothing wrong with admitting that people who otherwise were pioneers also held dodgy views- we don’t have to shy away from it all the time !