Scan barcode
A review by cunningba
Flush: A Biography by Virginia Woolf
4.0
Really about 3.5 stars.
This is a reread for me, but the first read was when I was in high school in the mid-1960s, probably in the paperback edition cited.
One of my high school English teachers (either Doreen Stock or Helvi Lansu, I think) first mentioned it in passing and I filed it away. It appealed to me for two reasons. First, like many kids I had gone through my period of enthusiasm for dog and pony novels when I was in elementary school after reading [b:Black Beauty|3685|Black Beauty|Anna Sewell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578265482l/3685._SY75_.jpg|4639714] and [b:Lassie Come-Home|895886|Lassie Come-Home|Eric Knight|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316130656l/895886._SX50_.jpg|1065795]. This was another dog book to tack onto that genre. Second, it was based on a real dog associated with the Brownings' romance as imagined by Virginia Woolf, all of which were points of intrigue to me. I remember that I read it, and thought it was OK, albeit not particularly memorable. I also read Woolf's [b:Orlando|18839|Orlando|Virginia Woolf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443118010l/18839._SY75_.jpg|6057225] during the same time period. It was memorable.
Having recently read [b:A Room of One's Own|18521|A Room of One's Own|Virginia Woolf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327883012l/18521._SY75_.jpg|1315615], which I enjoyed so much I immediately then listened to it on audio book. The mentions of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in it suggested the reread of Flush. I reread it in [b:Virginia Woolf: Complete Works (OBG Classics): Inspired 'A Ghost Story' (2017) directed by David Lowery|35657376|Virginia Woolf Complete Works (OBG Classics) Inspired 'A Ghost Story' (2017) directed by David Lowery|Virginia Woolf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499832747l/35657376._SY75_.jpg|44132937].
Flush is a curious novel. It is not your usual children's dog novel. It is not exactly told from the dog's point of view. Although Woolf's stream of consciousness narrative frequently narrates Flush's putative thoughts and feelings, it is definitely a third-person doing the narration. Flush at points appears to be extraordinarily class-conscious, which is perhaps a clue to what the novel is really supposed to be about. Flush's interior life in some way mirrors Elizabeth Barrett's own, as would be expected, and, perhaps, is a bit of an allegory for Virginia Woolf's interior life. Perhaps even a faint prescient echo of the allegorical technique in [b:Animal Farm|170448|Animal Farm|George Orwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1325861570l/170448._SY75_.jpg|2207778]. This is all OK. Virginia Woolf is entitled.
But Flush is also a historical dog about which we have some particulars from Elizabeth Barrett's poems and letters. Woolf goes to some lengths to connect the dots here, including several long footnotes explaining the references and that she has, thankfully, collapsed three separate dognappings into a single incident for readability.
I am left with some more curiosity about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and would like to explore her letters more.
Flush, as a re-imagined character, seems curiously incomplete from what I was hoping for, though it may have been exactly as Virginia Woolf intended. From a dog's point-of-view we had a lot of wild, passionate sense impressions, some perplexity and misunderstandings about what people are doing, and some class-conscious musings on human and dog hierarchies. Not really enough detail about what is going on in the Barrett family or the Brownings' romance to make complete sense of it, just some emotional impressions, as if from the viewpoint of a dog. It's unclear whether we are expected to know the surrounding context -- the footnotes argue that the author does not expect this of the reader -- or whether the muddled impressions are all we are supposed to get.
While there is some poetry and beauty here, as well as more than a little social commentary, the character and story arcs leave me somewhat unsatisfied.
This is a reread for me, but the first read was when I was in high school in the mid-1960s, probably in the paperback edition cited.
One of my high school English teachers (either Doreen Stock or Helvi Lansu, I think) first mentioned it in passing and I filed it away. It appealed to me for two reasons. First, like many kids I had gone through my period of enthusiasm for dog and pony novels when I was in elementary school after reading [b:Black Beauty|3685|Black Beauty|Anna Sewell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578265482l/3685._SY75_.jpg|4639714] and [b:Lassie Come-Home|895886|Lassie Come-Home|Eric Knight|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316130656l/895886._SX50_.jpg|1065795]. This was another dog book to tack onto that genre. Second, it was based on a real dog associated with the Brownings' romance as imagined by Virginia Woolf, all of which were points of intrigue to me. I remember that I read it, and thought it was OK, albeit not particularly memorable. I also read Woolf's [b:Orlando|18839|Orlando|Virginia Woolf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1443118010l/18839._SY75_.jpg|6057225] during the same time period. It was memorable.
Having recently read [b:A Room of One's Own|18521|A Room of One's Own|Virginia Woolf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327883012l/18521._SY75_.jpg|1315615], which I enjoyed so much I immediately then listened to it on audio book. The mentions of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in it suggested the reread of Flush. I reread it in [b:Virginia Woolf: Complete Works (OBG Classics): Inspired 'A Ghost Story' (2017) directed by David Lowery|35657376|Virginia Woolf Complete Works (OBG Classics) Inspired 'A Ghost Story' (2017) directed by David Lowery|Virginia Woolf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499832747l/35657376._SY75_.jpg|44132937].
Flush is a curious novel. It is not your usual children's dog novel. It is not exactly told from the dog's point of view. Although Woolf's stream of consciousness narrative frequently narrates Flush's putative thoughts and feelings, it is definitely a third-person doing the narration. Flush at points appears to be extraordinarily class-conscious, which is perhaps a clue to what the novel is really supposed to be about. Flush's interior life in some way mirrors Elizabeth Barrett's own, as would be expected, and, perhaps, is a bit of an allegory for Virginia Woolf's interior life. Perhaps even a faint prescient echo of the allegorical technique in [b:Animal Farm|170448|Animal Farm|George Orwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1325861570l/170448._SY75_.jpg|2207778]. This is all OK. Virginia Woolf is entitled.
But Flush is also a historical dog about which we have some particulars from Elizabeth Barrett's poems and letters. Woolf goes to some lengths to connect the dots here, including several long footnotes explaining the references and that she has, thankfully, collapsed three separate dognappings into a single incident for readability.
I am left with some more curiosity about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and would like to explore her letters more.
Flush, as a re-imagined character, seems curiously incomplete from what I was hoping for, though it may have been exactly as Virginia Woolf intended. From a dog's point-of-view we had a lot of wild, passionate sense impressions, some perplexity and misunderstandings about what people are doing, and some class-conscious musings on human and dog hierarchies. Not really enough detail about what is going on in the Barrett family or the Brownings' romance to make complete sense of it, just some emotional impressions, as if from the viewpoint of a dog. It's unclear whether we are expected to know the surrounding context -- the footnotes argue that the author does not expect this of the reader -- or whether the muddled impressions are all we are supposed to get.
While there is some poetry and beauty here, as well as more than a little social commentary, the character and story arcs leave me somewhat unsatisfied.