A review by actualspinster
Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade

3.25

there is something vaguely & almost profoundly lesbophobic about this book, but it is interesting nontheless. the silence it holds around intimate potentially [i mean... obviously..] sexual relationships between women is really deep and i dont think it once calls h.d [or woolf if i remember correctly] for example queer & goes on to question if jane ellen harrison's relationship with hope mirrlees could have been sexual bc it hasnt been 'documented' and then to ensure that we know that woolf never left her husband 'despite' her relationships with women which ofc means their marriage is the most important relationship... like why would she leave her husband lol if she can fuck women, publish her novels & benefit from his care simultaneously, .... and doesnt have to have sex with him ?!? lmao sounds like a great scenario !!

francesca wade is aware & writes of the misogynistic norms of biography around many of the women in the book but she then still repeats those narratives & frames herself but just ~slightly less... 
& class is ofc not really taken up in any meaningful way in this.... 
it's so foolish to spend time trying to convince urself + ur reader that woolf wasnt a snob when undoubtedly she was and i'm sure many if not all of the women in the book were too... altho eileen power had the most intentional approach to working class liberation it seems ? but i only learnt about her and her work in this !

okay also how does the whole chapter w h.d repeatedly mention ezra pound but never once say he's a fascist?! i think that's so fucking irresponsible !!

but i still did learn a lot especially about the 3 women i hadn't heard much about before reading this ....