'Interesting, gorgeous, wonderful.... this book displays the best of bohemia itself - playful, dazzling, original' Julie Burchill, Spectator
'Racy, vivacious, warm-hearted. Offers an illuminating and well-researched portrait of life among the artists, a century ago'
TLS
Subversive, eccentric and flamboyant, the artistic community in the first half of the twentieth century were ingaged in a grand experiment. The Bohemians ate garlic and didn't always wash; they painted and danced and didn't care what people thought. They sent their children to co-ed schools; explored homosexuality and Free Love. They were often drunk, broke and hungry but they were rebels.
In this fascinating book Virginia Nicholson examines the way the Bohemians refashioned the way we live our lives.
By:
Virginia Nicholson
Imprint: Penguin
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 198mm,
Width: 129mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 292g
ISBN: 9780140289787
ISBN 10: 014028978X
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 27 November 2003
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Part 1 Paying the price: why is poverty so romantic?; why do artists despise money?; how does one survive while producing something that no one will buy?; what does an artist do who runs out of money?; does being rich disqualify one from Bohemia?; if being Bohemian means being poor, is the gain worth the pain? Part 2 All for love: what is wrong with talking about sex?; what is wrong with sex outside marriage?; why shouldn't self-expression extend to the bedroom?; is homosexuality wrong?; must relationships be confined to members of the same sex, class and colour?; is marriage a meaningful institution?; is there such a thing as free love? Part 3 Children of light: what is it like to be brought up in Bohemia?; should children be kept clean and tidy?; should children be given rules and punishments?; how do you bring up a creative child?; should children be educated, and if so, how? Part 4 Dwelling with beauty: how can one recognise a Bohemian interior?; does one really need furniture?; how can one live beautifully and cheaply?; is innovation in design compatible with authentic living?; do things have to match? what is the point of wallpaper?; must furniture be new?; is comfort more important that appearance; is living the simple life the answer to poverty? Part 5 Glorious apparel: what do one's clothes tell people about one's beliefs?; does one have to wear what other people wear?; must one wear sober colours?; evening dress? corsets?; which is more important, comfort or appearance?; must women wear skirts?; must men be clean-shaven?; is jewellery wrong for men?; do clothes have to be expensive to be beautiful? (Part contents).
Virginia Nicholson is the granddaughter of Vanessa Bell. A freelance jouralist and researcher, she is Deputy Chairman of The Charleston Trust. Her first book was Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden. Virginia Nicholson lives in Sussex.
Reviews for Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939
Virginia Nicholson is perhaps uniquely well placed to write about the Bohemian movement of the early 20th century, of which the Bloomsbury Group was a key part: she is the daughter of the writer and artist Quentin Bell, himself the son of Clive and Vanessa Bell. However, part of the charm of this eminently informed and readable account is that Nicholson does not seek to use her family connections to sell a rehashed litany of who-was-sleeping-with-whom Bloomsbury gossip, but has instead chosen to describe in minute domestic detail exactly what it meant to live as one of these free spirits in the middle of drab, joyless Edwardian Britain. She does not seek to explain the literary influences or grand passions that shaped the work and lives of these beautiful peacocks - Dylan Thomas, Katherine Mansfield, Ottoline Morrell, Robert Graves, Lytton Strachey, Eric Gill, Augustus John - but concentrates her attention on how they dressed their children; what underwear they wore; how they learned to cook; what it was like for a middle-class woman brought up with servants to have to empty the family's chamber pots. Beatrice Campbell's account of Katherine Mansfield's attempts to wash the dishes after cooking a leg of mutton - 'We had very little hot water and no washing powder, and the grease was in thick layers over everything.... I tried to make a joke of our predicament, but Katherine was beyond jokes; she started to weep ceaselessly and hopelessly' - says as much about the life of a woman writer of her time as any biography of Mansfield ever could. Similarly, the descriptions of the new culinary experiences of these adventurous creatures, garlic and herb-laden dishes with fresh fish and vegetables, contrast so tellingly with the boring, tasteless brown slop served in 'respectable' households that the author is able to draw a wonderful pen-picture of the excitement and interest these trail-blazers generated. Nicholson's breezy, entertaining style enhances, rather than detracts from this rigorously researched and annotated history: a thoroughly enjoyable read. (Kirkus UK)
