Status
Available
Collection
Publication
New York : Tim Duggan Books, 2020.
Description
"In the early twentieth century, Mecklenburgh Square, a hidden architectural gem in the heart of London, was a radical address. On the outskirts of Bloomsbury known for the eponymous group who "lived in squares, painted in circles, and loved in triangles," the square was home to students, struggling artists, and revolutionaries. In the pivotal era between the two world wars, the lives of five remarkable women intertwined at this one address: modernist poet H. D., detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and author and publisher Virginia Woolf. In an era when women's freedoms were fast expanding, they each sought a space where they could live, love, and above all work independently."--
User reviews
LibraryThing member charl08
Square Haunting brings together original research on five women who lived in a small area of London, examining their experiences of work and life in a period that saw dramatic improvements for some women's lives (as well as entrenchment of some restrictions). All were 'elite' in the sense that they
'Literature is no one's private ground; literature is common ground. It is not cut up into nations, there are no wars there. Let us trespass freely and fearlessly and find our own way for ourselves.'
As always with this kind of book I'm left with a longer TBR pile, from Mary Beard's book about the significant of Jane Harrison's interpretation of classical women's lives, to Swastika Night which 'describes a future society ruled by descendants of Hitler's Nazi's where women are considered a subspecies...' I also want to read some of Eileen Power's history books for Penguin / Puffin.
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managed to access higher education at a time when Cambridge still didn't award degrees to women (they could study, just not get the degree). I loved the way Wade brought together these very different women's lives to tell a story about how they dealt with discrimination and attempts to limit their choices. I had read a little about Dorothy Sayers, but this section was definitely a highlight for me. Wade shows how she hid her (only) child, continuing to write. In the process, the link between her own life and her choices re the character Harriet Vane are made clear. Also additions to the books that never quite made it - would have loved to read Woolf's new history, rethinking ideas about cultural history across time. It was still in note form when she died. Quoting Virginia Woolf-'Literature is no one's private ground; literature is common ground. It is not cut up into nations, there are no wars there. Let us trespass freely and fearlessly and find our own way for ourselves.'
As always with this kind of book I'm left with a longer TBR pile, from Mary Beard's book about the significant of Jane Harrison's interpretation of classical women's lives, to Swastika Night which 'describes a future society ruled by descendants of Hitler's Nazi's where women are considered a subspecies...' I also want to read some of Eileen Power's history books for Penguin / Puffin.
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LibraryThing member nancyadair
Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade links writers H.D., Dorothy Sayers, Virginia Woolf, Eileen Power, and Jane Ellen Harrison through their time residing in London's Mecklenburgh Square. They were born in the late 19th c. and by full adulthood saw a changed
Each woman's life and career is illuminated through their shared experience in one place. Their time in Mecklenburgh Square was pivotal to their development.
I was familiar with Woolf, knew the work of Sayers and a bit about H.D., but Power and Harrison were unfamiliar. How sad! Harrison broke through the gender barrier to become a professional scholar. Her research impacted the Imagist writers and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Power was a fashionable and attractive academic of economics. I realized that I had read her book Medieval People several times!
I was fascinated by these women and their stories. Wade delivers a compelling narrative that combines insight and significance and good story-telling.
...real freedom entails the ability to live on one's own terms, not to allow one's identity to be proscribed or limited by anyone else.~ from Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
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world that allowed women to vote and the opening of professions to women.They defied the narrow role assigned to women to become masters of their craft.Each woman's life and career is illuminated through their shared experience in one place. Their time in Mecklenburgh Square was pivotal to their development.
I was familiar with Woolf, knew the work of Sayers and a bit about H.D., but Power and Harrison were unfamiliar. How sad! Harrison broke through the gender barrier to become a professional scholar. Her research impacted the Imagist writers and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Power was a fashionable and attractive academic of economics. I realized that I had read her book Medieval People several times!
I was fascinated by these women and their stories. Wade delivers a compelling narrative that combines insight and significance and good story-telling.
...real freedom entails the ability to live on one's own terms, not to allow one's identity to be proscribed or limited by anyone else.~ from Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
I was given a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
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LibraryThing member ffortsa
This is something of a five-part biography of 5 women writers who resided in Mecklenburgh Square in Bloomsbury between the two World Wars. Not all of them lived there at the same time, but they all spent some of there writing life there, and most knew the others and the people in between them as
The five are H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Dorothy L. Sayers, Jane Ellen Harrison, Eileen Power, and Virginia Woolf. Of the five, I have read two (Sayers and Woolf), heard of another (H.D.) and was clueless about Harrison and Power, although they were certainly as influential in their time as the other, better known names. I was impressed by all their struggles: to be heard, to live without depending on men, to find causes and nerve and their own value in their time. I learned the most from the sections on Harrison and Power, on their impacts and on the history of the time, especially on the lead-up to World War II and the visceral experience of that war in London and the surrounding areas. The psychological as well as professional struggles of these five women are not over, almost 100 years after the fact.
Strongly recommended.
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well. Their stories form a picture of women's struggles, successes and failures in this era, some of which, most of which certainly echo today.The five are H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Dorothy L. Sayers, Jane Ellen Harrison, Eileen Power, and Virginia Woolf. Of the five, I have read two (Sayers and Woolf), heard of another (H.D.) and was clueless about Harrison and Power, although they were certainly as influential in their time as the other, better known names. I was impressed by all their struggles: to be heard, to live without depending on men, to find causes and nerve and their own value in their time. I learned the most from the sections on Harrison and Power, on their impacts and on the history of the time, especially on the lead-up to World War II and the visceral experience of that war in London and the surrounding areas. The psychological as well as professional struggles of these five women are not over, almost 100 years after the fact.
Strongly recommended.
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LibraryThing member Helenliz
This is an inventive approach to biography. All of the 5 women in this book lived in the same Square in Bloomsbury between the First world war and the second. They lived their for different times, some less than a year, others for much longer. They didn't always overlap in terms of residency and
As a means of writing about 5 different women, the use of the location was certainly interesting. I quite enjoyed this and mean to read some of the other women that I am less familiar with.
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they didn't necessarily socialise together if they did. But the links that tie them together are many and varied. Some lived there at the start of their writing career, others nearer the end. They each tried to present, in their own way, a different type of life for women, one where independence and a marriage of two minds was possible and desirable. Of the 5 women, I have heard of only 2, which is poor on my part. But I do know the area. I worked, for a time, at Brunswick Square, which is the matching square on the other side of the Foundling Hospital from Mecklenburg Square. I liked the idea that these 5 women shared something that was more than just geography, and she makes this case throughout the book. The biographies start quite separate, but gradually then overlap, as the links between the various women through their extended social circle and through their writings becomes clearer. The final chapter on the post war history of the square was interesting as well. As a means of writing about 5 different women, the use of the location was certainly interesting. I quite enjoyed this and mean to read some of the other women that I am less familiar with.
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LibraryThing member lauralkeet
The 20th century ushered in a period of change for women, leading to advances in education and greater independence. London’s Bloomsbury neighborhood flourished as a residential and intellectual hub and one specific enclave, Mecklenburgh Square, was home to five notable women writers and scholars
In Square Haunting, Francesca Wade profiles each woman and shows how their time in Mecklenburgh Square informed their lives and their work. None of the women lived there at the same time and their circles barely overlapped, but there are common threads running through their lives: scholarship, independence, and the courage to flout convention. And yet their success often came at significant emotional cost.
Before reading this book, Woolf was the figure I was most familiar with. I enjoyed reading about others who forged similar paths, and am grateful for their pioneering role in improving the lives of future generations of women.
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over more than twenty years. The poet Hilda Doolittle, known as H.D., came first in 1916, followed by author Dorothy Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, historian Eileen Power, and author Virginia Woolf. In Square Haunting, Francesca Wade profiles each woman and shows how their time in Mecklenburgh Square informed their lives and their work. None of the women lived there at the same time and their circles barely overlapped, but there are common threads running through their lives: scholarship, independence, and the courage to flout convention. And yet their success often came at significant emotional cost.
Before reading this book, Woolf was the figure I was most familiar with. I enjoyed reading about others who forged similar paths, and am grateful for their pioneering role in improving the lives of future generations of women.
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LibraryThing member japaul22
[Square Haunting] is a group biography of five writers/academics connected by place, Mecklenburgh Square in London. They didn't all live there at the same time, but were all drawn to the location as a place where, as women, they could be in the middle of life and culture, but also have small place
I loved reading about these women, who, across the board, struggled to balance the desire to be taken seriously in their fields with the hope of having a balanced and fulfilled life. There are many parallels to be drawn about the challenges they faced to have their work judged on equal footing with men. Overall, I thought this book was pretty successful, especially considering the challenging topic. Though these women had similarities, they weren't a circle and largely did not interact. Drawing them together through the location of Mecklenburgh Square worked very well for some of the women, but for others I thought the tie to place was less strong. Despite these few reservations, I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in the time period. I hadn't even heard of two of these women, and knew very little about H.D. and Dorothy Sayers. Viriginia Woolf I'm pretty familiar with, but the section about her brought some welcome new ideas about her life.
[[Francesca Wade]], the author, seems fairly young from her bio, and I will read whatever she writes next.
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to call their own and focus on their work. The author devotes a section to each woman in the order that she lived in Mecklenburgh Square: the poet and author H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) who lived there from 1916-1918; the novelist Dorothy Sayers who lived there in 1920; academic of ancient history Jane Ellen Harrison who lived there from 1926-1928; economic historian Eileen Power who lived there from 1922-1940; and author Virginia Woolf who was there 1939-1940. I loved reading about these women, who, across the board, struggled to balance the desire to be taken seriously in their fields with the hope of having a balanced and fulfilled life. There are many parallels to be drawn about the challenges they faced to have their work judged on equal footing with men. Overall, I thought this book was pretty successful, especially considering the challenging topic. Though these women had similarities, they weren't a circle and largely did not interact. Drawing them together through the location of Mecklenburgh Square worked very well for some of the women, but for others I thought the tie to place was less strong. Despite these few reservations, I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in the time period. I hadn't even heard of two of these women, and knew very little about H.D. and Dorothy Sayers. Viriginia Woolf I'm pretty familiar with, but the section about her brought some welcome new ideas about her life.
[[Francesca Wade]], the author, seems fairly young from her bio, and I will read whatever she writes next.
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LibraryThing member jennybeast
To be honest, it took me a while to get into this -- the introduction is far longer than it needs to be, and feels more like an apology or a synopsis entry to a dissertation.
Once the biographies started, I was drawn in more and more. I was particularly fascinated to learn about Hilda Doolittle/HD,
Audio Advanced Reader's Copy Provided by Libro.fm.
Once the biographies started, I was drawn in more and more. I was particularly fascinated to learn about Hilda Doolittle/HD,
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Ilene Power and Jane Harrison, as I had never heard of any of them before. I loved learning more about Dorothy Sayers (even though I could wish she loved Wimsey more), and I think the Virginia Woolf section was wonderfully focused on her work -- I like how much it talked about what she was doing and how she was dealing with her mental health, rather than writing her struggles off. On the whole, I thought the premise was a little wacky -- connecting via a space, but the interconnections really are astonishing, and I found the strength of the subjects inspiring. Audio Advanced Reader's Copy Provided by Libro.fm.
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Subjects
Awards
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (Longlist)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Nonfiction — 2021)
Ondaatje Prize (Shortlist — 2021)