Quentin Bell (1) (1910–1996)

This beautifully printed book of collaborations between Virginia Woolf (words) and her teenage nephew Quentin Bell (illustrations) from 1923-1927. They were created as supplements to The Charleston Bulletin, a family newspaper that Quentin wrote with his older brother, Julian, and were created for the family, usually around Christmastime. The booklets poke fun at Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, her husband Clive Bell, her partner Duncan Grant, and visitors, houseguests, servants, and passers-by at Charleston, the country house where Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant lived with Quentin, Julian, and their younger sister, Angelica. Although excellent footnotes and brief biographical sketches, along with a helpful introduction, give some context for the stories, these were created for a family audience and while there are aspects that anyone could enjoy, I'm not sure how fun this would be for a casual Woolf fan who wasn't familiar with the biographies of Virginia and Vanessa. The book includes high quality scans of selected original pages of the supplements, along with transcriptions of the full works. My only quibble is that I would have liked even more scans of the original to see more of Julian's sometimes childish but still compelling illustrations. Overall a pretty book and a fun piece of Woolfana. Plus: these came from THE ARCHIVES!… (mehr)