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Flush

by Virginia Woolf, Trekkie Ritchie (Introduction)

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 1,230 ratings · 122 reviews

This story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, Flush, enchants right from the opening pages. Although Flush has adventures of his own with bullying dogs, horrid maids, and robbers, he also provides the reader with a glimpse into Browning’s life. Introduction by Trekkie Ritchie.

Paperback, 204 pages

Published October 4th 1976 by Mariner Books (first published 1933)

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Feb 28, 2013 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, biography, historical-fiction, london, dog, england, italy

This was too tempting to resist. The great stream-of-consciousness novelist pulls off a “biography” of the beloved dog of Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It was a nice trifle, though missing some of the emotional engagement that comes from direct knowledge of the animal by the author.

Flush was a cocker Spaniel who grew up in the country, and then was brought to the London household of Barrett. Their first encounter give you some of the flavor of Woolf’s approach to capturing his exper...more

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Oct 14, 2012 Maria Manuel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Esta pequena grande obra foi-me oferecida no Natal e ficou na pilha "para ler" até há umas semanas atrás. E ainda bem que assim foi pois é a leitura ideal para aquecer e arrebitar o espírito durante as primeiras chuvas de Outono.

É um livro extremamente imaginativo de uma escritora que consegue, com uma facilidade extrema, transportar o leitor para a Inglaterra e Itália do século XIX. A verbalização dos pensamentos caninos e as descrições dos cenários em forma de odores transformam "Flush" numa...more

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Jan 13, 2012 A.C.Hale rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20c-fiction

'I lay in the garden and read the Browning love letters, and the figure of their dog made me laugh so I couldn't resist making him a Life.'

This is Virginia Woolf’s biography of Flush the pet cocker spaniel of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It tells the story of Flush’s time as a puppy with Mary Mitford before being given to Elizabeth Barrett when she was ill and confined to her rooms in London. He then has to contend with “losing” her to Robert Browning, moving to Italy and witnessing spiritualist...more

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Sep 15, 2010 Henry added it

Shelves: fiction-novel

Goat's endnotes lead me to conclude (again) that hers was a most brilliant and good-humored imagination. Quite just that she and Ba are through this book united in spirit. One luminescence lights upon another.

"To be nothing--is that not, after all, the most satisfactory state in the whole world? He looked again. There was his ruff. To caricature the pomposity of those who claim that they are something--was that not in its way a career? Anyhow, settle the matter as he might, there could be no dou...more

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Mar 12, 2010 El rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: early20th-centurylit

It's sort of accidental that I read this immediately after finishing Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out, and it probably wasn't the next best book to pick up. I was so blown away by The Voyage Out that I had hoped Flush would be the same way. And since it's about a dog I thought it was a win-win situation.

Sadly, I felt let down.

This is a biography of Flush, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's adorable cocker spaniel. This story is told mostly through the eyes of Flush and tells his adventures from liv...more

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Nov 06, 2009 Catherine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Here be SPOILERS

I was surprised to run into “Flush” because I’m fairly acquainted with Woolf’s writing (I’m a huge fan of her Common Readers) but I had never heard much about this one. “Flush” is put out by Persephone Books and like all of their books, is a real gem.

Flush was Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel given to her a friend to cheer Miss Barrett up while she lay on her invalid bed doing invalid things. Like writing poetry and reading books and having friends occasionally visit w...more Here be SPOILERS

I was surprised to run into “Flush” because I’m fairly acquainted with Woolf’s writing (I’m a huge fan of her Common Readers) but I had never heard much about this one. “Flush” is put out by Persephone Books and like all of their books, is a real gem.

Flush was Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel given to her a friend to cheer Miss Barrett up while she lay on her invalid bed doing invalid things. Like writing poetry and reading books and having friends occasionally visit while she cocooned herself up in Paisley Shawls. “Flush” then is the biography of Flush himself and it starts out with his ancestry and their love of chasing rabbits and running free as a breeze. Of course, this very great love of chasing things outdoors runs like quicksilver in Flush’s body but he is destined…for other things. And he resigns himself to the fate of living in a stuffy room and mostly eating and lying about. The first half of the book was difficult for me to get through. This clearly is no life for an energetic young dog. He rarely goes out and when he does in a park, it’s on a chain. Oh, Woolf whips it up all right and the puzzled longing of Flush to gallop about and play goes like nails into the heart. He loves Elizabeth, of course, but in his heart lies many turmoils…not just his need to race about in the sun…but there are jealousies and hurt feelings too.

The claustrophobic feel in the first half the book is pretty hard to get through. Elizabeth Barrett is cooped up in a room and sure, it’s been artistically and tastefully decorated but…it’s just one small room. She’s one of many children and an invalid and it’s hard to exactly know why she’s an invalid. She doesn’t feel well most of the time but it’s hard to think who Would feel good trapped up in a room nearly all the time. And why am I throwing conjectures about her when this book is about Flush? The book is about Flush but because he’s in this sweltering atmosphere, it gives us a good idea what Elizabeth Barrett is stuck in as well.

Release comes in the form of Robert Browning, whom Flush despises at first but who ultimately whisks the pair off for a life in Italy and Elizabeth Barrett’s and Flush Barrett’s lives are ultimately changed…

I galloped through the second half, managing to take a little bit of time to linger in the Florence that Flush hustles through everyday and the Apennines which Flush barely concedes to notice but whom his mistress exclaims over…yes, the first half sets the second half off, like a foil for a jewel.

And there really can be no doubt on how Woolf felt about Victorians and their “invalids” and I really cannot forget how sick I felt over the straightened ribs of that lone room, holding dog and mistress in its crush…and now I’m grateful too that at least one woman and one dog escaped that savage confine.(less)

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Apr 08, 2009 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

SO FUN. woolf uses this biography of flush (a dog, albeit an impressively complex & well-bred one!) as a vehicle for social commentary, gorgeous language exercises, psychological investigations, existential ramblings, & an indirect biography of said dog's mistress, who happens to be elizabeth barrett browning (I KNOW). excerpts from ebb's letters fill things out nicely. israel & i have a distinct voice for saying "page-turner" because it's such a lame phrase, but i'm going to go ahea...more SO FUN. woolf uses this biography of flush (a dog, albeit an impressively complex & well-bred one!) as a vehicle for social commentary, gorgeous language exercises, psychological investigations, existential ramblings, & an indirect biography of said dog's mistress, who happens to be elizabeth barrett browning (I KNOW). excerpts from ebb's letters fill things out nicely. israel & i have a distinct voice for saying "page-turner" because it's such a lame phrase, but i'm going to go ahead & say page-turner. hilarious & beautiful writing.

**********

...she laughed, pityingly; as if it were absurd -- Flush, poor Flush could feel nothing of what she felt. He could know nothing of what she knew. Never had such wastes of dismal distance separated them. He lay there ignored; he might not have been there, he felt. She no longer remembered his existence.

**********

Here, then the biographer must perforce come to a pause. Where two or three thousand words are insufficient for what we see - and Mrs. Browning had to admit herself beaten by the Apennines: "Of these things I cannot give you any idea," she admitted -- there are no more than two words and perhaps one-half for what we smell. The human nose is practically non-existent. The greatest poets in the world have smelt nothing but roses on the one hand, and dung on the other. The infinite gradations that lie between are unrecorded. Yet it was in the world of smell that Flush mostly lived. Love was chiefly smell; form and colour were smell; music and architecture, law, politics and science were smell. To him religion itself was smell. To describe his simplest experience with the daily chop or biscuit is beyond our power. Not even Mr. Swinburne could have said what the smell of Wimpole Street meant to Flush on a hot afternoon in June. As for describing the smell of a spaniel mixed with the smell of torches, laurels, incense, banners, wax candles and a garland of rose leaves crushed by a satin heel that has been laid up in camphor, perhaps Shakespeare, had he paused in the middle of writing Antony and Cleopatra -- But Shakespeare did not pause.

**********

He followed the swooning sweetness of incense into the violet intricacies of dark cathedrals; and, sniffing, tried to lap the gold on the window-stained tomb.

**********

Flush felt himself emasculated, diminished, ashamed. What am I now? he thought, gazing into the glass. And the glass replied with the brutal sincerity of glasses, "You are nothing." He was nobody. Certainly he was no longer a cocker spaniel. But as he gazed, his ears bald now, and uncurled, seemed to twitch. It was as if the potent spirits of truth and laughter were whispering in them. To be nothing -- is that not, after all, the most satisfactory state in the whole world? He looked again. There was his ruff. To caricature the pomposity of those who claim that they are something -- was that not in its way a career? Anyhow, settle the matter as he might, there could be no doubt that he was free from fleas. He shook his ruff. He danced on his nude, attenuated legs. His spirits rose. So might a great beauty, rising from a bed of sickness and finding her face eternally disfigured, make a bonfire of clothes and cosmetics, and laugh with joy to think that she need never look in the glass again or dread a lover's coolness or a rival's beauty. So might a clergyman, cased for twenty years in starch and broadcloth, cast his collar into the dustbin and snatch the works of Voltaire from the cupboard. So Flush scampered off clipped all over into the likeness of a lion, but free from fleas. "Flush," Mrs. Browning wrote to her sister, "is wise." She was thinking perhaps of the Greek saying that happiness is only to be reached through suffering. The true philosopher is he who has lost his coat but is free from fleas.
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Sep 21, 2012 Fidel rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012, novels

Valoro muy positivamente ese arte de Woolf de orquestar el pensamiento de todo lo vivo e incluso de lo muerto, de dejar que el lector nade por sensaciones de diversa índole. Pero lo que sobre todo valoro son sus diestras condiciones en el arte de aburrir. Este libro me ha hecho preguntarme muchas cosas ¿Cómo se pueden escribir ciento cincuenta páginas y conseguir que todas y cada una de ellas hagan bostezar?
Desde luego es algo que no está al alcance de cualquiera.
Una vez terminado, no tengo nin...more

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Jan 03, 2011 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: recentlyread

Flush: A Biography purports to tell the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, who lived in the 1840s and early 50s. Really Woolf is describing her own cocker spaniel Pinka, though with a sex change. So it’s two books in one: a story of the Brownings (two of prominent Victorian poets) and a “biography” of a Victorian dog. The first seems sketchy and though we get Elizabeth’s point of view in her letters, poems, and reactions, these are all deployed only in relation to Flush’s life...more Flush: A Biography purports to tell the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel, who lived in the 1840s and early 50s. Really Woolf is describing her own cocker spaniel Pinka, though with a sex change. So it’s two books in one: a story of the Brownings (two of prominent Victorian poets) and a “biography” of a Victorian dog. The first seems sketchy and though we get Elizabeth’s point of view in her letters, poems, and reactions, these are all deployed only in relation to Flush’s life and perspective. Readers who don’t know anything about the Brownings and their circle might feel slighted. The second story is Flush’s, some of which must be intellectualized in Woolf’s omniscient voice through fanciful etymologies of “spaniel” (as rabbit-chasing dogs that come from Hispania [Spain], or Rabbit-Land in the Carthaginian conquerors’ tongue) and ironic musings on canine and human breeding, and the rest of which strives to inhabit Flush’s mind. Woolf is more convincing when she favors the literal dog point of view over the ironic writer’s. For example, during Robert and Elizabeth’s courtship, initially conducted through daily letters, Flush observes his mistress uneasily: “So he would quieten himself and try to believe, when a few nights passed without the envelope, that the enemy had gone. A man in a cloak, he imagined, a cowled and hooded figure, had passed, like a burglar, rattling the door, and finding it guarded, had slunk away defeated. The danger, Flush tried to make himself believe, was over. The man had gone. And then the letter came again.” Soon after Robert starts making regular (but secret) afternoon visits, Flush goes on the offensive and bites him in the pantleg. Obviously, her defender is eventually won over, just as Elizabeth herself is. Perhaps more important thematically to this strange little book is Woolf’s sometimes subtle and sometimes not-very-subtle analysis of class, manners, “breeding,” and Englishness. A series of graphic contrasts develop the theme: country vs. city (Flush starts his life on a farm); genteel London vs. impoverished slums (Wimpole Street, where the Barretts live, vs. Whitechapel, to which Flush is taken by dognappers who demand a ransom—a lucrative racket in 19th-century London); and Italy vs. England (the Brownings eloped to Italy and lived there the rest of their lives). Unsurprisingly, the dog’s adventures become commentaries on pertinent human issues; at the very minimum, dog stories (or animal tales in general) usually relate to concerns about human mortality. I would have loved to have a fatter book with more of Flush in it.(less)

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May 13, 2012 Kristin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: humor, dogs

Primarily an ironic look at Victorian society, this book still seems to convey Woolf's interest in how experience changes the mind, looking at the sights and sounds of life in detail. In spite of trying to write a satirical little vignette, the author's artistic concerns and interests shown through. Not the most riveting of her works, but it was pleasant. I like how Woolf examined manners and other aspects of London society as seen through the eyes of a dog, a snobby dog at that. This wasn't a r...more

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Jun 28, 2009 Starfish rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: persephone

I've always been a bit afraid of Virginia Woolf. I mean, she's someone who is there and at some point, you've got to tackle her. There is a lot of her to tackle.

I thought Flush might help. It sounds a very harmless sort of a book, but at the same time, has enough to it that it's not all fluff. I really enjoyed Beauman's introduction -- she describes Dora Copperfield as a 'lobotomised doll' so immediately, I like her. And well. I sort of felt the story didn't live up to the introduction, if that...more

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Feb 26, 2009 Alice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: persephone

I first met Woolf in A Room of One's Own as a teenager. I remember being startled by how her words resonated in me. However, I put Woolf aside - finding her frightening in her complexity, subtlety and ability to see into my soul and uncover the vague unease with 'womanhood' I kept hidden there.

When I picked up Flush, I was a bit nervous to see Woolf, but find we have met again under most pleasant circumstances. Flush is far from fluff and is, in my opinion, Woolf's most brilliant work of fiction...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Nancy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Wait, wait, this is Virginia Woolf? Somehow I thought it would be...well, VERY different. Flush is the spaniel who famously belonged to Elizabeth Barrett Browning (she wrote a poem to him) and I really can't make out what Woolf was aiming at with this one. The book is written as a straightforward biography - it is not particularly cutesy, and not written tongue-in-cheek either, although there are certainly flashes of humor. There is interesting detail about the Brownings, most of it historically...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Jo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-finished

I knew going in that Flush wasn't going to be the profoundly moving fiction you'd expect from Virginia's other novels (I mean-after all it's a story written from the perspective of a Spaniel!) but I just had to find out how my favourite writer would fare when writing something of this kind.

It's not bad by any means but half way through you almost get the impression Woolf herself was a little bored or running out of ideas as some parts are really repetitive and the pace grinds to a halt.

For the...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Danielle rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Virginia Woolf seems to have a penchant for writing fictional biographies of unrealistic proportions, as evidenced by her second novel-biography Flush. Published five years after Orlando in 1933, Flush is the biography of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning's cocker spaniel. Flush becomes Elizabeth's companion at a young age, and faithfully lays by her sofa as she spends her days ailing in her father's home. Flush watches Elizabeth receive letters that make her eyes shine, and watches as the a...more Virginia Woolf seems to have a penchant for writing fictional biographies of unrealistic proportions, as evidenced by her second novel-biography Flush. Published five years after Orlando in 1933, Flush is the biography of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning's cocker spaniel. Flush becomes Elizabeth's companion at a young age, and faithfully lays by her sofa as she spends her days ailing in her father's home. Flush watches Elizabeth receive letters that make her eyes shine, and watches as the author of those letters (Robert Browning) begins to visit daily. Flush becomes jealous of Browning and tries to bite off his leg numerous times, an action which is always punished by Elizabeth's disdain, and for which Flush finally repents. Flush is even kidnapped by a notorious napper of the pets of wealthy families, and held in a grimy basement in Whitechapel until Elizabeth pays the ransom.

More than a fanciful story of a dog, Flush explores issues of class and patriarchy in a genuinely creative way. Early in the novel, Flush realizes that "dogs are not equal, but different" and after examining himself in the mirror decides he is a member of the aristocracy (he must certainly be with his "prominent but not gozzled eyes" and the purple jar from which he drinks). Flush's epiphany comments on the role of class in human life and has particular implications when juxtaposed with Elizabeth's life. After looking in the mirror, "he notes with approval the purple jar from which he drank--such are the privileges of rank; he bent his head quietly to have the chain fixed to his collar--such are its penalties." Like Flush, Elizabeth has the privileges of rank by possessing a home and nice things, but she, too, must quietly bend her head to have the chain fixed to her collar as a woman in Victorian times who must submit to patriarchy. Elizabeth's father did not wish her to marry and so she became a sort of spinster invalid, a prisoner in her father's home, until she was "rescued" by Browning.

Flush is a uniquely enjoyable novel with all the hilarity that one would expect of a biography of a cocker spaniel, and with all the insight one would expect of Virginia Woolf. Though Woolf tends to have stigmas attached to her of being a grumpy, depressed, and snobby writer who ends up killing herself, Flush proves to be a humorous and fun product of Woolf's sense of humor, cleverness, and her comprehension of social issues.
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Mar 10, 2013 Ray Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2013

Abstract art is given tremendous credibility by an artist that has the ability to create a range of realistic work. While Woolf's stream of conscientious work is beautiful, her happy little biography of a Dickens' era Spaniel is delightful. The story is told by an omniscient narrator who tells the story of the life of a small dog who lives with an invalid young woman who gets well, travels, marries and has a child. The emphasis is on what the dog is thinking, feeling and experiencing.

This novel...more

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Jan 16, 2008 Faith-Anne rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: dog-lovers

Recommended to Faith-Anne by: Rose

Shelves: modern-literature, virginia-woolf

Although not Virginia Woolf's best book, "Flush" is still a cute story of what goes on inside a dog's head.

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Mar 06, 2011 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: life-writing-biographies

What a delight this little tome is! A 'biography' of sorts dealing in the life of Elizabeth Barret- and Robert Browning, narrated by E's cocker spaniel Flush. I read this in conjunction with a re-reading of Orlando, Woolf's other mock-biography (albeit one with a human as the center of consciousness); they work quite nicely as counterparts, I think, particularly as each is so invested in the politics of writing a life; the problematics of the biography-as-form; also in telling what are probably...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Ivan rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my very favorite reads this year. This is a biography of sorts - and a fiction of sorts. It's the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spanial Flush. An absolute charmer. This is one of those volumes that can truly be read in a single setting - it is possessed of a free flowing lyric quality often absent in this writer's more cerebral fictions. Still, this isn't a slight piece by any means, but a richly detailed work of the imagination by one of the great literary minds of the pas...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-books, memoir-biography, read-2011, animals

Virginia Woolf's delightfully whimsical biography of the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's beloved spaniel, Flush, is read by Jenny Coverack. Flush was given to Miss Barrett by a family friend, and the young spaniel very quickly became the poet's devoted companion and constant atttendant at her bedside in her father's house in Wimpole Street. In this first episode, Flush must learn to forget his early life in the country, and become used to days spent in an invalid's bedroom.

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Apr 11, 2010 Shannon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Although this book has long been critically panned by fans of Woolf, I thought it was a clever and charming way to tell the story of Elizabeth Barratt Browning's courtship with Robert Browning. The characterization of Flush is inconsistent (at points he is rather too anthropomorphized), but I still found Woolf's exploration of the intimacy between humans and animals from a canine perspective compelling overall.

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Sep 22, 2012 Dorota Markowska rated it 4 of 5 stars

For those who love dogs or have a sense of humour (or both) Not a typical Virginia Woolf. I amired the language, historical background and that Woolf was able to write as if she really knew what was going on in Flush'es head.. And soul as well. Brilliant and amusing. Only about 100 pages not 200 as description says (at least the Polish edition, hopefully it's not shorter than the original version?)

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Mar 11, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Only Virginia Woolf could write this witty, and this well footnoted, a biography of a dog. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning's pet spaniel.) Just as she shape-shifted between male and female in _Orlando_, here she inhabits the canine mind, where sounds and smells dominant, viewing a woman writer's life closely but from the odd outside vantage point of her dog's perspective. It's terribly clever and keenly observant. Woolf seems to be doing this just for fun, yet every so often slips something poignant...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Maria Rolim rated it 4 of 5 stars

At the beginning I thought that it would be another kind of human and dog love. But after reading it I notice that it was more than that. It was the difference between the two of them, in the aspect of how they would see the world, and how that difference little by little would disappear, and turn into only one. A really good book for those who want something small and amazing at the same time, and for those who doesn't have a lot of time to read.

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Apr 18, 2012 Jacquelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Flush is an amusing biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel. More light-hearted than most of Virginia Woolf's novels, I nonetheless had to blink back tears more than once. I also spent a good deal of time either tweeting parts that made me laugh or reading them aloud to my very patient husband. A great book for lovers of Virginia Woolf and dogs alike.

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Mar 11, 2010 Jett rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: modernism

A truly delightful and strange genre-crossing bagatelle. In this speculative biography of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning's cocker spaniel, Woolf entertainingly explores Victorian life from a dog's point of view. Though this book may be slight, the writing is stunningly good: it's lyrical, humorous, and full of the kind of insights and observations readers of Woolf would expect.

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Apr 28, 2013 Natalie Moore rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, animalia, biography, british-lit, non-fiction

The first Woolf I've ever read that let me down a little. At times a bit too much; at other times it strikes the right note. I enjoyed the snippets of EBB letters more than Woolf's writings which surprised me as I have loved TTL, AROO, and MD. At times it was wonderful (like EBB's descent to Whitechapel), but sometimes I couldn't take it seriously.

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Jun 25, 2011 Laura added it

While not near as thought provoking or ground-breaking as other novels of her's I've read, I can still say that this book was delightful. It was nice to enter the world of Virginia Woolf again without having to strain so much. I would recommend this book to people who don't think they'd like Woolf, or have tried to read a novel of hers and gave up.

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Aug 05, 2012 John rated it 2 of 5 stars

Slow. Also, whatever you do, don't get the Kindle version. Published in the 1930s, the book was apparently made into an ebook by being scanned and OCR'ed. But it was done without copyediting, so it's missing periods, words, etc. An example is "Mrs crowning" for "Mrs. Browning." Many sentences are totally incomprehensible because of missing words.

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May 11, 2013 Begoña rated it 4 of 5 stars

"El verdadero filósofo es el que se queda sin pelo y se libra de las pulgas."

Lo mejor de esta novela es la capacidad de Virginia Woolf para conseguir transportar a categoría humana la voz y el espíritu de un perro, haciéndolo protagonista de la historia y logrando hablar por boca de él, mostrando realmente lo que piensa y lo que siente. Sin duda, otra de las hazañas narrativas de la pluma de Woolf.

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About Virginia Woolf

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length es...more

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Quotes from Flush

“Twice Flush had done his utmost to kill his enemy; twice he had failed. And why had he failed, he asked himself? Because he loved Miss Barrett. Looking up at her from under his eyebrows as she lay, severe and silent on the sofa, he knew that he must love her for ever. Things are not simple but complex. If he bit Mr. Browning he bit her too. Hatred is not hatred; hatred is also love.” — 6 people liked it

“As for describing the smell of a spaniel mixed with the smell of torches, laurels, incense, banners, wax candles and a garland of rose leaves crushed by a satin heel that has been laid up in camphor, perhaps Shakespeare, had he paused in the middle of writing Antony and Cleopatra — But Shakespeare did not pause. Confessing our inadequacy, then, we can but note that to Flush Italy, in these the fullest, the freest, the happiest years of his life, meant mainly a succession of smells. Love, it must be supposed, was gradually losing its appeal. Smell remained. Now that they were established in Casa Guidi again, all had their avocations. Mr. Browning wrote regularly in one room; Mrs. Browning wrote regularly in another. The baby played in the nursery. But Flush wandered off into the streets of Florence to enjoy the rapture of smell. He threaded his path through main streets and back streets, through squares and alleys, by smell. He nosed his way from smell to smell; the rough, the smooth, the dark, the golden. He went in and out, up and down, where they beat brass, where they bake bread, where the women sit combing their hair, where the bird-cages are piled high on the causeway, where the wine spills itself in dark red stains on the pavement, where leather smells and harness and garlic, where cloth is beaten, where vine leaves tremble, where men sit and drink and spit and dice — he ran in and out, always with his nose to the ground, drinking in the essence; or with his nose in the air vibrating with the aroma. He slept in this hot patch of sun — how sun made the stone reek! he sought that tunnel of shade — how acid shade made the stone smell! He devoured whole bunches of ripe grapes largely because of their purple smell; he chewed and spat out whatever tough relic of goat or macaroni the Italian housewife had thrown from the balcony — goat and macaroni were raucous smells, crimson smells. He followed the swooning sweetness of incense into the violet intricacies of dark cathedrals; and, sniffing, tried to lap the gold on the window- stained tomb. Nor was his sense of touch much less acute. He knew Florence in its marmoreal smoothness and in its gritty and cobbled roughness. Hoary folds of drapery, smooth fingers and feet of stone received the lick of his tongue, the quiver of his shivering snout. Upon the infinitely sensitive pads of his feet he took the clear stamp of proud Latin inscriptions. In short, he knew Florence as no human being has ever known it; as Ruskin never knew it or George Eliot either.” — 4 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18844.Flush?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1287554256l/18844.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18844.Flush?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Flush by Virginia Woolf[/url]

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