The White Garden: A Novel of Virginia Woolf

by Stephanie Barron

book data

99 ratings, 3.37 average rating, 47 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		3%
4		47%
3		36%
2		10%
1		3%

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published

September 29th 2009 by Bantam

details

Paperback, 320 pages

isbn

0553385771 (isbn13: 9780553385779)

description

In March 1941, Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in England’s River Ouse. Her body was found three weeks later. What…more

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Jan 10, 2010

Lynda Irene rated it:

As a gardener I've long been enchanted by Vita Sack-Ville West's White Garden. I love that the White Garden itself was a prominent character in the novel. A garden is always in transition, it's ephemeral, it's endures over time with care. A garden is a memory and a dream of the future at the same time. A garden visibly exists in the here and now.

Barron uses the elements of a past, present and future of a garden as the framework of her story. Jock, Vita, Virginia and Harold-the past, ...more

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Dec 27, 2009

Ash Bruxvoort rated it:

Read in December, 2009

Stephanie Barron's The White Garden is a fictional attempt to understand what happened to Virginia Woolf during the three weeks after Leonard read her suicide note and she was actually found in the river. I normally get hung up on things like facts and how true to the story an author is staying, but I could not put this book down. When Jo Bellamy tells her grandfather, Jock, that she is going to Sissinghurst Castle to copy The White Garden for a client he says all the right things. After all, it...more Stephanie Barron's The White Garden is a fictional attempt to understand what happened to Virginia Woolf during the three weeks after Leonard read her suicide note and she was actually found in the river. I normally get hung up on things like facts and how true to the story an author is staying, but I could not put this book down. When Jo Bellamy tells her grandfather, Jock, that she is going to Sissinghurst Castle to copy The White Garden for a client he says all the right things. After all, it's a dream job for any gardener. Before she leaves though she finds that Jock has hung himself. When she goes through some of the history of Sissinghurst she finds out that Jock worked at the very garden she is going to, for a woman name Vita Sackville-West.

She finds a manuscript and the only author she can think of is Virginia Woolf. She asks the head gardener if she can borrow it for 24 hours, but it ends up being much longer than that. She takes it to manuscript analyst Peter Llewellyn. Peter takes the journal, but after looking at the dates tells Jo that it cannot be a manuscript by Virginia Woolf because the journal starts the day after Woolf's suicide. After talking he admits that Woolf was actually not found for three weeks after her death. Peter takes the journal to his ex-wife, crazy and beautiful Margaux, who then runs off with the journal. Peter and Jo continue to try and unfold the story of Viriginia Woolf's suicide and Jock's role in it, all while dealing with chasing Margaux and their budding romance.

This is the second novel I have read by Stephanie Barron (the other was Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor) and I enjoyed it leaps and bounds over my first Barron novel. The plot kept me going but Jo Bellamy is a wonderful heroine. She struggles over her interest in the actual story of Virginia's life and her need to understand her grandfather's suicide. She is also willing to kick some balls along the way, especially her employer's. The novel is complete and total fiction, but I still respect Barron for the risks she takes with what might have happened during those three lost weeks. My only quibble with the novel is the portrait it paints of Leonard Woolf, although this is really more of a quibble I have in general with people who brand Leonard Woolf as a bad guy. He was greatly shadowed by Virginia's success and there are some theories about his hands in her suicide but anyway. That is a story for another day!

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Jan 18, 2010

Sandy rated it:

bookshelves: england, hist-fiction, ww2

Read in January, 2010

Interesting for its history, however there are some really excruciatingly, annoying, narcissistic and self-serving characters and a central character is very irritating and weak...... oh well, rather on par with Barron's other lightweight "Jane Austen" mysteries. (written as I was reading)

(When finished) As I continued reading, I found myself more engaged in the story and the mystery. The history of Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West, John Maynard Keynes, the 'Apostles' as...more

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Feb 20, 2010

Leslie rated it:

Read in March, 2010

Barron casts Virginia Woolf as an unwilling witness to espionage in this erudite literary thriller that entwines a bold re-imagining of the end of Woolf's life with a landscape architect's search for meaning in her grandfather's suicide while studying the famous White Garden of Sissinghurst - Woolf's friend and lover Vita Sackville-West's home - to reproduce for a client.

Clever, well-researched, and suspenseful, The White Garden will appeal to fans of works such as Byatt's Possession...more

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Oct 01, 2009

Dorothy rated it:

bookshelves: modern-day-mysteries

Read in October, 2009

As a gardener and an admirer of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen series, I was very interested to read this book. I can't say that it quite lived up to my hopes for it, but in the end, I did find it an enjoyable and interesting read for its historical touches and for the bits of gardening lore. Barron seems to have an instinctive feel for gardens and gardening and I wondered if perhaps she herself is a gardener.

The thread that this tale hangs by is Barron's imagining that Virginia Wo...more

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Oct 17, 2009

Carly Thompson rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, anglophilia, famous-women, mystery

Read in October, 2009

Gardener Jo Bellamy travels to Sissinghurst Castle to study the famous White Garden in order to create a replica for her wealthy American client. While there, she discovers a previously unknown diary by Virginia Woolf with the first entry dated after Woolf commited suicide. This sets in motion a chain of events as Jo seeks to uncover the truth about Woolf's last days and their connection to her beloved grandfather. This enjoyable mystery reminded me of a lighter version of Possession with the hu...more

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Oct 10, 2009

MAP rated it:

Read in October, 2009

Having recently read about 17 mysteries over a span of 3 month, I decided enough is enough, and that I would move on to other genre. So I was in my local public library where I came upon The White Garden A Novel of Virginia Woolf. Now I ask, does that sound like a mystery? It didn’t to me. I was thinking along the lines of Michael Cunningham’s book:The Hours|11899]. Had I looked further, I would have noticed the clue that the author has also penned the Jane Austen Mysteries. Even though I h...more

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Nov 05, 2009

Sheila rated it:

Read in November, 2009

I snatched this one up, first because the cover caught my eye, and second, the title led me to believe it was a work of historical fiction. After reading the back cover and learning that it's really a mystery set in modern times, I was still gung-ho to read it.There is a little bit of history--and that part I liked, though I have to wonder about its authenticity. But for me, the rest of it was awfully contrived--"awfully" as both an intensifier and as in "exceptionally bad and dis...more

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Jan 22, 2010

Jody rated it:

Read in January, 2010

I didn't even notice the author when I bought this book. Later I noticed it was Stephanie Barron who is a favorite of mine due to the Jane Austen mystery series. This one is a modern-day mystery but centered around Virginia Woolf. The main character is a professional gardener who goes to Sissinghurst to review the white garden for potential replication in one of her client's gardens. Sissinghurst was Vita Sackville-West's home (and gardens). Needless to say, there is the Virginia Woolf conn...more

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Nov 20, 2009

Susan rated it:

bookshelves: historical-mystery, mystery--england

Read in November, 2009

American landscaper Jo arrives in Sissinghurst with a commission from her attractive billionaire client to build a "white garden" just like Vita Sackville-West's. Jo is also searching for information on the life of her beloved, recently dead grandfather. She learns that he had worked at Sissinghurst, and finds that he had hidden a notebook that seems to be by Virginia Woolf--but written after the date of her presumed suicide. She seeks help from Peter, a Sotheby's expert, but is sty...more

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Oct 11, 2009

Suburbangardener rated it:

Read in October, 2009

This is a plausible explanation for the time lag between the day Virginia Woolf left her husband a suicide note and the discovery of her body in the river several weeks later. The protagonist is a garden designer, visiting Sissinghurst to copy the design of the White Garden for a client when she finds a notebook entitled "Notes on the Making of a White Garden." It's actually a journal beginning the day after Woolf disappeared.
I'm always a sucker for books with a gardener as t...more

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Oct 07, 2009

Lisa rated it:

bookshelves: women-s-lit

Read in November, 2009

Delving into the mind of Virginia Woolf is like abseiling in the pitch-dark; if you don't find a foothold, something firm and familiar to hang onto, you can fall into the abyss and be lost completely.

This book rests on the present-day thread: the mystery of how Woolf could have begun a diary the day after she was supposed to have committed suicide. And it features a couple of likeable main characters. But, of course, as in any detective work, you have the villain(s) who are determi...more

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Jan 16, 2010

Lori W rated it:

bookshelves: library

Read in January, 2010

recommends it for: Woolf fans, people who liked the DaVinci Code, etc.

I really liked this book. It took me forever to crack it open, but once I did, I was engrossed. It has a suspenseful, mysterious pacing like The DaVinci Code, but with an added twist: Virginia Woolf's (fictionalized) life and death! It was a great read and made me want to jump back into some Woolf classics I haven't touched since college and learn more about Vanessa Bell, Vita Sackville-West and the Bloomsbury Group. I would recommend it to Woolf fans, especially those who like Dan Brown novels....more

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Feb 10, 2010

Laurie rated it:

This is a novelization of Virginia Woolf, seen through the eyes of a modern landscape gardener. My cover blurb says: "The White Garden grows an intriguing tale, weaving together the tendrils of past and present, growth and corruption, love and despair into a landscape of hope. This is a mystery in a garden: a garden in war; a garden beset by modernity; a ghostly white garden haunted by the dead."

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Mar 04, 2010

Kit rated it:

Read in March, 2010

A quick read; kinda interesting if you are a fan of Bloomsbury and gardens. Written by the woman who writes the Jane Austen mysteries. I have been to the places she writes about (Sissinghurst, Charleston and Rodmell) and enjoyed that part. Plot a little too tidy, characters a little too convenient. But I did turn the pages and read to the end, so that says something.

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Feb 19, 2010

Patti rated it:

Read in February, 2010

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't know a lot of the history around Virginia Woolf's suicide, but I thought she did an excellent job of blending actual history and the fictional story line. I loved the references to the garden.

Now I would really like to visit Sissinghurst and I might actually try to read something by Virginia Woolf.

Quick read - read in 2 days.

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Feb 13, 2010

Suzanne rated it:

Read in February, 2010

this book was fun and quick- perfect for a few hours during a winter snowstorm. The author makes a creative leap about the death of Virginia Woolf and ties in an historic English garden during WW II. The mystery becomes a bit "Da Vinci Code" through the references to a secret society in Oxford, but all together it was a good way to spend 4 hours.

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Feb 11, 2010

Heidi rated it:

bookshelves: mystery

This book really pulled me in. I love a good "what if" story and this one touched on many interests of mine, England, WWII, gardening, Sissinghurst etc. Virginia Woolf never really captured my attention before but I am interested now. What an interesting take on the Bloomsbury crowd! Now I just need that ticket to England....

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Nov 28, 2009

Shawna rated it:

Read in November, 2009

Stephanie Barron is a good writer, but I had trouble concentrating on this book. It just didn't hold my attention the way her Jane Austen mystery series does. I found myself putting it down and not getting back to it very quickly. I enjoyed her writing overall, but the story just didn't appeal to me.

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Feb 22, 2010

Lauraileen rated it:

Read in January, 2010

I really liked this book! I was only vaguely familiar with Virginia Wolf before I read the book. But, I love Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mystery series and I had visited Sissinghurst & the famous White Garden a couple of years ago, so thought the book worth a read.

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