Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale

by Miranda Seymour

Chronicles the life of Ottoline Morrell, the celebrated patron of British literary society in the Bloomsbury era who became the inspiration for numerous literary characters, including Hermione Roddice in D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

451 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[M.J. Cates]

For reasons that are not clear to me, I have for some time been reading Bloomsbury-related books deep in the night when I can't sleep, which is often. Besides the obvious Virginia Woolf works, I've read her journals as selected in A Writer's Diary, two volumes of the 6-volume collection of her letters, a biography of Leonard Woolf, and others. All of them mention OM, sometimes in considerable detail, so it's refreshing to get a different view of this woman who, among other things, had a long and passionate love affair with Bertrand Russell, and highly charged relationships with many other writers and artists of the period. In this telling, OM comes off relatively well, and the Bloomsberries look sneaky, petty, catty, treacherous, hypocritical, and opportunistic--even though they all were at one time or another utterly entranced with her. Bottom line, I get the feeling, is that they wouldn't have had a damn thing to do with her had she not been a great lady. In this, things have changed very little. If you've ever seen how otherwise cool people behave around someone fabulously wealthy or famous, you've seen this unfortunate side of human nature. On the other hand, no one would be interested in OM today, had she not been friends--however precariously--with the various geniuses to whom she held out a helping hand, only to have it bitten.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally a definitive, accurate biography of a grand dame. Name almost any writer, poet, artist, politician, Bloomsberry, aristocrat from `1905-1938 and you will find a connection to Ottoline. Her portrait was painted by more artists, she was caricatured and pilloried in more novels by now famous writers in books that went on to become classics, her name appears in more biographies and her biography is filled with the names of people she helped before they became famous. She was one of a kind. This particular biography was made possible by the availability of the 2500 letters to her from Bertrand Russell, and all her personal papers including the letters exchanged with Lytton Strachey. The truth set against the scurrilous attacks on her by the Bloomsberries in their correspondence that was used in previous accounts of her life as fact. She deserves her place in history. Tilda Swinton played her in the 1993 movie Wittgenstein as flamboyant and colourful.

[Richard Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it is out of print and not available on Kindle, I enjoyed this book hugely. It seemed to me that Miranda Seymour had solved the problem of autobiography (the structure too predictable, narrative lost in detail) by making the book a series of short stories. Ottoline's life lent itself to such a treatment because she seemed to know anybody who was anybody in the arts between 1900 and 1938, when she died.

I was so sad at finishing the book that I consoled myself with a blog and with tracking down as many pictures as I could of Ottoline:

https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/...

[Daren Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

LIFE ON THE GRAND SCALE. Patron of the arts, hostess with the mostest, renowned beauty and generous benefactor. Or vain, clownish, pushy and priggish socialite. Until this incredible award-winning biography by Miranda Seymour, Lady Ottoline Morrell was best known through the letters between bitchy members of the Bloomsbury groups of artists. That is to say, not very flatteringly, especially amongst the authors in the set who often satirised her in their novels. Who was right we will never know, but thanks to Ottoline’s extensive letters and diaries there is counterbalance to the less than favourable descriptions from her frenemies. Yet if we look at actions rather than that words, I believe we get a fuller picture of OM (as she signed herself). Beautiful? Yes, why else would so many artists of the day want to capture her image. Smart? Yes, why else would Bertrand Russell and her be engaged in a life-long love affair; a meeting of minds as well as bodies. Mover and shaker? Opening her London home to artists, thinkers and writers before the Bloomsberries set up shop there, Ottoline’s guests in London and at her country residences were a veritable who’s who of European intelligentsia - including #dhlawrence #diaghilev #nijinsky #bertrandrussell #lyttonstrachey #duncangrant #virginiawoolf and several leading politicians of the day. As minor aristocracy she was invited to several major royal events and even had an audience with the Pope! Indeed, as each chapter revealed another relationship I couldn’t help but think what her social media posts would have been like had she lived a century later!

[Reason Restored · Rating 3 out of 5]

Necessary biographical revision of an important British literary & artistic figure of the 20c.
Despite the author’s criticism of another earlier biographers incoherent timelines, that is actually one of the reader’s challengers early in this tome.
Figures are mentioned, their comments described etc. Before we are really introduced to them.
This leads to a slightly peripatetic journey rather than a chronological one.
That said, our guide rights the ship eventually and pulls her threads together convincingly to redress the unfair and untrue noise surrounding her subject. Having a reasonable knowledge of the Bloomsbury set helped me, but it isn’t wholly necessary to enjoy discovering Ottoline. Rather like the adjacent group known as the Bright Young Things, most of the set come out of any examination with little merit as people, even if their Art remains lauded. I am reminded of an old saying ‘no good deed goes unpunished’. Ottoline deserved to be reframed and this detailed and sensible biography rightly gives her the credit she is due, both as an enabler of artists of all kinds, but perhaps more importantly, as a person, a friend, a mother, a daughter and a wife. She was extraordinary and unique. But it seems to me that we can also say that despite her faults (she was human after all) she was kind, generous, patient and forgiving. Surely that would be an amazing epitaph for anyone.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got a bit slow towards the end but otherwise this was a thoroughly engaging read about someone that I had never previously hear of. She struck me as either incredibly generous spirited or frustratingly naive. Either way, she seemed determined to do a great many good things and as well as her patronage of many incredible writers and artists, she helped prostitutes and poor women/families up until the end of her life. I was glad that a great many people wrote to her husband and daughter to say how much she meant to them but can’t help wishing they had been nicer to her whilst she was alive.

[Philemon - · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for something to take me to another time and place, and this filled the bill. The Bloomsbury group has long been among the smartest of smart sets, but were they happy? Affairs, crushes, and triangles made their scene emotionally more complex than some of them could bear. Ottoline herself weathered the storm caused by her affair with Bertrand Russell. She comes across as a warm, creative presence, a consummate hostess who held it mostly together. Well researched and well told, but maybe a bit too long.

[Russell James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant biography of the generous Morrell and the ghastlier types who repaid her with sneers and lies. With friends like those . . .

[Nola · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a life, she was unusual, tall, red hair and loved designing her own style of clothes. She brought together the literary world at her tea parties and soirees. It was a shame that they all ridiculed her behind her back. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.