The Sisters' Arts: The Writing and Painting of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell

by Diane F. Gillespie

Book by Gillespie, Diane F.

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Ellen]

Although many of the comparisons made by Gillespie between Virginia Woolf's and her sister, Vanessa Bell's aesthetics and belief systems about art and literature were interesting, this book read like a Masters degree thesis. It's very, very repetitive and there were times when I thought the author was drawing connections out of thin air, stretching similarities to the point at which they nearly snapped. I am very interested in Bell and her art, and so continued to read through although I felt like stopping after the first 150 pages. If you like theory and are interested in Woolf and Bell, perhaps you'll enjoy reading this, but it wasn't for me.