Virginia Woolf

Flush was an English cocker spaniel who belonged to the nineteenth-century poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Virginia Woolf learned of him from the love letters Elizabeth wrote to her future husband, fellow poet Robert Browning, and found 'the figure of their dog made me laugh so, I couldn't resist making him a Life.' The resulting 'biography' combines sensuous imaginative description with sharp social comment, and brings Woolf's unsentimental humour and insight to the fore. We see Flush as loyal confidant to Elizabeth on her sickbed at Wimpole Street, and from his jealous perspective we witness her courtship by Browning, their elopement and new life in Italy. The perfect accessible introduction to Woolf's genius, a unique blend of fact and fiction, Flush is perhaps best read in the company of a canine companion. This edition includes the four original illustrations by Vanessa Bell and an afterword by Margaret Forster.

Flush

Emily Netherland

march🐇

Now Flush knew what men can never know - love pure, love simple, love entire; love that brings no train of care in its wake; that has no shame; no remorse; that is here, that is gone, as the bee on the flower is here and is gone.

Flush quotes

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