Talland House by Maggie Humm #Review

 

Today, I am delighted to feature a historical novel with a literary element which takes as its inspiration Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. In Talland House, Maggie Humm tells the story of Lily Briscoe, and examines the mystery of Mrs Ramsey's sudden death.

Royal Academy, London 1919: Lily has put her student days in St. Ives, Cornwall, behind her―a time when her substitute mother, Mrs. Ramsay, seemingly disliked Lily’s portrait of her and Louis Grier, her tutor, never seduced her as she hoped he would. In the years since, she’s been a suffragette and a nurse in WWI, and now she’s a successful artist with a painting displayed at the Royal Academy. Then Louis appears at the exhibition with the news that Mrs. Ramsay has died under suspicious circumstances. Talking to Louis, Lily realizes two things: 1) she must find out more about her beloved Mrs. Ramsay’s death (and her sometimes-violent husband, Mr. Ramsay), and 2) She still loves Louis. 

Set between 1900 and 1919 in picturesque Cornwall and war-blasted London, Talland House takes Lily Briscoe from the pages of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and tells her story outside the confines of Woolf’s novel―as a student in 1900, as a young woman becoming a professional artist, her loves and friendships, mourning her dead mother, and solving the mystery of her friend Mrs. Ramsay’s sudden death. Talland House is both a story for our present time, exploring the tensions women experience between their public careers and private loves, and a story of a specific moment in our past―a time when women first began to be truly independent.

My Thoughts

Set between 1900 and 1919, Talland House has a great sense of place. Based on the actual house which Virginia Woolf spent time in her youth, in St Ives, you can visualise the environment, sensing the colours and sounds and almost smell the sea air. You look at the place through the eyes of a painter, Lily Briscoe, who is learning her craft at the beginning of the story. On the surface, the Ramseys seem a conventional couple and a contrast to the single life which Lily is forging for herself. Of course, as the story progresses, you realise that surfaces are deceptive.

    The book blends together literary allusions, historical events and thoughts on the aesthetic life.  As the century moves on, Lily's life changes as she becomes a nurse in First World War London. She never gives up her need to express herself through Art. Her painting of Mrs Ramsey, unfinished for so many years, points to her lack of belief in her ability to show her thoughts through painting. Aware of others' opinions, she needs to find her place in the world. There is an authenticity to the writing which captures the time and poses some interesting questions in your mind, concerning the passage of time and the difference between what you see and what actually 'is'. 

In short: a coming of age novel which evokes an era.

About the Author

MAGGIE HUMM is an Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies University of East London. Her books include Border Traffic, The Dictionary of Feminist Theory (the first edition of which was named 'outstanding academic book' by Choice), the best-selling Modern Feminisms; Feminism and Film; Modernist Women and Visual Cultures: Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Photography and Cinema; Snapshots of Bloomsbury: the Private Lives of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, Rutgers University Press and the Tate; and The Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and the Arts, Edinburgh and Columbia University Presses, (the focus of an Edinburgh International Book Festival talk).  

 She was an editor of the Routledge Encyclopaedia of Women and has been a Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Professor at many universities including Massachusetts, San Diego State, Stanford, Rutgers, Queen's Belfast, and Karachi. She gave an Annual Virginia Woolf Birthday Lecture and keynote and plenary papers in Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, the US and elsewhere.  

 Media include consultant and participant in the BBC Schools prize winning Nice Girls Don't Swear and BBC Women's Hour, World Service, BBC 4 Today and Front Row, overseas - Turkey TRT World television 'Showcase', France Culture La Grande Traversee: Virginia Woolf, French TV Arte 'Cornwall Through the Eyes of Virginia Woolf. 

You can follow Maggie here:  Website  |  Twitter |  Facebook 

Book link: Amazon UK

Thanks to Maggie Humm, She Writes Press and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.

 

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