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| The Person Of Indeterminate Gender |
The Person of Indeterminate GenderThe Person of Indeterminate Gender is a fictional character in the children's books A Series of Unfortunate Events, written by Daniel Handler, under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket, and illustrated by Brett Helquist.
The Person of Indeterminate Gender (P.I.G.) is a henchman of the villainous Count Olaf: amongst the three orphan heroes of the book, he/she is most feared by Klaus. In the books he/she is described as being very fat and is dressed half female and half male. At some point he/she is referred to as "Lisa", making him/her possibly female.
Sunny Baudelaire refers to the creature as "Orlando" at one point, a literary allusion to the novel of the same name by Virginia Woolf, whose hero, a young man, turns into a woman. Orlando is based on Vita Sackville-West, briefly Woolf's lover.
In the film version of the story he/she is a very minor character, only appearing at the wedding scene.
Person of Indeterminate Gender, The
Person of Indeterminate Gender, The
Person of Indeterminate Gender, The
A Series of Unfortunate EventsA Series of Unfortunate Events is a children's book series, written by Daniel Handler under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket, and illustrated by Brett Helquist. There are twelve books in the series as of 2005, but it is known that the final series will consist of thirteen books (each with thirteen chapters), excluding spin-offs such as The Unauthorized Autobiography. The first book in the series, The Bad Beginning, was published in 1999 by HarperCollins Children's Books.
A film version, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on the first three books, was released on December 17, 2004.
The Story
General plot
The series follows the lives of the three Baudelaire orphans: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny after the sudden deaths of their parents in a fire at their family home. In The Bad Beginning, they are sent to live with their third cousin, four times removed (or their fourth cousin three times removed), Count Olaf, a most unpleasant, evil man. In the following books, Olaf often disguises himself to get nearer to the orphans in hope of stealing their fortune. The orphans routinely try to get help from their parent's financial advisor Mr. Poe, but Poe is often oblivious to Olaf and the danger he represents. He originally assumes that Olaf is a very generous man for watching the Baudelaires, but eventually realizes that Olaf is a villain, and the horrors that are around him.
The Baudelaires find out about a secret organization, V.F.D., which Count Olaf is involved with. Gradually, they find out more and more about V.F.D. and what a large part it has played (or is playing) in their lives.
Themes
Much is made of the unhappy nature of the story. The book's back-cover blurbs warn the reader of the dreadful things described within each volume and respectfully suggest reading something else instead. Each volume begins with a dedication to the memory of Lemony Snicket's beloved Beatrice (e.g.. from The Bad Beginning: "To Beatrice - darling, dearest, dead."). An example of Lemony Snicket's writing follows:
: Like this book, the dictionary shows you that the word "nervous" means "worried about something" - you might feel nervous, for instance, if you were served prune ice cream for dessert, because you would be worried that it would taste awful - whereas the word "anxious" means "troubled by disturbing suspense," which you might feel if you were served a live alligator for dessert, because you would be troubled by the disturbing suspense about whether you would eat your dessert or it would eat you. But unlike this book, the dictionary also discusses words that are far more pleasant to contemplate. The word "bubble" is in the dictionary, for instance, as is the word "peacock," the word "vacation," and the words "the" "author's" "execution" "has" "been" "cancelled," which make up a sentence that is always pleasant to hear. So if you were to read the dictionary, rather than this book, you could skip the parts about "nervous" and "anxious" and read about things that wouldn't keep you up all night long, weeping and tearing out your hair.
:: - The Ersatz Elevator
While the books are marketed primarily to children, they are also written with adult readers in mind; the series features many references likely to make sense only to adults. Many of the characters' names allude to other fictional works or real people with macabre connections. For instance, the Baudelaire orphans are named for Charles Baudelaire, and Sunny and Klaus take their first names from Claus and Sunny von Bülow; Uncle Monty warns the children never to let the Virginian Wolfsnake near a typewriter, referencing both Monty Python and Virginia Woolf; the two triplets that the Baudelaire children befriend are named Isadora and Duncan after Isadora Duncan; and Snicket's dead former lover Beatrice may be a reference to Beatrice Portinari. Also, Poe's children, Edgar and Albert, refer to Edgar Allan Poe (the name Albert while possibly chosen so as to not make it too obvious, may also refer to Edgar Albert Guest who is also mentioned in book 11).
The books are set in a fantasy world with stylistic similarities to the 1930s, though with contemporary, seemingly anachronistic technology and scientific knowledge. Although the books can be classed as 'steampunk', in that they involve young people struggling against great odds in an anachronistic setting, the addition, in later books, of the mysterious organization known as V.F.D. have begun to push the story into the new genre of post-steampunk (in the same way that later editions to the cyberpunk genre are now classed as postcyberpunk).
The books can also be classified as absurdist fiction, due to their eccentric characters, quirky writing style and generally improbable storylines. Due to the mix of humorous and macabre elements, some might argue that they could also be classified as black comedy.
General storyline
Most of the earlier books in the series have the same general structure, which was followed most closely in The Reptile Room and The Wide Window:
- The Baudelaires are left in the care of an eccentric guardian or guardians, usually extremely inadequate. Aside from Uncle Monty, all guardians have been either unconcerned with the orphans' care or too afraid to do anything about it.
- The story is based in and around a single setting (usually identified in the book's title).
- Count Olaf usually appears in a disguise so effective that seemingly only the Baudelaires can recognize him. When they try to warn the adults about him, they will be disregarded.
- Count Olaf will often have one disguised assistant: the Hook-Handed Man, the person of indeterminate gender, the bald man with the big nose, or the two powder-faced women. In the latter half of the series, new accomplices join Olaf and his troupe. These newcomers usually shared a bond with the Baudelaires before crossing over to Olaf's wickedness.
- A symbol of a giant eye is found in connection with almost every villain (principal villains are usually Olaf in disguise).
- Violet's inventions, Klaus's knowledge, and/or Sunny's sharp teeth (and, later, her cooking skills) save them from tragic events and Count Olaf's latest scheme.
- Count Olaf's identity will be revealed to the shocked adults, who don't seem to remember the Baudelaires warned them he was Count Olaf in the first place.
- Count Olaf will escape at the last minute and the Baudelaires will be sent to live with another guardian.
Later books in the series have moved away from this formula; while V.F.D. and associated elements have become more and more important, the children have become more self-reliant, searching out information on their own rather than waiting for Olaf to find them.
- The Baudelaires are now on the run after the Daily Punctilio publishes false information about the Baudelaires killing Count Olaf. Mr. Poe is no longer taking them to another guardian. All guardians from this point on are only technically guardians.
- Since Count Olaf is not really dead, but everyone believes that he is, Count Olaf no longer needs to wear a disguise.
- Count Olaf no longer focuses on just the Baudelaire's fortune and is also keen on getting his hands on the Quagmire sapphires, the Snicket file, and the sugar bowl.
- Esmé Squalor, the city's sixth most important financial advisor, begins to chase the Baudelaires after book six. She is Count Olaf's girlfriend.
- The Baudelaires are seeking to find more information about the secret of Olaf's eye-tattooed ankle and the organization V.F.D., which is discovered in each book. They are certainly connected with a mysterious string of arson attacks. They are also wondering about the importance of the sugar bowl and whether their parents are still alive.
Lemony Snicket's writing style
- Lemony Snicket narrates with respectful, subtle humor, usually when explaining words, details, and analogies. He often uses a deliberate spoiler for suspense.
- Despite the general absurdity of the books' storylines, Lemony Snicket will continuously maintain the story is true and that it is his "solemn duty" to record it.
- Lemony Snicket will hold an attitude toward the Baudelaires which could almost be described as hero-worship. His portrayal of the other characters will also be one-sided.
- Snicket will often go off on humorous asides, talking about his personal life, opinions of various matters, etc. The details of his alleged personal life are largely absurd. For example, Snicket claims to have been chased by an angry mob for sixteen miles.
- Snicket will display a greater aversion for macabre elements than the average reader. Whenever the story is reaching a depressing point, he will beg the reader to stop reading and imagine a happy ending.
- Snicket will display a cynical outlook on life. It's implied he became embittered due to events that occurred in his past.
- Snicket often talks about Beatrice, the woman he loved (this may be a reference to Beatrice Portinari, who was unrequitedly loved by the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri and appears as a character in two of his works)
- Snicket often uses strange and specific similes, in which an event in the story is described as being like a situation that would rarely occur, though Snicket goes into great detail about it, perhaps describing past experiences of his such as described above.
Unanswered Questions
- What is the important object inside the sugar bowl?
- What is the name of the Baudelaire's mother?
- Who is Beatrice?
- How did the Hook Handed Man get his hooks?
- Was Madame Lulu's death and the destinations in all of the books, part of Olaf's plan?
- Who leads V.F.D., if anyone?
- Who are Fiona and Fernald's parents?
- Are Gregor and Ike Anwhistle somehow related to Hector? (The Vile Village)
- What was the question mark object that chased Olaf's submarine away in The Grim Grotto?
- Why wasn't the sugar bowl more important before the second half of the series?
- What is Count Olaf's other name?
- Does every location the Baudelaires go to have something to do with V.F.D.?
- Where is Captain Widdershins?
- Who died and who escaped in the fire at Hotel Denouement?
- Will the Quagmires appear in Book the Thirteenth?
- Why didn't the Baudelaires go with Justice Strauss at the end of The Penultimate Peril?
- What will Count Olaf do now that the Baudelaires are finally in his clutches?
- How much time elapses between the series' beginning and end?
- Who killed Count Olaf's parents with poison darts? (Though the text of the Penultimte Peril implies that the Baudelaire parents did the deed.)
- What does V.F.D. truly stand for?
- What does Esme Squalor mean by "It was mine" when they were talking about the Sugar Bowl?
Other notes
- Though they are very subversive, there are no morals in the books. In fact, the author has emphasized that he wrote the books with the intention of not including any morals.
- Despite the death of their parents and the "series of unfortunate events" they have endured, the Baudelaires seem to suffer few psychological effects. This was changed in the film.
- In every book, the Baudelaires use and/or encounter a library of some sort.
- Around the cover illustration of each books is a border. The border describes an aspect of the book.
- On the first page of every book, the ex libris, there are two circular pictures. The first one, on the top of the page, usually has the Baudelaires in it. The second picture, on the bottom, is of Count Olaf and the disguise he wears in the book.
- At the end of each book, the last illustration features a picture describing something from the next one.
- Each book has thirteen chapters, thirteen being regarded by some as an "unlucky" number.
Distribution
Books
Audio books
Most of the series of unabridged audio books are read by actor Tim Curry, though Books III-V are read by Handler as Lemony Snicket. All of the recordings include a loosely related song by The Gothic Archies, a novelty band featuring lyrics by Handler's Magnetic Fields band mate Stephin Merritt.
Film
A film version, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, based on the first three books, was released on December 17, 2004. It stars Jim Carrey as Count Olaf, Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine, Billy Connolly as Uncle Monty, Emily Browning as Violet, Liam Aiken as Klaus, Kara & Shelby Hoffman as Sunny, and Jude Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket.
The film tie-in editions of the novels feature a variation on the usual reverse-psychology blurb: the blurb takes the form of a message from Count Olaf, listing the good points of the story (such as "a dashing count") but suggesting that it would be much easier and less boring to watch the movie instead.
Considering the success of the movie, the director and some of the lead actors hinted that they are keen on making a sequel, but no one has written a script as of yet. According to director Brad Silberling, the second movie would take its plot from the next few books. Also, Silberling is quite unhappy that the filming process took seven months instead of the seven weeks in which he claimed he could shoot the movie. Browning has said that any further films would have to be produced quickly, as the children do not age much throughout the book series. Other plot discrepancies, such as Klaus's glasses breaking in the Miserable Mill (he has no glasses in the film) may also hinder the production of any sequel.
The film takes place in and around Boston, Massachusetts. (The envelope at the end of the film is addressed to Boston, Mass.)
See also
- Steampunk
- Absurdist fiction
- Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (film)
External links
- [http://www.lemonysnicket.com/ Lemony Snicket official website]
- [http://www.unfortunateevents.com/ Official British Website]
- [http://www.unfortunatenews.com/ Unfortunate News Website]
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- [http://www.unfortunateeventsmovie.com Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events Movie - Official Website]
- [http://snicket.wikicities.com/wiki/Main_Page A Wiki of Unfortunate Events] - A Wiki for all things Lemony Snicket.
- [http://www.thenamelessnovel.com/ Official Book the Twelfth Website]- Removed and replaced with a note stating that it is too late and the end is near. The title, of course, is The Penultimate Peril
- [http://www.thequietworld.com/ The Quiet World] - An "A Series of Unfortunate Events" Fansite
- [http://asoue.proboards11.com/ 667 Dark Avenue Forums] - An "A Series of Unfortunate Events" Forum
Series of Unfortunate Events, A
Series of Unfortunate Events, A
Series of Unfortunate Events, A
Series of Unfortunate Events, A
Series of Unfortunate Events, A
ja:世にも不幸なできごと
simple:A Series of Unfortunate Events
Lemony SnicketLemony Snicket is the fictional author and narrator of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books, actually written by Daniel Handler. Handler has also written two other stories under this pen-name, a children's comic and a holiday short story.
Snicket often writes comments of his own life in the books, mostly relating the fact he is in peril or on the run. He is in love with a mysterious woman Beatrice, of whom there is very little further evidence. Both Beatrice and Snicket served at one time as members of V.F.D. Since her untimely death in unknown (to the reader) circumstances, he dedicates all the books to her with statements such as "When we were together, I felt breathless. Now you are." This sort of humour is his normal writing style throughout the books. On The Family Tree in pages 196 and 197 of Lemony Snicket: An Unauthorized Autobiography, it says his grandfather's name is Chas Snicket. He has two siblings, a brother, Jacques Snicket, who dies in The Vile Village, and a sister, Kit Snicket, who is last seen taking Violet, Klaus and Sunny away in a black cab at the end of the eleventh book, The Grim Grotto).
Handler originally came up with "Lemony Snicket" as a pseudonym to use rather than placing his real name on the mailing lists of several right-wing organizations he was researching for one of his novels. It became something of an in-joke with his friends, who were known to order pizzas under the name. When he found himself writing a series of children's books, he decided to use the Snicket name to add an air of mystery to proceedings; Lemony Snicket is an elusive figure. Handler has a considerable amount of fun with the Snicket character in the author biography sections of the books, in a page at the end of every book where Snicket makes complicated arrangements for the delivery of the manuscript of the next book to his publisher, on the Lemony Snicket website and in Snicket's Unauthorized Autobiography. To further amuse readers, the U.S. hardcover edition of this book has a reversible dust jacket that can be "disguised" as The Luckiest Kids in the World Book 1!: The Pony Party by "Loney M. Setnick," which is an anagram of "Lemony Snicket".
He is described, among other things, as having been born beside the sea and now living underneath it, as a distinguished scholar, and as having been stripped of the Honorable Mention and the Grey Ribbon. Photographs of Snicket are shown, but are always taken from behind, except that in The Unauthorized Autobiography there is a photograph of the crew of a ship (whose names all seem to be those of famous authors), with a caption indicating that Snicket is in the photo, but the face of the sailor said to be Snicket has been mysteriously torn from the photograph. He sometimes claims to be writing the book in various perilous situations, such as an Italian restaurant which is slowly filling with water or behind the altar of a packed cathedrial.
Additionally, about once per book, Snicket provides the reader with a glimpse of his life. We know that he:
- plays the accordion
- has been chased by an angry mob for 16 miles
- had an unhappy love affair with a woman called Beatrice, who even wrote a book (200 pages) explaining why it was impossible for her to marry him
- attended a costume ball dressed as a bullfighter, to gain access to his beloved Beatrice, who was dressed as a dragonfly
- once had a sword-fight with a television repairman
- once had a curse put on him by a fortune-teller (possibly Madame Lulu) after he accidentally broke her crystal ball after being tripped by a policeman
- is Jewish, as represented in [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/23754/edition_id/471/format/html/displaystory.html This News Article]
- learned how to make a salad from his sister
- wrote the books because of Beatrice's death
- was once a member of the Queequeg
- It is possible, based on the letters to his editor, which can be found at the end of each book, that he was always with the Baudlaires while they were going through what he then wrote about.
To fill time at the end of the first audio book, read by Tim Curry, there is an interview which is supposed to be with "Mr. Snicket" but apparently he is not home, and the interview proceeds with "Mr. Handler," who confuses himself with his "employer" throughout the interview. To avoid answering any tough questions, Handler invokes a psychological device by which the response to a query can be so horrible that it seems to the listener as if it was not given at all.
A commentary track entitled "Brad Silberling and the real Lemony Snicket Commentary" was recorded for the DVD released on 26 April 2005. Brad Silberling is the movie's director, and the "real Lemony Snicket" joke is a jibe aimed at Jude Law, considered the "Imposter Lemony Snicket."
Lemony Snicket, as distinct from Handler, has also written two non-Unfortunate-Events-related works. The first was the opening story of It Was a Dark and Silly Night, a volume of Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly's Little Lit series. The story begins "In this case, SILLY stands for Slightly Intelligent, Largely Laconic Yeti..." The second was a short story published in the USA Weekend magazine (a US newspaper supplement), dated December 10-12, 2004. This was a holiday story entitled "The Lump of Coal," and included two full-color illustrations by Brett Helquist (who has also illustrated all of the books in the Series of Unfortunate Events to date).
Lemony Snicket has been called "[http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/23754/edition_id/471/format/html/displaystory.html proudly Jewish]".
External links
- [http://www.lemonysnicket.com/ Official site]
- [http://thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/publisher/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001347705 Lemony Snicket Launches Book Tour of the Future]- The Book Standard, October 2005
Snicket, Lemony
Snicket, Lemony
Snicket, Lemony
Brett HelquistBrett Helquist is an American illustrator best known for his work in the children's books A Series of Unfortunate Events. As such, his illustrations for that series have appeared in multiple media, including the books, the audiobook covers, the calendars, and so on.
According to the biographical information published with that series, Helquist was born in Ganado, Arizona, lived in Orem, Utah, earned a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from Brigham Young University, and lives in New York City (as of 2004). He has been published in the children's magazine Cricket, and the New York Times. He is represented by Shannon Associates in New York City. His illustrations are full of detail and precision. He has illustrated other children's books, including:
- Chasing Vermeer ISBN 0439372941
- Milly and the Macy's Parade ISBN 0439297540
- The Revenge of Randal Reese-Rat ISBN 0060508671
- Books in the Tales from the House of Bunnicula series by James Howe:
:
- It Came from Beneath the Bed! ISBN 0689839480
:
- Howie Monroe and the Doghouse of Doom ISBN 0689839529
:
- Screaming Mummies of the Pharoah's Tomb II ISBN 0689839537
:
- Bud Barkin, Private Eye ISBN 0689869894
:
- The Odorous Adventures of Stinky Dog ISBN 068987412X
Brett also wrote and illustrated Roger, the Jolly Pirate, ISBN 0066238056, published in 2004.
Helquist, Brett
Helquist, Brett
Helquist, Brett
Klaus Baudelaire
Klaus Baudelaire is one of the central characters in the popular children's book series, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. Klaus is the middle child of the Baudelaire orphans: He has an older sibling named Violet and a baby sister named Sunny.
Klaus is an avid reader with a photographic memory. He remembers everything he reads, which often helps him and his siblings escape from dastardly situations. He always seems to know the definition of words that he hears. Klaus takes his first name from Claus von Bülow.
This character was represented on the film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events by Liam Aiken, who has also appeared in films such as Good Boy, Road to Perdition, and Stepmom.
In the beginning of the series, Klaus loses his parents in fire which consumed his house. From this point onwards, a villain known as Count Olaf tries to steal the enormous Baudelaire fortune from the Baudelaire orphans using various nefarious schemes.
In The Austere Academy, Klaus and his siblings meet Duncan and Isadora Quagmire. A relationship between Klaus and Isadora is hinted at. In book eleven, The Grim Grotto, however, Fiona kisses Klaus before joining Count Olaf. What will become of these relationships is still unknown.
At the end of The Vile Village, Klaus and his siblings are accused of murder, but they were really innocent. From this point on, they have no more guardians, and are on the run from the police. While running from the police he along with his sisters dresses up in disguises. They are as follows:
- Medical doctor- He was thought to have been one of the white faced women. The Hostile Hospital
- Elliot- He and his sister, Violet Baudelaire, dressed up like a two-headed freak. The Carnivorous Carnival
- Snow Scout- To hide from the children The Slippery Slope
- Volunteer- To trick the villans The Slippery Slope
- Concierge The Penultimate Peril
Baudelaire,Klaus
Baudelaire,Klaus
Sunny Baudelaire
Sunny Baudelaire is the youngest of the Baudelaire orphans in the children's books A Series of Unfortunate Events, along with her brother Klaus and her sister Violet. She is too young to talk, but her baby noises are translated by the narrator Lemony Snicket. Sunny takes her first name from Claus von Bülow's wife, Sunny. In The Vile Village, Sunny takes her first steps, and then in The Slippery Slope, Sunny goes through a rite of passage, leaving her baby-hood, and growing into a young girl who is quite a remarkable chef. In the later books, such as The Grim Grotto, her baby noises are often clever allusions or subtextual meanings that relate to the plot as a whole.
Sunny plays a very significant role in all books in A Series of Unfortunate Events books. Most of these involve her large teeth and utilization of them. She has used them for many impossible tasks, such a teeth-sword fight with Dr. Orwell. Although Sunny is very young, her cognitive abilities are unusually developed for her age, with her comprehension of their situations generally equalling that of Violet and Klaus. She cannot speak properly, yet what she says can occasionally be translated without any help. When she shouts "Velocity!" for instance, it means "Faster!" or "Quickly!". Often, she says amusing things, like "Busheney!" which means "You're an evil man with no concern whatsoever for other people!" or "Hewenkella" which means she is curious about being able to see.
Pietrisycamollaviadelrechiotemexity is a very long word that is first mentioned in book 8. It is said to have been Sunny's first 'word', but this is not true because in the very same book it mentions Sunny's first word being bite.. Some speculate that it is an anagram about something important that will be revealed in Book the Thirteenth because it makes its appearance right after the first introduction of Anagrams. It is also a real word meaning "The state of not having the faintest idea what is going on."
This character was represented on the film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events by Kara & Shelby Hoffman. In the movie, her baby talk is translated through subtitles.
At the end of The Vile Village, Sunny and her siblings are accused of murder. From this point onwards they have no more guardians, and are on the run from the police.
In The Carnivorous Carnival Sunny's other skill emerges; she likes to cook. This comes in handy in The Slippery Slope, where she cooks Olaf and his troupe an entire meal by herself, and in The Grim Grotto, where her culinary knowledge helps her siblings discover a cure to a deadly poison.
Sunny also dresses up in disguises. Here are the ones:
- Medical doctor - She is thought to be one of the white faced women. The Hostile Hospital
- Chabo the Wolf Baby - She dressed up in a fake beard. She was supposed to be half baby, half wolf. The Carnivorous Carnival
- Concierge - The Penultimate Peril
Also, Sunny becomes intelligent enough in The Penultimate Peril to come up with the idea to burn down the Hotel Denouement to signal to Kit Snicket and the other volunteers that the last safe place is safe no more.
See also
- Violet Baudelaire Good
- Klaus Baudelaire Good
- Count Olaf Do you really want to? Evil
- Lemony Snicket Good
Baudelaire,Sunny
Baudelaire,Sunny
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941) was a British author and feminist, who is considered to be one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. Between the world wars, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous novels include Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and Jacob's Room.
Life
Born Adeline Virginia Stephen in London to Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Princep Duckworth (1846 - 1895), Woolf was educated by her parents in their literate and well connected household at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington. Virginia's parents had married each other after being widowed and the household contained the children of three marriages: Julia's children with her first husband Herbert Duckworth; George Duckworth (1868 - 1934); Stella Duckworth (1869 - 1897); and Gerald Duckworth (1870 - 1937). Laura Makepeace Stephen (1870 - 1945), Leslie's daughter with Minny Thackeray, was declared mentally disabled and lived with them until she was institutionalised in 1891 to the end of her life; and Leslie and Julia's children: Vanessa Stephen (1879 - 1961); Thoby Stephen (1880 - 1906); Virginia; and Adrian Stephen (1883 - 1948).
Sir Leslie Stephen's eminence as an editor, critic, and biographer, and his connection to William Thackeray (he was the widower of Thackeray's eldest daughter) meant that Woolf was raised in an environment filled with the influences of Victorian literary society. Henry James, George Henry Lewes, Julia Margaret Cameron (an aunt of Julia Duckworth), and James Russell Lowell, who was made Virginia's godfather, were among the visitors. Julia Duckworth Stephen was equally well connected. Descended from an attendant of Marie Antoinette, she came from a family of renowned beauties who left their mark on Victorian society as models for Pre-Raphaelite artists and early photgraphers. Supplementing these influences was the immense library at 22 Hyde Park Gate, from which Virginia (unlike her brothers who were formally educated) was taught the classics and English literature. According to her memoirs her most vivid childhood memories, however, were not of London, but of St Ives in Cornwall where the family spent every summer until 1895. Memories of the family holidays and impressions of the landscape, especially the Godrevy Lighthouse, informed the fiction she wrote in later years, noteably To the Lighthouse.
The sudden death of her mother from influenza, and that of her half sister Stella two years later, led to the first of Virginia's several nervous breakdowns. The death of her father in 1904 provoked her most alarming collapse and she was briefly institutionalised.
Her breakdowns and subsequent recurring depressive periods, modern scholars have asserted, were also induced by the sexual abuse she and Vanessa were subject to by their half-brothers George and Gerald (which Woolf recalls in her autobiographical essays A Sketch of the Past and 22 Hyde Park Gate). Modern diagnostic techniques have led to her being regarded as having suffered from bipolar disorder, an illness which coloured her work and life, and eventually lead to her suicide.
Following the death of her father and her second serious nervous breakdown, Virginia, Vanessa, and Adrian sold 22 Hyde Park Gate and bought a house at 46 Gordon Square in Bloomsbury. There they came to know Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Duncan Grant, and Leonard Woolf, who together formed the nucleus of the intellectual circle known as the Bloomsbury group. While nowhere near a simple recapitulation of the coterie's ideals, Woolf's work can be understood as consistently in dialogue with Bloomsbury, particularly its tendency (informed by G.E. Moore, among others) towards doctrinaire rationalism.
She began writing professionally in 1905, initially for the Times Literary Supplement with a journalistic piece about Haworth, home of the Bronte family. In 1912 she married Leonard Woolf, a writer, civil servant and political theorist. Her first novel, The Voyage Out, was published in 1915 by her step-brother's imprint, Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd. This novel was originally titled "Melymbrosia," but due to criticism Virginia Woolf received about the political nature of the book, she changed the novel and its title. This older version of The Voyage Out has been compiled and is now available to the public under the intended title. She went on to publish novels and essays as a public intellectual to both critical and popular success. Much of her work was self-published through the Hogarth Press, which she and Leonard founded in 1917. She has been hailed as one of the greatest novelists of the twentieth century and one of the foremost Modernists, though she disdained some artists in this category, such as James Joyce.
On March 28, 1941, at the age of 59, Woolf filled her pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River Ouse, near her home in Rodmell. She left a suicide note for her husband: "I feel certain that I am going mad again: I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness... I can't fight it any longer, I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work" (The Letters of Virginia Woolf, vol. VI, p. 481).
Work
Woolf is considered one of the greatest innovators in the English language. In her works she experimented with stream-of-consciousness, the underlying psychological as well as emotional motives of characters, and the various possibilities of fractured narrative and chronology. In the words of E.M. Forster, she pushed the English language "a little further against the dark," and her literary achievements and creativity are influential even today.
Woolf's reputation declined sharply after World War Two, but her eminence was re-established with the surge of Feminist criticism in the 1970s. After a few more ideologically based altercations, it seems that a critical consenus has been reached regarding her stature as a novelist: Virginia Woolf is among the greatest of 20th century writers.
Her work was criticised for epitomizing the narrow world of the upper-middle class English intelligentsia, peopled with delicate, but ultimately trivial and self-centred, introspection-obsessed individuals. Some critics judged it to be lacking in universality and depth, without the power to communicate anything of emotional or ethical relevance to the disillusioned common reader, weary of the 1920s aesthetes who seemed to belong to an era definitely closed and buried.
Virginia Woolf's peculiarities as a fiction writer have tended to obscure her central strength: Woolf is arguably the major lyrical novelist in the English language. Her novels are highly experimental: a narrative, frequently uneventful and commonplace is refracted—and sometimes almost dissolved—in the characters's receptive consciousnesses. Intense lyricism and stylistic virtuosity fuse to create a world overabundant with auditory and visual impressions.
The intensity of Virginia Woolf's poetic vision elevates the ordinary, sometimes banal settings of most of her novels (with the exception of Orlando and Between the Acts), even as they are often set in an environment of war. For example, Mrs. Dalloway (1925) centers around Clarissa Dalloway, a middle aged society woman's efforts to organize a party, even as her life is equated with Septimus Warren Smith, a soldier who has returned from the First World War bearing psychological scars. To the Lighthouse (1927) is set on two days ten years apart anticipating and reflecting on the Ramsay family's holiday and the family members' interlocking tensions resolved in a visit to a lighthouse; also, one of the themes is the struggle in the creative process that beset painter Lily Briscoe to escapsulate the family drama. And yet the novel also meditates on the lives of a nation's inhabitants in the midst of war, of the people left behind. The Waves (1931) presents a group of six friends whose reflections (closer to recitatives than to the interior monologues proper) create a wave-like atmosphere that is more akin to a prose poem than to a plot-centered novel.
Her last work, "Between the Acts," (1941) sums up and magnifies Woolf's chief preoccupations: the transformation of life through the art, sexual ambivalence, and meditation on the themes of flux of time and life, presented simultaneously as corrosion and rejuvenation - all set in a highly imaginative and symbolic narrative encompassing almost all of English history.
Modern scholarship and interpretations
Recently, studies of Virginia Woolf have focused on feminist and lesbian themes in her work, such as in the 1997 collection of critical essays, Virginia Woolf: Lesbian Readings, edited by Eileen Barrett and Patricia Cramer. Louise A. DeSalvo offers treatment of the incestuous sexual abuse Woolf suffered as a young woman in her book Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on her Life and World. Woolf's fiction is also studied for its insight into shell shock, war, class and modern British society. Her best-known nonfiction works, A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938), discuss the largely failed role of women in the literary canon and the future of women in education and society.
In 2002, The Hours, a film loosely based on Woolf's life and her novel Mrs. Dalloway, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It did not win, but Nicole Kidman was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Woolf in the movie. The film was adapted from Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1998 novel of the same name. The Hours was Woolf's working title for Mrs. Dalloway. Many Virginia Woolf scholars are highly critical of the portrayal of Woolf and her works in the film.
Theodore Dalrymple's essay, The Rage of Virginia Woolf [http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_3_oh_to_be.html], provides an alternate, and rather negative, assessment of Virginia Woolf. It can be found in his book, Our Culture: What's Left of It (c) 2005. Publisher: Ivan R. Dee. ISBN: 1-56663-643-4.
Irene Coates' book Who's Afraid of Leonard Woolf: A Case for the Sanity of Virginia Woolf takes the position that Leonard Woolf's treatment of his wife encouraged her ill health and ultimately was responsible for her death. The position, which is not accepted by Leonard's family, is extensively researched and fills in some of the gaps in the traditional account of Virginia Woolf's life.
Hermione Lee's Virginia Woolf provides an authoritative examination of Woolf's life, updating the earlier biography by Woolf's own nephew, Quentin Bell.
Julia Brigg's "Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life," published in 2005, is the most recent examination of Woolf's life. It focuses on Woolf's writing, including her novels and her commentary on the creative process, to illuminate her life.
See also
- Bloomsbury Group
- Vita Sackville-West
- Ethel Smyth
Bibliography
Fiction
- The Voyage Out (1915)
- Night and Day (1919)
- Jacob's Room (1922)
- Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
- To the Lighthouse (1927)
- Orlando: A Biography (1928)
- The Waves (1931)
- The Years (1937)
- Between the Acts (1941)
- Short Fiction:
- Monday or Tuesday (1921)
- A Haunted House and Other Stories (1943)
Fiction/Non-Fiction cross-over
- Flush (1933)
Non-Fiction
- The Common Reader (1925)
- On Being Ill (1930)
- A Room of One's Own (1929)
- The Second Common Reader (1933)
- Three Guineas (1938)
- Roger Fry: A Biography (1940)
- The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942)
- The Moment and Other Essays (1948)
- Modern Fiction (1919)
Autobiography
- A Moment's Liberty: the shorter diary (1990)
- A Passionate Apprentice: the early journals (1990)
- Moments of Being (1976)
- Congenial Sprits: the selected letters (1993)
- The Diary of Virginia Woolf (five volumes)
- The Flight of the Mind: Letters of Virginia Woolf vol 1 1888 - 1912
- The Question of Things Happening: Letters of Virginia Woolf vol 2 1913 - 1922
- A Change of Perspective: Letters of Virginia Woolf vol 3 1923 - 1928
- A Reflection of the Other Person: Letters of Virginia Woolf vol 4 1929 - 1931
- The Sickle Side of the Moon: Letters of Virginia Woolf vol 5 1932 - 1935
- Leave the Letters Till We're Dead: Letters of Virginia Woolf vol 6 1936 - 1941
External links
- [http://www.online-literature.com/virginia_woolf/ Read her literature at online-literature.com]
- [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/ Online editions of her works] from [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/ eBooks@Adelaide]
- [http://acad.depauw.edu/%7Eafernald/passing_glances.html Passing Glances. A list of incidental mentions of Woolf and her work in various media.]
- [http://www.virginiawoolfsociety.co.uk/ Virginia Woolf Society]
- [http://www.utoronto.ca/IVWS/ International Virginia Woolf Society]
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ja:ヴァージニア・ウルフ
simple:Virginia Woolf
Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West (March 9, 1892 – June 2, 1962) was an English writer and landscape gardener. She helped plan her own gardens in Sissinghurst, Kent which provide the backdrop to Sissinghurst Castle.
She was born Victoria Mary Sackville-West at Knole House in Kent, the daughter of Lionel, the 3rd Lord Sackville and Victoria Sackville-West. She was known as "Vita" throughout her life. In 1913, she married Harold Nicolson, a diplomat, journalist, broadcaster, member of Parliament and author of biographies and novels.
Her long narrative poem, The Land, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927.
Both Vita and her husband had several consecutive same-sex relations outside their marriage. The affair that had the deepest and most lasting effect on Vita's personal life was that with Violet Trefusis. By the time both Vita's sons were out of nappies, Vita and Violet had "eloped" several times (from 1918 on, mostly to France, where Vita would dress as a young man when they went out). Vita wrote an autobiographical account about this period, which was later published by her son Nigel Nicolson as Portrait of a Marriage (note that this title was given by Nigel, and that he had to perform some heavy explaining in order to divert the attention that it was in fact the portrait of a extra-marital affair). Vita's novel Challenge also bears witness of this affair: Vita and Violet had started writing this book as a collaborative endeavour, the male character's name, Julian, being Vita's nick-name while passing as a man, Lady Sackville finding the portrayal obvious enough to insist the novel not be published in England. Nigel (1973, p. 194), however, praises his mother: "She fought for the right to love, men and women, rejecting the conventions that marriage demands exclusive love, and that women should love only men, and men only women. For this she was prepared to give up everything… How could she regret that the knowledge of it should now reach the ears of a new generation, one so infinitely more compassionate tha her own?"
Another affair was with Virginia Woolf in the late 1920s. As a part of this affair, Woolf wrote Orlando about Vita, which Nigel Nicolson called "the longest and most charming love-letter in literature".
All these affairs (which are not fully listed here) were however no impediment for a true closeness between Vita and her husband, which appears from their nearly daily correspondence (also published later by their son Nigel), and from an interview they gave for BBC radio after the 2nd World War.
Her 1931 novel All Passion Spent is perhaps her best known work today. In this story, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsey after a lifetime of convention. The novel was faithfully dramatized by the BBC in 1986 starring Dame Wendy Hiller.
In 1946 Vita was made a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. The following year she began a weekly column in the Observer called In your Garden. In 1948 she became a founder member of the National Trust's garden committee.
Sissinghurst Castle is now owned by the National Trust. Sissinghurst Castle Garden is the most visited garden in England.
Select bibliography
Poetry
- Poems of West and East (1917)
- Orchard and Vineyard (1921)
Novels
- Heritage (1919)
- Challenge (1923)
- The Edwardians (1930)
- All Passion Spent (1931)
- The Dark Island (1934)
Biographies/Other works
- Knole and the Sackvilles (1922)
- Pepita (1937)
- Daughter of France (1959)
Further reading
- Victoria Glendinning - Vita: The Life of V. Sackville-West (1983)
- Robert Cross and Ann Ravenscroft-Hulme - Vita Sackville-West: A Bibliography (Oak Knoll Press, 1999) ISBN 1584560045
External links
- [http://users.library.fullerton.edu/scox/vitaswbib.htm Fuller list of Vita Sackville-West's publications]
- [http://www.aboutgaymovies.info/database/movies.cgi?filmid=144 About Gay Movies :: Portrait of a marriage]: Synopsis, gay interest, review, quotes, pictures and more.
Sackville-West, Vita
Sackville-West, Vita
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Category:Fictional charactersFictional characters from various television series, books, etc.
See also :Category:Lists of fictional characters
Characters
ja:Category:架空の人物
Category:A Series of Unfortunate Events charactersCategory:Lemony Snicket
Category:Lemony SnicketThis category is for articles dealing with the author, Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) and his macabre children's series, A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Category:Media franchises
Snicket, Lemony RodenbekDieser Artikel behandelt die Gemeinde Rodenbek in Schleswig-Holstein. Der Fluß Rodenbek ist ein rechter Nebenfluß der Alster in Hamburg und hat mit dem Ort nur eine sprachwissenschftliche Verwandtschaft gemein.
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Die amtsangehörige Gemeinde Rodenbek liegt zwischen dem Eidertal, dem Westensee und dem Staatsforst Rumohrer Gehölz im Kreis Rendsburg-Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein. Annenhof, Hohenhude, Hohenhude-Siedlung, Ruhm und Steinfurt liegen im Gemeindegebiet.
Geografie und Verkehr
Rodenbek liegt etwa 8 km südwestlich von Kiel an der A215.
Geschichte
Die Gemeinde Rodenbek entstand 1951, als sie sich von Mielkendorf trennte, die erste urkundliche Erwähnung eines ihrer Ortsteile erfolgte jedoch bereits 1469.
Die alte Schule ist eine der letzten erhaltenen Schulen aus dem 18. Jahrhundert im Kreisgebiet.
Wirtschaft
Trotz des wirtschaftlichen Strukturwandels ist die Gemeinde überwiegend landwirtschaftlich geprägt.
Politik
Von den neun Sitzen in der Gemeindevertretung hat die Wählergemeinschaft AKW seit der Kommunalwahl 2003 sieben Sitze, die Wählergemeinschaft NLR zwei.
Kategorie:Ort in Schleswig-Holstein
Sklep Nurkowy pozycjonowanie stron Hotele w Rzym poker tablice
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