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Date Posted: 22:49:57 05/22/12 Tue
Author: Lemora
Subject: "The Life Of Vita Sackville-West" By Victoria Glendinning

For Downton Abbey Obsessives, this is a great book. Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) is mainly known today for her gardens at Sissinghurst, her books about same, and for being the subject of "Portrait Of A Marriage" by her son, Nigel Nicolson. (He found her unpublished, intimate writings in a locked Gladstone bag in a tower at Sissinghurst and published them about 25 years ago.) She is also known as one of the legendary seductresses of the 20th century. Her affairs were scandalous, torrid, all-consuming, with messy break-ups. She also, through all this, had a loving marriage to Harold Nicolson. (He had plenty of affairs of his own.) The other writing she is best known for is her epic poem, "The Land," about farming in Kent, England, when the ancient ways were still pre-mechanized, as they had been for centuries. She uses now-archaic terms to describe this way of life, recording it as it began to vanish in the 1920's. Daughter of an Earl, her great regret was that the English system of primogeniture prevented her from inheriting Knole, the family estate, and one of the great houses of England. Vita spent her (only) childhood playing with priceless relics in the attics of Knole and living in rooms where Cromwell and his soldiers stayed in the mid-1600's; the oldest parts of the house date from the 1400's. Writers Pope, Spencer, and Dryden came to tea; and at least three English kings occupied a special suite as guests. Glendinning does not judge Vita's behavior (often appalling, with regard to her lovers) but once you read about her parents' histories and tormented marriage, you can better understand the way she was. (Vita's mother's life story is the subject of a biography. I'm reading it next.) Her life story is fascinating. Had she been more of a risk-taker, and less dependent on her formidable mother's largesse and approval, she would have preferred to be a travel writer, disguised as a man so as to travel to dangerous and remote places in the world in greater safety. Keenly aware that her family did not want an eccentric daughter, Vita married, as was expected of her, and produced heirs. But, she and Harold were soul-mates, and probably could not have found better mates than each other. I highly recommend this book.

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