Washington Times, Nov. 30, 2008
MRS. WOOLF AND THE SERVANTS
By Alison Light
Bloomsbury, $30, 400 pages, illus.
REVIEWED BY MARTIN RUBIN
It is amusing that contemporary feminists who think of Virginia Woolf as their patron saint are usually shocked when they hear her recorded voice. Instead of some reflection of their own intonations, they are confronted by plummy tones that are – horror of horrors in today’s cultural climate – indubitably upper-class! A small thing, but indicative of a larger phenomenon: In projecting current values onto figures from the past – after all Woolf was born a century and a quarter ago and has been dead nearly 70 years – it is easy to forget that people who live IN a certain time are apt to be OF it as well. . . . [N]ow along comes “Mrs. Woolf and the Servants,” an authoritative, detailed account of the dynamic relationship between Virginia Woolf and the domestic help that was so crucial to her existence as a woman and a writer.
An English author and academic, Alison Light is clear-eyed and wise about her chosen topic. Attuned to the huge sociological changes in 20th-century Britain, she is certainly not one to judge the past solely by today’s standards. She has not only done her research, but brings to her task some unique advantages: Her grandmother was in domestic service, working her way through the travails of those harsh days, and Ms. Light was brought up on first-hand accounts of what it was actually like to be a servant in Woolf’s time. . . .
For Martin’s full review, click here or visit www.washingtontimes.com.