The Edwardians - Softcover

Sackville-West, Vita

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1784870544 ISBN 13: 9781784870546

Publisher: Vintage Classics, 2016

Synopsis

A glittering portrait of fashionable Edwardian English high society seen through the lives of a brother and sister torn by ties to the past and the lure of the modern era.
     Sebastian is the heir of Chevron, a vast and beautiful English country estate. As such he is a fixed part of an eternal round of lavish parties, intrigues, traditions and fashions at the cold, decadent heart of Edwardian high society. Everyone knows the role Sebastian must play, but Sebastian isn't sure he wants the part. His sister Viola, meanwhile, scorns every part of her inheritance and is searching for a way out. The brave new world of the twentieth--century offers both escape and destruction.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Sebastian and Viola are children of the English aristocracy. Handsome and moody, nineteen–year–old Sebastian is heir to Chevron, a vast country estate. Tying him to his inheritance is a deep sense of tradition and love of the English countryside, but he loathes the cold, extravagant society of which he is a part. At sixteen, his sister Viola is more independent: an unfashionable beauty who scorns every part of her inheritance—most particularly that of womanhood. It is July 1905, and Chevron is once again the site of a lavish house party. The guests include the great beauty Lady Rochampton and the explorer Leonard Anquetil. It is Lady Rochampton who will initiate Sebastian in the art of love, but it is Anquetil who opens for both brother and sister the gateway to another world. Vita Sackville–West was a distinguished novelist, poet, and critic. She lived with her husband, Harold Nicolson, at Sissinghurst in Kent. The couple was the subject of the acclaimed BBC series Portrait of a Marriage.

About the Author:

VICTORIA SACKVILLE-WEST, known as Vita, was born in 1892 at Knole in Kent, the only child of aristocratic parents. In 1913 she married diplomat Harold Nicolson, with whom she had two sons and travelled extensively before settling at Kent's Sissinghurst Castle in 1930, where she devoted much of her time to creating its now world famous garden. Throughout her life Sackville-West had a number of other relationships with both men and women, and her unconventional marriage would later become the subject of a biography written by her son Nigel Nicolson. Though she produced a substantial body of work, amongst which are writings on travel and gardening, Sackville-West is best known for her novels The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931), and for the pastoral poem The Land (1926), which was awarded the prestigious Hawthornden Prize. Sackville-West died on 2 June 1962 at her Sissinghurst home, aged 70.

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Classics
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1784870544
• ISBN 13: 9781784870546
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320