Out of Print--Limited Availability.
Select delivery location
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Virginia Woolf
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Flush (Shakespeare Head Press Edition of Virginia Woolf)

by Virginia Woolf (Author), Elizabeth Steele (Editor)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 217 ratings
See all formats and editions
Virginia Woolf's biography of Elizabeth Barrett Brownings spaniel was what she called 'a little escapade', begun to 'ease my brain' in the wake of The Waves (1931).
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0631177299
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0631177296
  3. Publisher
    Wiley-Blackwell
  4. Publication date
    January 28, 1999
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    6.2 x 0.72 x 9.22 inches
  7. Print length
    168 pages
  8. See all details
Next page
Layla
"Layla" by Colleen Hoover for $7.19
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover comes a novel that explores life after tragedy and the enduring spirit of love. | Learn more

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Nothing could be more handsome than this new, critical edition of the major works of Virginia Woolf. This is scholarship at a premium".Notes and Queries

From the Back Cover

Virginia Woolf's biography of Elizabeth Barrett Brownings spanielwas what she called "a little escapade", begun to "ease my brain"in the wake of The Waves (1931). The intensities of thatmost demanding fiction were soon supplanted by canine psychologyand the art of anthropomorphism.

For all its fun and frivolity, Flush is none the less awork seriously inclined to mock and question the genre ofbiography, as did Woolf's earlier, more ambitious, and more widelyread jeu d'esprit, Orlando (1928), and was written in partas a joke at the expense of the biographer Lytton Strachey. LikeOrlando it too bespeaks its author's feminism.

In this new edition, which uses as copy-text the second issueof the first English edition and reproduces the originalillustrations, Elizabeth Steele maps the events that inspired thebook. She provides a wealth of information about its writing andreception - concerning fact and fiction, and Woolf's views on theart of biography - and details its publication history.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley-Blackwell (January 28, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 168 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0631177299
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0631177296
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 0.72 x 9.22 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 217 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Virginia Woolf is now recognized as a major twentieth-century author, a great novelist and essayist and a key figure in literary history as a feminist and a modernist. Born in 1882, she was the daughter of the editor and critic Leslie Stephen, and suffered a traumatic adolescence after the deaths of her mother, in 1895, and her step-sister Stella, in 1897, leaving her subject to breakdowns for the rest of her life. Her father died in 1904 and two years later her favourite brother Thoby died suddenly of typhoid.

With her sister, the painter Vanessa Bell, she was drawn into the company of writers and artists such as Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry, later known as the Bloomsbury Group. Among them she met Leonard Woolf, whom she married in 1912, and together they founded the Hogarth Press in 1917, which was to publish the work of T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster and Katherine Mansfield as well as the earliest translations of Freud. Woolf lived an energetic life among friends and family, reviewing and writing, and dividing her time between London and the Sussex Downs. In 1941, fearing another attack of mental illness, she drowned herself.

Her first novel, The Voyage Out, appeared in 1915, and she then worked through the transitional Night and Day (1919) to the highly experimental and impressionistic Jacob's Room (1922). From then on her fiction became a series of brilliant and extraordinarily varied experiments, each one searching for a fresh way of presenting the relationship between individual lives and the forces of society and history. She was particularly concerned with women's experience, not only in her novels but also in her essays and her two books of feminist polemic, A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938).

Her major novels include Mrs Dalloway (1925), the historical fantasy Orlando (1928), written for Vita Sackville-West, the extraordinarily poetic vision of The Waves (1931), the family saga of The Years (1937), and Between the Acts (1941). All these are published by Penguin, as are her Diaries, Volumes I-V, and selections from her essays and short stories.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
217 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lynne H.
5.0 out of 5 stars Charming dog-centric biography
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2024
Verified Purchase
This is the first book I've read by Virginia Woolf. I found it delightful. I learned so much about Elizabeth Barrett Browning (the protagonist's companion).
Helpful
 Report
Ned Leonard
4.0 out of 5 stars A delight.
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2023
Verified Purchase
With every confidence I missed nearly all of the feminist insight attributed to Ms Woolf in this volume by contemporary scholars and commentators, I simply read and enjoyed it on the level of “charming story.” Which it is. I gifted a bound volume to a second cousin who has enjoyed sharing her home with a vast library and multiple dogs most her adult life. I’ll see what she makes of it.
Helpful
 Report
Ginny L.
5.0 out of 5 stars A treasure!
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2021
Verified Purchase
I loved this little book! Not only did I gain insight into what it might be like to be a dog, and I've had 14 of them so far in my life, but I learned so much about Elizabeth Barrett Browning and how Robert Browning saved her from a life that had oppressed her.

Flush is the little spaniel given to Elizabeth by a friend. He shifts from running in broad fields chasing rabbits to languishing on the carpet in her bedroom, taking brief outings on a lead, getting kidnapped by the mid-19th century gangs, spirited away as she elopes with Browning and is exposed to the concept of prejudice...... What a fascinating tale. What a satisfying book!
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
felipe salas
5.0 out of 5 stars Muy buena
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2023
Verified Purchase
No me gustó el final del perrito
Helpful
 Report
paul edwards
3.0 out of 5 stars ... purchase - l tried another edition and that was fine. My star rating is not for the book ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2014
Verified Purchase
I had to buy 2 copies as only the title page turned up from my first purchase - l tried another edition and that was fine. My star rating is not for the book but reflects my annoyance at having to buy it twice. As for the book - not vintage Virginia Woolf but had some good moments. In particular I liked the passages where she tried to understand the problems encountered by Elizabeth's maid in adjusting to a foreign country.
Helpful
 Report
Placeholder
5.0 out of 5 stars A True Master at Work
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
This is an exhilarating and highly enjoyable model of near-perfectly written creative non-fiction. It's all about a pup named Flush. Don't sleep on Virginia Woolf. She was a true master of the English language essay and novel.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer geribowriter
4.0 out of 5 stars Elizabeth Barrett Browning's dog, Flush, from his perspective
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2020
Verified Purchase
The novelette, short in pages, was a bit stiff at the beginning. But as I read on and got more into the character of the dog, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Surprising to me, I just wasn't picking up on the names since although I know of both Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, had not read much work of either poet. Coincidentally, I had just finished reading the book when I started watching an old movie (1934) on Turner Classic Movies. The story was sounding familiar - the title was "The Barretts of Wimpole St." And then I realized this was Flush's story, told a little differently from the characters' point of view instead of being Flush's story. Enjoyed the book and I would recommend the movie, also.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
JacqueF
5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Historical Fiction
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2020
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed reading the biography of Flush while peering into the life and times of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I will probably, sooner or later, read a biography of Barrett Browning and another novel by Virginia Woolf.
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Montse Fernández Vives
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful! Virginia Woolf at her best
Reviewed in Spain on March 27, 2023
Verified Purchase
One might think this is a minor work, but it is nothing of the sort. It has all of Virginia Woolf sensibility. It flows easily. The adventures of a dog named Flush are the excuse to explore the conventions of Victorian England. And the lector gets to know Elisabeth Barret Browning. It is a nice reading.
Report
Karen McIntyre
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2021
Verified Purchase
Deep moving touching.Alive warm and beautiful .Flush a friend a companion a part of you . Read it ...love it.
Report
Carolina Ch
3.0 out of 5 stars Buen libro, no tan buena calidad de impresión
Reviewed in Mexico on October 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
La calidad no es la mejor
Report
angela
4.0 out of 5 stars Lbro Flush di Virginia Woolf
Reviewed in Italy on February 9, 2013
Verified Purchase
Mi è piaciuto perchè è molto umano. Simpatica la, autobiografia del cagnolino. Interessante scoprire un'altra faccia della famosa scrittrice. Appassionata del piccolo amico che la segue in tutte le sue vicissitudini per un periodo della sua vita. Naturalmente ben scritto e facile da seguire. La seriosa scrittrice sotto una luce giocosa.
Report
Alfredo Ontiveros Vázquez
2.0 out of 5 stars The printing quality is very low.
Reviewed in Mexico on February 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
The printing quality is very low. It makes you doubt about the edition quality (text integrity). Not a good edition.
Report