Vera Brittain
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Standard Name: Brittain, Vera
Birth Name: Vera Mary Brittain
From her university days before the First World War, VB
was determined to be a writer. Her career as a novelist never fulfilled her own expectations; it was not until the publication of Testament of Youth, the first of her volumes combining autobiography with social and cultural history, that she achieved significant success. She also wrote both poetry and pamphlets. Much of her oeuvre is politically engaged, from her feminist journalism and social criticism of the 1920s to her pacifist writings of World War II.
Connections
Connections Sort ascending | Author name | Excerpt |
---|---|---|
Literary responses | Margaret Haig, Viscountess Rhondda | Virginia Woolf
liked the work, but observed that MHVR
was not subtle. Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press. 5: 167 Eoff, Shirley. Viscountess Rhondda: Equalitarian Feminist. Ohio State University Press. 103 |
Literary responses | Rosamond Lehmann | Some commentators, including Vera Brittain
, felt this essay too clearly reflected the influence of Virginia Woolf
. Hastings, Selina. Rosamond Lehmann. Chatto and Windus. 133 |
Literary responses | Penelope Lively | With this book PL
was a second time shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Moran, Mary Hurley. Penelope Lively. Twayne. 96 |
Literary responses | Maude Royden | Many reviewers praised this book as a quintessential love story. The Christian Science Monitor called it a moving love story, as romantic in its way, as that of the Brownings, while the News Chronicle... |
Intertextuality and Influence | Olive Schreiner | To Vera Brittain
and some of her contemporaries, Women and Labour was the Bible of the Women's Movement. It influenced the writings of many early-twentieth-century feminists, including historian Alice Clark
and suffragette Constance Lytton |
Intertextuality and Influence | May Cannan | The critic and family friend Sir Walter Raleigh
, who saw these poems before publication, called them heart-breaking and terribly naked. Cannan, May, and Bevil Quiller-Couch. “Editorial Materials”. The Tears of War, edited by Charlotte Fyfe, Cavalier Books, p. Various pages. 145 |
Friends, Associates | Evelyn Sharp | Their many shared friends included Vera Brittain
, Winifred Holtby
, and the writer and politician Mary Agnes Hamilton
. In 1940 Hamilton took Harry Gill
, president of the Railway Clerks' Association
and a... |
Friends, Associates | Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence | During her stay in India, EPL
met the poet Rabindranath Tagore
. Pethick-Lawrence, Emmeline. My Part in a Changing World. Hyperion. 338 |
Friends, Associates | Elizabeth Jenkins | EJ
was mildly satirical about the left-wing and anti-monarchical tendencies of Naomi Mitchison
(a well-known author of the times) Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson. 105 |
Friends, Associates | Stella Benson | This summer she spent a holiday at Varengeville in Normandy, with Naomi Mitchison
. She also met Sydney Schiff
(at Chesham in Buckinghamshire), and on 31 August 1925 had her first meeting with... |
Friends, Associates | Annie S. Swan | During the 1930s ASS
became a friend and correspondent of Winifred Holtby
. They exchanged copies of their books. After Holtby's early death a correspondence developed between ASS
and Vera Brittain
. Swan, Annie S. The Letters of Annie S. Swan. Editor Nicoll, Mildred Robertson, Hodder and Stoughton. 164-5, 171, 249 |
Friends, Associates | Phyllis Bentley | PB
stayed with Vera Brittain
and Winifred Holtby
at the house in Glebe Place in Chelsea where they and Brittain's husband, George Catlin
, all lived. Bentley, Phyllis. "O Dreams, O Destinations". Gollancz. 174 Brittain, Vera. Chronicle of Friendship. Editor Bishop, Alan, Gollancz. 38, 56 |
Friends, Associates | Storm Jameson | SJ
wrote to Vera Brittain
(who had recently reviewed her), thereby initiating a close friendship which, however, was neither wholly relaxed nor in the long run lasting. Jameson and Winifred Holtby
, both Yorkshirewomen, more... |
Friends, Associates | Phyllis Bentley | At a dinner party at Vera Brittain
's Chelsea house, PB
met Naomi Mitchison
, Cecil Roberts
, and Ellen Wilkinson
. Brittain, Vera. Chronicle of Friendship. Editor Bishop, Alan, Gollancz. 39-40 |
Friends, Associates | Storm Jameson | SJ
invited Vera Brittain
live with her and her sister's family at Heathfield, the house they had taken at Mortimer in Berkshire. Brittain accepted, and stayed about ten weeks. Berry, Paul, and Mark Bostridge. Vera Brittain: A Life. Chatto and Windus. 405, 556 |
Timeline
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Texts
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