The Cambridge Companion to the Bloomsbury Group

Abstract

Named after a small neighborhood in London where its members settled as young adults, the Bloomsbury Group produced an impressive body of work that yielded British Post-Impressionist painting, literary modernism, the field of macroeconomics, and a new direction for public taste in art. This Companion offers a comprehensive guide to the intellectual and social contexts surrounding Bloomsbury and its coterie, which includes writer Virginia Woolf, economist Maynard Keynes, and art critic Roger Fry, among others. Thirteen chapters from leading scholars and critics explore the Bloomsbury Group's rejection of Victorian values and social mores, their interventions in issues of empire and international politics, their innovations in the literary and visual arts, and more. Complete with a chronology of key events and a detailed guide to further reading, this Companion provides scholars and students of English literature with fresh perspectives on the achievements of this remarkable circle of friends.