Virago (women-only publishing house) and Virago Modern Classics

Eliot Rosewater

I recently, and totally coincidentally, read two books from Virago publishing house, which was established by women and publishes only works by women. (It's now an imprint of Little, Brown.) The first book I read was Living Dolls by Natasha Walter - a non-fiction work criticizing modern social and cultural attitudes towards women. The second was in the "Virago Modern Classics" series which, whatever about the content, contains beautiful hardback books: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/aug/02/virago-modern-classics-series

The book I read was The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter. One can take a very strong feminist reading of it. The writing itself is lovely - "The summer she was fifteen Melanie discovered she was made of flesh and blood. O, my America, my new found land." After her parents die and she is forced to move in with her impoverished uncle: "Now, who has planted this thick hedge of crimson roses in all this dark, green, luxuriant foliage with, oh, what cruel thorns."

Has anyone here read anything published by Virago? I'm particularly interested in Virago Modern Classics but am unsure where to start.

I've actually become really interested in feminism and broader female perspectives in literature lately. My current library of 200+ books contains fewer than 10 by women. There are such ingrained attitudes towards women in society that Living Dolls woke me up to.

Flash86

I just read The Magic Toyshop myself for a book club. I really loved it. It got mostly good reviews from the rest of the people too.

That's the only one I've read though so I can't be of too much help.

Gneez

It's got a lot of publicity because it's a female centric publisher, if it were a publishing house that only published male authors then it would be called sexist and shut down and/or shunned by any reviewers.

Hypocrisy at it's finest for the feminists, all the benefits of a positive predisposition to everything they undertake as female centric, none of the drawbacks of true 'equality' that they claim they strive for.

I will read a book based on what here-say or reviews or friends tell me about it, not because it's written by a women and published by female only publisher.

Eliot Rosewater

Flash86 wrote: »

I just read The Magic Toyshop myself for a book club. I really loved it. It got mostly good reviews from the rest of the people too..

The Loft book club? I bought it off a recommendation from a friend who read it for that. How did it go?

Gneez wrote: »

Hypocrisy at it's finest for the feminists, all the benefits of a positive predisposition to everything they undertake as female centric, none of the drawbacks of true 'equality' that they claim they strive for.

I wouldn't describe feminism as strictly a fight for gender equality. From my limited purview, I would say that it is a fight for a social/cultural environment that respects women and allows them to flourish in cultural and social liberty. In some cases, like with wages, that becomes a fight for direct equality - for equal pay. In other cases it is not a fight for equality. Virago was presumably set up so that women writers could operate in an environment within which they felt they could best express and develop themselves. I would see it as directly equivalent to, say, a Left-wing organisation establishing its own press. I don't see how it breaches feminist ideals - because I don't see how feminism is a fight for direct sexual equality.

Gneez wrote: »

I will read a book based on what here-say or reviews or friends tell me about it, not because it's written by a women and published by female only publisher.

I disagree. Certain people have different perspectives on the world by virtue of a number of things such as their political ideology, their country of birth or their gender. These perspectives can be very worthwhile and are, in my opinion, worth searching for explicitly.

Blush_01

You'll have to excuse my ignorance, I try to remain pretty naive (it's part of my charm apparently) but I never realised that Virago was a female-only publishing house.

Love lots of Virago books - I'm a big fan of Atwood, I like Sarah Waters and Maya Angelou and plenty of other authors whose spines bear the Virago apple. To me, the symbol is synonymous with books I enjoy reading.

You learn something new every day - thanks for this day's lesson Eliot!

JaneHudson

What Blush said. Oh and I recommend Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

Flash86

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

The Loft book club? I bought it off a recommendation from a friend who read it for that. How did it go?

Yes it was for the Loft Bookshop. It seemed to be well recieved all round. It's a good group. You should join us. It certainly did better than last month's book. Mistaken by Neil Jordan. Not a popular one.

emeraldstar

JaneHudson wrote: »

What Blush said. Oh and I recommend Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.

One of my very, very favourite books. Fab.