Behind the Mask

March 30, 2015
Biographer Dennison (The Last Princess) offers a dense and tedious portrait of British writer Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) that begins in 1910 with the legal troubles of Victoria, the author’s mother, who acquired a scandalous reputation for her out-of-wedlock birth and (possibly platonic) relationship with an older man who bequeathed his estate to her husband. These events thrust the aristocratic Sackville-Wests into the spotlight for the first time. Dennison then backtracks to Sackville-West’s birth and privileged upbringing that laid the groundwork for Sackville-West’s complicated nature, including her need for role play, her tendency toward drama and cruelty, and the contradictions between her actions and work. Her long engagement to diplomat Harold Nicolson and their eventual marriage are explored, as are her affairs—with her childhood friend Rosamund, novelist Violet Keppel, and Virginia Woolf. The book then moves onto the final decades of Vita’s life, when creating the famous Sissinghurst Castle Gardens became her priority, and when, perhaps for the first time, she was rejected by a potential lover. Dennison has plenty of information to offer but unfortunately little focus. Fans of Sackville-West’s, or of Woolf’s novel Orlando (inspired by Sackville-West), will be interested nonetheless, but they’ll have to wade through a great deal of undigested information to get to the story. Agent: Georgina Capel, Capel & Land (U.K.).

Starred review from March 1, 2015
A passionately delineated portrait of the savage writer, fiercely private lover of women, and eccentric denizen of Sissinghurst.There are many moments in this breathless biography of Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962) when British journalist and biographer Dennison (The Twelve Caesars: The Dramatic Lives of the Emperors of Rome, 2013, etc.) is so caught up in his narrative that he neglects to fill in the blanks for readers unfamiliar with his enigmatic subject, the British novelist and poet known mostly for her ardor for Virginia Woolf and as a gardener at Sissinghurst later in life. Nonetheless, on the whole, the author ably illuminates the life of his fiery subject. She was a creature of the ancient aristocratic order who pined forever for the loss of the Sackville ancestral home, Knole House, in Kent, which her profligate mother, Victoria, nearly lost in 1912 due to its massive financial drain but which essentially passed by inheritance laws to the nearest male heir. Growing up in Knole shaped Vita's extravagant, secretive persona, and Dennison constantly returns to her duality of nature, male and female, that she would try to resolve in her writing. An only child to her overbearing mother, she adored playing dramatic roles, cross-dressing, and wearing masks. The two great loves of her life allowed her to indulge her passion for concealment: her homosexual diplomat husband, Harold Nicholson, and the relentless lover of her mid-20s, Violet Keppel, who christened Vita "Mitya" or "Julian" as they danced scandalously across Europe. Dennison downplays Vita's relationship with Woolf as a smoldering and significant writerly friendship. His narrative is utterly absorbing in its attention to the minutiae of property, inheritance, houses, clothing, and letters. All the while, the author extracts from Vita's writing rich autobiographical detail. A lively, vigorously written biography of a singular character that beckons readers urgently back to Sackville-West's writing.

May 1, 2015

Dennison (The Last Princess) seeks to tell both the outward story of his subject--heiress, scandal-mongering rebel, and shirker of establishment norms--and the inner life of a poet and novelist. That these disparate stories occur in the same person, Vita Sackville-West (1882-1962), makes for an entertaining read. However, one may need a little patience. Even with the salacious and aristocratic content, the text simply doesn't command attention until almost halfway through. Perhaps Dennison delves into his subject too quickly; he assumes a familiarity with Sackville-West on the part of his reader but fails to spell out why we should care. The result is an attitude of pretentious assumption, apparently imparting the flavor of the writer. It's clear by the end of the account that Sackville-West was a singular individual, and as she becomes more sympathetic to the reader, the narrative warms. Whether she had composed all her novels and poetry seems beside the point; readers will find her dedication to gardening and dogs just as endearing. VERDICT Libraries that serve patrons with both literary interests and Anglophile tendencies (including fans of Downton Abbey) will find that this repast satisfies both appetites.--Linda White, Maplewood, MN

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2015
Better known today for her unconventional lifestyle than for her poems and novels, Victoria Mary Sackville-West, known as Vita, was the only child of cousins. She spent her childhood at Knole, a grand estate she could not inherit since, according to British law, it was attached to her aristocratic father's title. This haunted her and became a theme in her novels. As a teenager, she had intimate relationships with other young women, and she later wrote about her dual nature. She and Harold George Nicolson, a well-born diplomat, had an open marriage in which each pursued relationships with members of his and her own sex while living together companionably and raising two sons. They also shared a passion for gardening, and their famous home and gardens, Sissinghurst, is now owned by Britain's National Trust. Virginia Woolf was an intimate, and her novel, Orlando, is considered to be a loving tribute to Vita. Dennison (The Twelve Caesars, 2013) is the first to write about Sackville-West in decades, and his richly detailed and freshly revealing portrait of a singular woman will entice Anglophiles and the literary set.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)