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Flush: A Biography

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illness, feigned or real, as a part of their status as female writers. Most insightful and experimental are Woolf's emotional and philosophical views verbalised in Flush's thoughts. As he spends more time with Barrett Browning, Flush becomes emotionally and spiritually connected to the poet and both begin to understand each other despite their language barriers. For Flush smell is poetry, but for Barrett Browning, poetry is impossible without words. In
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Flush leads a restrained but happy life with the poet until she meets Robert Browning; the introduction of love into Barrett Browning's life improves her health tremendously, but leaves the forgotten dog heartbroken. Woolf draws on passages from the letters to depict Flush's attempted mutinies: that
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consideration of city life seen through the eyes of a dog, Flush serves as a harsh criticism of the supposedly unnatural ways of living in the city. The figure of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in the text is often read as an analogue for other female intellectuals, like Woolf herself, who suffered from
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style to experiment with a non-human perspective. In places the novella plays with realism by allowing Flush an improbable amount of perception for a canine (Flush seems to grasp some idea of social class in humans, a concept recurrently criticized in the story as he becomes more "democratic" later
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This unusual biography traces the life of Flush from his carefree existence in the country, to his adoption by Ms. Browning and his travails in London, leading up to his final days in a bucolic Italy. The story begins by alluding to Flush's pedigree and birth in the household of Barrett Browning's
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mostly recapitulates the romantic legend of Barrett Browning's life: early confinement by a mysterious illness and a doting but tyrannical father; a passionate romance with an equally talented poet; an elopement that permanently estranges the father, but which allows Barrett Browning to find
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happiness and health in Italy. On a third level, the book gives Woolf an opportunity to return to some of her most frequent topics: the glory and misery of London; the Victorian mindset; class differences; and the ways in which women oppressed by "fathers and tyrants" may find freedom.
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in life), and can "talk" to other dogs on the street. At other times the reader is forced to interpret events from the dog's limited knowledge (Flush sees her owner agitated over markings on a paper and cannot understand that she is in love).
457:. From this material, Woolf creates a biography that works on three levels. It is overtly a biography of a dog's life. Since this dog is of interest primarily for its owner, the work is also an 453:
For material, Woolf drew primarily on Barrett Browning's two poems on dogs ("To Flush, My Dog" and "Flush or Faunus") and on the published correspondence of the poet and her husband,
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In the last chapters, Woolf describes a return to London after the death of Barrett Browning's father; she also touches on husband and wife's enthusiasm for the
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The drama of the courtship is interrupted by Flush's dognapping. While accompanying Barrett Browning shopping, he is snatched by a thief and taken to the nearby
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The book, due to its subject matter, has often been considered one of her less serious artistic endeavours; however, she uses her distinctive
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Woolf examines the barriers that exist between woman and animal created by language yet overcome through symbolic actions.
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and for spiritualism. Flush's death, indeed, is described in terms of the strange Victorian interest in
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for the puppy, Mitford gave Flush to Elizabeth, then convalescent in a back room of the family house on
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After his rescue, Flush is reconciled to his owner's future husband, and he accompanies them to
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biography of Elizabeth Barrett during the most dramatic years of her life. At this level,
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Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain – Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain
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published in 1933. Written after the completion of her emotionally draining
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is, he attempts to bite Browning, who remains unharmed.
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For the 2005 young-adult novel by Carl Hiaasen, see
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Flush (novel)

Virginia Woolf
Hogarth Press
OCLC
542060
Dewey Decimal
LC Class

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