Pepita

by Vita Sackville-West

Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0860687767

Pepita tells the extraordinary story of Vita Sackville-West's grandmother Josefa (Pepita), and her mother Victoria. Josefa, the half-gypsy daughter of an old-clothes pedlar from Malaga, makes her fortune as a dancer in Madrid; soon she is the toast of all Europe. Her affair with a young English attache then sets the scene for a most bizarre family history. After her early death, her daughter Victoria is condemned to an austere convent until the age of eighteen. Socially ostracized without knowing why, she is suddenly whisked off to become mistress of her diplomat father's Washington household. Eventually this illegitimate half-Spanish waif finds herself the volatile and wayward mistrses of Knole, one of the grandest houses in England. Vita Sackville-West's fascination with this unlikely inheritance brings her two subjects vividly to life - the wild and mysterious Pepita, and the adored yet impossible Victoria.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Classics, 20th Century, British Literature, Memoir

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Novels of British writer Victoria Mary Sackville-West, known as Vita, include The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931).

This prolific English author, poet, and memoirist in the early 20th century lived not so privately.
While married to the diplomat Harold Nicolson, she conducted a series of scandalous amorous liaisons with many women, including the brilliant Virginia Woolf. They had an open marriage. Both Sackville-West and her husband had same-sex relationships. Her exuberant aristocratic life was one of inordinate privilege and way ahead of her time. She frequently traveled to Europe in the company of one or the other of her lovers and often dressed as a man to be able to gain access to places where only the couples could go. Gardening, like writing, was a passion Vita cherished with the certainty of a vocation: she wrote books on the topic and constructed the gardens of the castle of Sissinghurst, one of England's most beautiful gardens at her home.

She published her first book Poems of East and West in 1917. She followed this with a novel, Heritage, in 1919. A second novel, The Heir (1922), dealt with her feelings about her family. Her next book, Knole and the Sackvilles (1922), covered her family history. The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent (1931) are perhaps her best known novels today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane courageously embraces a long suppressed sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime of convention. In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literature. She continued to develop her garden at Sissinghurst Castle and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column for The Observer. In 1955 she was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In her last decade she published a further biography, Daughter of France (1959) and a final novel, No Signposts in the Sea (1961).

She died of cancer on June 2, 1962.

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Real Rating: 3.5* of five

Back in the less adventuresome years of my reading life, I think I read The Edwardians because I knew its author was a Lesbian and Virginia Woolf's One True Love. I retain no particle of memory for that book, so it may very well be that I *bought* the book in order to epater la bourgeoise aka my mother, and simply failed to read it.

I'll see about remedying that lapse some other time. Now, all I can say is, what a treat it is for me, at this juncture of my life, to meet Vita Sackville-West and her rackety great-grandmother, her louche grandmother, and her wildly eccentric mother. These women...! My dears, these are the Titanesses that make our own rather drab little lives recede into proper grayish flannely perspective.

(Vita warn't no slouch, either.)

There is a certain grandeur to the stories of the Pepitas' lives, a very odd kind of magnificence in these women's inability to be anyone other than themselves fully and entirely, no matter the cost. And costs there were, even unto the third generation: Lawsuits appear to have trailed glorious wings behind all the women up to Vita, whose Englishness seems to have squelched that side of things. (Didn't squelch her insistence on being herself, though, thank goodness!)

I love this sort of story. I hope that, one day, Anderson Cooper will take up his father Wyatt's mantle and tell us what Gloria Vanderbilt was like as a mama...his would be the only story I can imagine, barring a breach in the Kennedy walls, that would equal Pepita for glamour and sheer, inescapable romance. (2019 EDIT though I have yet to read The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son On Life, Love, and Loss I'm confident it approaches this work's level of sophisticated sass.) These personalities become rarer as the world that gives rise to them becomes more pedestrian and hugely boring in its upper reaches.

I feel compelled to say a word about another world now, seemingly, passed forever as well: The world of making lovely books for mass consumption. This book has a dustjacket that was, for its day, a luxe presentation, being four-color and quite charmingly designed; its paper is at least twice as thick as modern book papers, so that I found myself trying to peel the pages apart; its lovely cloth binding has a blind block of the author's initials surmounted by a coronet, and a spine attractively gold-blocked in a printed black ground; it is, in short, a lovely object.

The good people at Chin Music Press are doing what they can to prevent beautiful books from vanishing entirely; they are not, however, publishing books that will appeal to a mass audience more often than not. Pepita was intended to sell many copies, and so far as I am aware, did. How I wish that was still a realistic possibility!

Should you read this book? Well...maybe, maybe not. I think anyone with an ounce of romance in their soul should read it. But then, as it's not a novel, it doesn't have An Ending, really, so most romantics might find that a little off-putting. But really, since the book's hard to find, I'd say let it come to you serendipitously, the way my copy came to me from a library sale. It will find you ready and it will reward you for your patience, as it did me.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kept pushing this one off for the longest time . Finally read it and was shocked to find it one of Vita's best yet that I have read . What an incredible view of her Spanish Hertiage and the trials and tribulations she went through with her mother .

The book is in two parts , The first is about her maternal grandmother "Pepita" who was a famous dancer with poor roots who managed to climb to the top with the help of her eccentric mother then the second part which focus's' on her mother Victoria who led a totally amazing and equally eccentric life . Eccentricity is the keyword here . Great Grandmother , Grandmother & Mother and lets face it even Vita herself . Strongly recommend this book

[Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ★★★★: a slow pacing and emotional biography

«I value everything which I have been able to rescue that had any connexion with Pepita.»

Review in English | Reseña en español (abajo)
Once upon a time in Paris, a British diplomat and fifth son of the fifth Earl de la Warr fell in love with a black-eyed Spanish dancer. He began his letters to her with 'Mon Ange, bien aimée de mon coeur…' and both lived happily ever after, but never married each other.

Pepita Durán, that Spanish dancer and Vita’s grandmother, was a gipsy woman born in 1830 in one of the poorest streets in the poorest districts of Malaga.Pepita is the biography of that woman –but mostly of Vita’s matriarchal line–, and a story where Vita wants to reconstruct her family’s past. Through the telling of the life stories of her grandmother and then her mother, who occupies the second half of this novel, Vita began working out where she herself belonged –and even Vita travelled to Spain more than once in search of her gipsy heritage–.

«She [Pepita] might have flown as a bird in the air at Malaga, but her real happiness came among her five or six babies at Bordeaux and Arcachon and Paris, with Countess West printed on her visiting-cards and Grandpapa coming as often as he could to see her from Madrid.»

The first part of the book is about Pepita, who Vita unfortunately never met. She recounts her grandmother’s life –from her first journey to Madrid in order to become a great dancer to her last days in Arcachon and Turin– through documentation, witness testimonies –from that bitter court fight early in the 1900's between family members about ownership of the house and the title - Baron Sackville - that went with it–, photographs, and her mother’s (Victoria) memories. By telling Pepita’s story, we’ll travel mainly to southern Spain (Malaga, Granada and Jaen) and we’ll meet Catalina Ortega and Juan Antonio de la Oliva, among others; to Germany, Italy and France, to Villa Pepita, where the family had the sort of happiest moments of their life.

In contrast to the Pepita half of the book, much of the second half is written form the direct experience of a daughter who both adored and was exasperated by her enigmatic and difficult mother. Victoria’s life story is every bit as dramatic as Pepita’s. Semi-abandoned at the age of eight after her mother’s death, she was brought up in a French convent until suddenly rescued by the intervention of her aunt the Countess of Derby. In the last chapters of the book, Vita shows us the final and difficult moments of her mother’s life –which reminded me of the amazing story of All Passion Spent–, but always with that kind of adoration and love with which a daughter re-tales her mother’s experiences.

«What they never realised was that she [Victoria] was, above all things, herself. Wrong or right, tiresome, troublesome, turbulent (…), all in turn, she was always herself, and to be always oneself to that extent is a form of genius. 'To thine own self be true', –never have I known anybody who their own self was truer, in every detail, creditable or uncreditable.»

To be completely honest, it’s not a book I’d recommend to everyone: if you don’t like biographies –fictionalised or not–, Victorian culture and history, or if you don’t know who Vita Sackville-West is, you don’t need to read this novel. But if you are as captivated as I am with Vita –her works and life–, you’ll love it. You’re gonna laugh and cry equally because this is a tale about family (and as in all families there are despicable characters and some turbulent problems), a tale of three women (Catalina, Pepita, and Victoria) who lived passionately and left their Spanish soul in Vita itself.

P. S. I'm not English, so if you see any mistakes let me know so I can correct them, please
—
Érase una vez en París, un diplomático británico y quinto hijo del quinto Conde de la Warr se enamoró de una bailarina española de ojos negros. Sus cartas comenzaban con un 'Mon Ange, bien aimée de mon coeur...' y ambos vivieron felices para siempre, pero nunca se pudieron llegar a casar.

Pepita Durán, esa bailarina española y abuela de Vita, era una gitana nacida en 1830 en una de las calles más pobres de los distritos más pobres de Málaga. Pepita es así la biografía de esa mujer –pero también principalmente de la línea matriarcal de Vita–, una historia donde Vita quiere reconstruir el pasado de su familia. Al contar las historias de su abuela y luego de su madre, que ocupa la segunda mitad de esta novela, Vita comenzó así a averiguar a dónde pertenecía ella misma –e incluso Vita viajó a España más de una vez en busca de su herencia gitana–.

La primera parte del libro trata sobre Pepita, a quien Vita lamentablemente nunca conoció, y relata la vida de su abuela –desde su primer viaje a Madrid para convertirse en una gran bailarina hasta sus últimos días en Arcachon y Turín–, a través de documentación, testimonios de testigos –principalmente del caso tan amargo que a principios de 1900 llevó al juzgado a los familiares Sackville-West sobre la propiedad de la casa y el título–, fotografías y los recuerdos de su madre (Victoria). Al contar la historia de Pepita, viajaremos principalmente al sur de España (Málaga, Granada y Jaén) y nos encontraremos con Catalina Ortega y Juan Antonio de la Oliva, entre otros; a Alemania, Italia y Francia, y a Villa Pepita , donde la familia tuvo los momentos más felices de su vida.

En contraste con la primera mitad del libro, gran parte de la segunda mitad está escrita a través de la experiencia directa de una hija que a la vez adoraba y estaba exasperada por los comportamientos de una madre bastante enigmática y difícil. La vida de Victoria es tan dramática como la de Pepita: semi-abandonada a la edad de ocho años tras la muerte de su madre, fue criada en un convento francés hasta que fue rescatada repentinamente por la intervención de su tía, la condesa de Derby. En los últimos capítulos del libro, Vita nos muestra los momentos finales y difíciles de la vida de su madre –que me recordaron la increíble historia de Toda Pasión Apagada–, pero siempre con ese tipo de adoración y amor con el que una hija re-cuenta las experiencias de su madre.

Siendo totalmente sincera, no es un libro que recomendaría a todo el mundo: si no te gustan las biografías –ficcionalizadas o no–, la historia y la cultura victoriana, o si no sabes quién es Vita Sackville-West, no necesitas leer esta novela. Pero si estás tan cautivado con Vita como lo estoy yo, te encantará. Vas a reír y llorar por igual porque esta es una historia sobre la familia (y como en todas las familias hay personajes despreciables y algunos problemas turbulentos), una historia de tres mujeres (Catalina, Pepita y Victoria) que vivieron apasionadamente y dejaron parte de su alma española en la propia Vita.

[Marisolera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vita Sackville-West tiene unos antecedentes familiares dignos del mejor culebrón. Una bisabuela mandunganta, dispuesta a lo que fuera por su hija, una abuela, la Pepita del título, bailarina española, amante de un lord, y una madre caótica pero encantadora.

Vita Sackville-West escribe estas memorias para recordar a su madre y a su abuela, para sacar a la luz las vidas apasionantes, procelosas, llenas de gloria y también de miseria que vivieron hasta llegar a ser lo que al final de sus vidas fueron. Una historia interesante y plagada de detalles.

[Kirsty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vita Sackville-West was a prolific author indeed, writing fiction (novels and short stories), poetry, biographical works, travel literature, and a column on gardening, amongst other things. Vita Sackville-West's Pepita, a biography which portrays the lives of both her grandmother, Josefa, whom she never met, and her mother Victoria, was first published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's The Hogarth Press in 1937. The edition which I read was sadly not an original, but it did include rather a lovely introduction written by Alison Hennegan.

Josefa, lovingly known as Pepita to those around her, was 'the half-gypsy daughter of an old-clothes pedlar from Malaga', who made her fortune as a dancer, first in Madrid, and then as the 'toast of all Europe'. In May 1852, when she was just twenty-two years old, she arrived in London, already having been married and separated. She soon met and became the 'contented though severely ostracized mistress of Lionel Sackville-West, an English aristocrat and diplomat'. and bore him five illegitimate children, of whom Sackville-West's mother was the second eldest.

After Pepita's death, her nine-year-old daughter Victoria was sent to live in a convent, where she stayed until she was eighteen. At this juncture, she was summoned to Washington to become 'mistress' of her diplomat father's household. She goes on to find herself 'the volatile and wayward mistress of Knole' in what is termed in Pepita's blurb as an 'unlikely inheritance'.

In her introduction, Hennegan states: 'For what appears to be a straightforward joint biography of her grandmother and mother becomes the means whereby Vita explores and makes sense for herself of those warring elements in her own past and temperament which most exercised and perplexed her.' She goes on to say that for Vita, it was her '"Spanishness" which enabled her to accept her lesbianism comparatively easily, her "Englishness" which forbade anything as "vulgar" as a public acknowledgement of it.' Sackville-West herself saw Pepita as a 'gift to herself of the mother she almost had... [and] an extended love letter to the woman she wanted her mother to be.' She writes: 'Pepita, can I re-create you? Come to me. Make yourself alive again. Vitality such as yours cannot perish. I know so much about you: I have talked to old men who knew you, and they have all told me the same legend of your beauty' of the section on her grandmother. She extends this rule of exploration, and the hearsay she has been told, when she writes about, and tries to understand, her mother.

Despite Sackville-West's proclamation in her own introduction to the book that everything which she has written is true, it seems rather fanciful and unrealistic at times. Due to the style which Sackville-West has adopted, Pepita reads more like a novel than a work of biography. The historical context has been used well, and does give one a feel for the backdrop which both Pepita and Victoria lived against. Sackville-West does recognise that her portrayal of both her mother and grandmother are heavily biased as, of course, one would expect: 'The one person who never speaks in this whole history, is Pepita herself. We see her always objectively, never subjectively... Pepita herself is never explicit. In order to understand her at all, we have to find a piece from a different part of the puzzle, and fit it in.'

What I found most interesting about this account was the effect which Pepita had upon Lionel. Sackville-West writes: 'I mean no disrespect to my grandfather, but I do not think he was the man ever to enjoy dealing with a difficult situation: he far preferred to go away if he decently could and leave it to somebody else. Hitherto, Pepita had ordered his life, and now [after her death] there was to be an uncomfortable period of transition until Pepita's eldest daughter was of an age to assume the same responsibility.' The psychological effects of the First World War which Sackville-West presents are also fascinating.

There is a lot of Vita herself within the book, and not just in the fact that she is writing about her ancestry. She measures herself against her mother and grandmother at junctures, and is always passing her own opinion about their characters, or the decisions which they made. Of course she has a strong connection with both of her subjects, but there is nothing objective about this biography; there is not the level of detachment and feeling of truthfulness which I expect of works of this kind. Sackville-West does not remove her own self from the book enough for it to be anything like a full and far-reaching biography.

Pepita is a relatively entertaining book, but I feel as though it pales in comparison to much of Sackville-West's other work. It is difficult to take Pepita at face value, and it lacks that engagement which I have come to expect from Sackville-West's books. It is clear that her relationship with her mother was turbulent, but it feels at times as though episodes have been suppressed, or skimmed over. There is no real explanation as to their relationship which lasts long enough to be entirely satisfying. Overall, Pepita did not quite live up to my expectations.

[Beth Bonini · Rating 3 out of 5]

A House Full of Daughters, Juliet Nicolson’s memoir/biography of the maternal line of her Sackville/Nicolson family, was the book which first piqued my interest in the colourful antecedents of Vita-Sackville West. I wanted more, much more, about Pepita - the Spanish dancer who became the longtime mistress of an English aristocrat - and her eldest daughter, Victoria, who was twice over the chatelaine of Knole (through her father Lionel, and then her husband - and first cousin - ‘young’ Lionel). This biography, written after the death of Vita’s mother Victoria, was clearly an important primary source for Nicolson’s later biography, yet even though it is much longer on detail (at least certain details) it also manages to feel very conjectural and unsatisfying in terms of the character portraits.

The book is structured as two parts: the first about Pepita, and the second focusing on Victoria’s life after her mother Pepita’s death when she was still only a child. On Pepita’s side, the conjecture is largely due to the lack of primary sources. V S-W is limited by other people’s descriptions of Pepita, and perhaps even more so, by her own lifelong romanticised ideas about this ‘half gipsy’ Spanish dancer of a grandmother. Actually, there is far more substantiated detail about Pepita’s mother Catalina than there is of the shadowy figure of Pepita. There was certainly no lack of the biographer’s sources when it came to Victoria - who was a prolific diarist and letter writer, in addition to being intimately known by her daughter - and yet I still felt that the daughter’s portrait of her mother lacked balance and completeness. This feeling was reinforced when I started reading Nigel Nicolson’s biography of his mother titled Portrait of a Marriage. He claims, with believable support, that in Pepita his mother had done “too much honour to her father and too little to her mother. She emphasised her mother’s eccentricity to the detriment of her truly remarkable personality and gifts.” After giving some details of that commanding and charming personality, Nigel points out how many important and intelligent men that Victoria captivated. “The list of her conquests dispels the impression left by Pepita that she was nothing but a scatter-brained charmer, for men like Sir John Murray Scott, Pierpont Morgan, Kipling, Lord Kitchener, W. W. Astor, J.L. Garvin, Auguste Rodin, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Lord Leverhulme, Henry Ford and Gordon Selfridge would not have sought her company again and again after a first meeting unless she had as much to offer them as they to her.”

Daughters can be notoriously hard on their mothers, and certainly Victoria seems to have been an exceptionally difficult mother in many ways. Vita does end the book on a note of tribute, though, for she describes Victoria “as always herself” and goes further to say that “to be always oneself to that extent is a form of genius.”

Juliet Nicolson mentions that this biography was hugely successful, especially in America, when it was published in 1937. I’m not surprised by that success, because it ticks all of the boxes that Downton Abbey did 80 years later. Not only does it feature the sort of rags-to-riches storyline adored by Americans, including social success and scandal in Washington D.C., but it also reveals the inner workings of an aristocratic English family. Vita was a successful novelist, but she was also a well-known ‘society’ figure whose family had become infamous twenty years before because of two high-profile trials (both involving inheritances).

Closing thoughts: although it’s an entertaining read, particularly if one enjoys memoir, I would probably only recommend it for the Vita Sackville-West enthusiast. Having said that, as unusual as her own life was, Vita’s life was no more extraordinary than the lives of her grandmother and mother.

[Iñaki Tofiño · Rating 5 out of 5]

As amusing as ever, Vita Sackville-West tells the story of her family in a close but at the same time detached way, so that the whole picture reads as a biography as well as a memoir.

[Anna Silvester Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

What started as an amusing anecdotal family history descended into a moving personal tragedy. Over the course of three generations, the attractive traits of enigmatic eccentricity and admirable determination devolve into incorrigible madness and inveterate obstinacy. The fact that this work recounts a true history makes it a monumental accomplishment in terms of the vast quantity of documents, records, and letters that must have been sifted through and collated to construct this narrative. More than anything, one feels that its author is the kind of person one would like to have as a friend (nothing like Henry James)

[Arcadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the woman that inspired Virginia Woolf's 'Orlando' comes the biography of her own grandmother, Pepita. A mysterious malagueña, beautiful, with whip-length hair and dancing as a profession, Vita tracks the eccentric blood that is her ancestry and presents a picture of classical English aristocracy meeting the dark, unconventional, Southern gypsy.

The tenderness of writing on one's own family is appreciated among its pages. Tainted with a bizarre magic realism, the people described in 'Pepita' display the delicious real contradictions and polarities people possess and act upon, with their subsequent consequences and effects. The second half of the book deals with Pepita's daughter, Vita's mother, and makes a case for the transmission of certain character traits. It reads almost as a reconciliation and plea towards Vita's ancestors, a desire for approximation and understanding. The intention is honest and transparent.

The contrast between the elite English aristocracy and the generosity and resourcefulness of the Spanish is a treat and a curious bit of history that contains a microcosm of the world at that time at large.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wildly entertaining! The two Pepitas are unforgettable.

[julieta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I wish this had been only about Pepita and not Victoria. That last half was pretty lackluster in comparison.

[Jayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book but I just couldn't feel for any of the 'characters' (can't really say characters as it is a biography).
This is the story of Vita Sackville-West's Spanish grandmother and her mother, with half of the book devoted to each. When it was published in 1937, I would assume it caused a scandal of sorts as Vita chronicles the illegitimate birth of he mother and her siblings. This of course led to problems with later inheritance of titles and properties.

I would say this book was interesting but not engrossing.

And I must say, I feel I should add an extra star just for the cover! I adore the covers of the Vintage Classics series.

[Breanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but it's really more of a biography of the author's grandmother who's life had little to interest me being as I'm not Spanish, into dancing, an adulteress (though this was tactfully written about) or a member of the Sackville-West family! The people are odd...and not in an endearing way.

[Hermien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this writer and her family's history.

[Sara Aye Moung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Beautifully written, funny , moving family history.

[Rosamund Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vita Sackville-West's biography of her mother and grandmother is tender, informative and full of vitality. Pepita, Sackville-West's maternal grandmother, was a celebrity dancer from Spain, who was hugely admired by audiences all over Europe, and became very wealthy. She had married and separated from her husband, a dancing instructor, at a young age, and she became the mistress of Lionel Sackville-West, who worked for the British ambassador. Together they had seven illegitimate children, five surviving, of which one was Victoria Sackville-West, Vita's mother, who later married her first cousin, another Lionel Sackville-West. Victoria lived at Knole, the ancient mansion of the Sackville-Wests, and had one daughter, Vita.

A great deal of material on the life of Pepita was gathered to ascertain the correct descent of a British peerage -- one of Pepita's sons sought to prove that Pepita was married to Lionel Sackville-West, which simply wasn't true. However, the information gathered for this legal case is full of facts about Pepita's life and her background, which gives Vita a wealth of material to draw from in her biography. Though the rags-to-riches story of Pepita is very entertaining, it's in telling the story of Victoria, Vita's mother, that the memoir truly comes to life. Vita's portrait of this woman -- a volatile, compassionate and silly woman who charmed almost everyone she met -- is fascinating and full of affection. In telling the story of her mother, Vita Sackville-West herself comes to life. The memoir also had wider implications as a portrait of the aristocracy shortly before the upper class began to disappear, and of the impacts of wealth and privilege on families and those around them. As well as that, it's a beautiful evocation of vivid, passionate women, and a reminder that our history is full of people we should not forget.

[Nicole Witen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

My first Sackville-West book. I know that Sackville-West is an interesting author from the first half of the 20th century and was connected to the Bloomsbury set, specifically Virginia Woolf, but I had never read her works before.

I liked her writing style. I thought Pepita was interesting, though this read more like a novel than a biography, which I think the author was intending? I will read more of Sackville-West's books, but I did not enjoy this one in particular. The first half about Pepita was good, but the second half about Victoria (the author's mother) felt disjointed and a bit of a mess. Additionally, I really dislike the trend of literature of this time period where personality traits are tied into nationality/race/ethnicity/culture. For example, Victoria's tantrums are due to her Spanish/possibly Roma blood because "Spaniards" are more passionate than the English. There are plenty examples of this in the novel, ad nauseum truth be told. These descriptions detracted considerably from my enjoyment of the book.

Overall a good book, but I suspect her other books are better.

[Melanie Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an engaging book and written by Vita Sackville-West with a measured honesty about the lives of her Spanish antecedents and of her mother. The story of Pepita and her family is pieced together by Sackville-West using evidence gathered for a court case, with the effect of giving a window onto snippets of lives and loves.

There are gaps - what, for instance, became of uncles Max and Henry, or aunts Flora and Amalia? I guess I will find out more when I read 'The Disinherited' by Robert Sackville-West.

[Jonathan Corfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

My second stab at Vita Sackville-West has her describing two preceding generations of female relatives that are eccentric, exotic, innately intelligent and generous. They also happen to be dominant, driven and commanding in their home life but also curiously and charmingly laissez-faire in other aspects. They both end up barking mad.
For diplomacy's sake I shan't make this review more elaborate except to say that I enjoy her writing and in the future will willingly attack more of it.

[Aria Ligi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which tells the story of Pepita (VSW's grandmother) and, in the second half, her mother, Victoria Sackville-West. My only complaint is that I wish she had translated all of the parts in French in the text. I spent endless hours using Google Translate as a result. On the whole, though, it is a fascinating story, which makes me want to go back and read Portrait of a Marriage, given all the things Vita left out in Pepita due to the prejudice of the times.

[Valerie Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An entertaining read about Spanish Gypsies, Ballerinas and Bull Fights! This book transports one to Europe, with settings in London, Madrid and Paris. Then Ecuador, South America and Casablanca, Morocco. The French phrases are beautiful and poetic!

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A racy account of the lives of two women - Vita Sackville-West's Spanish half-gypsy grandmother, the dancer Pepita; and her charismatic and eccentric mother Victoria. What a story this makes - if you put it in a novel, people would say it was too far-fetched.

[ReadingwhileWalking · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly readable, fascinating account of Vita SW's Spanish dancer grandmother, Pepita, and her mother, Victoria, a volatile beauty who slipped into mental illness (labelled, here, as eccentricity). Hard to imagine why this work is not more widely read.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pepita is the story and biography of the author's grandmother, Pepita, and her mother, Victoria. Vita Sackville-West was an author of novels, poetry and some biography. Scandal follows this family and these three woman. Pepita was a half-Spanish Gypsy and dancer who was the mistress to Vita's grandfather. Victoria was one of their illegitimate off-spring, and Vita was married but had affairs with women. This book by Vita only describes the lives of her grandmother and mother.
https://readableword.wordpress.com/20...

[O Babs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The quality of the writing recommends this. The action tells an interesting story, although always most interesting to the writer rather than to the reader, being such a personal one.

[Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pocas personas tienen el privilegio de tener una historia familiar tan dispar y extrema, con relaciones no convencionales en el siglo XIX, con sangre azul británica por un lado y la de artistas españoles, flamencos y gitanos por otro. Ni todo el mundo crece en un palacio de la nobleza británica en un ambiente familiar bilíngüe. Entretenido, sorprendente, fácil de leer, cargado de humor y con las dosis justas de ternura sin llegar a convertir el libro en un libro sentimentalo ni empalagoso. Un juego de equilibrio que demuestra la habilidad de esta poeta para contar historias.

[Miss S M Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly not a compelling read

Sadly not a compelling read
The history of Knole was interesting but I think she could have projected it beyond her mother's death