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Le jardin blanc
Et si Virginia Woolf ne s était pas suicidée le 28 mars 1941 ?
En octobre 2008, Jo Bellamy, jeune paysagiste américaine, arrive à Sissinghurst, dans le Kent, pour étudier le célèbre jardin blanc créé par l amie de Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West. Un jour après l annonce de son départ, son grand-père Jock, d origine britannique, se suicide. Jo découvre qu il avait lui-même travaillé dans ce jardin pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale et décide de profiter de son voyage pour comprendre son geste.
À Sissinghurst, Jo découvre par hasard un journal intime parmi les archives des jardiniers. L étiquette porte le nom de son grand-père, mais, en le déchiffrant, elle doit se rendre à l évidence : ce journal n est pas le sien. Soupçonnant son auteur d être Virginia Woolf, elle file le faire expertiser chez Sotheby s. Là, on lui concède que le style et les thèmes rappellent en effet Woolf... à un détail près : les dates. Le 28 mars 1941, Virginia a rempli ses poches de pierres avant d aller se noyer dans l Ouse. Or le journal commence le 29.
Des détails du journal amènent Jo à jouer avec cette idée : et si Virginia Woolf ne s était pas suicidée ? Si on l avait tuée ?
D Oxford à Cambridge, de demeures prestigieuses en bibliothèques légendaires, dans des jardins dont la splendeur dissimule d obscurs secrets, Jo traque la vérité sur les derniers jours de la romancière. Mais elle n est pas la seule, et bientôt le journal est volé...
En octobre 2008, Jo Bellamy, jeune paysagiste américaine, arrive à Sissinghurst, dans le Kent, pour étudier le célèbre jardin blanc créé par l amie de Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West. Un jour après l annonce de son départ, son grand-père Jock, d origine britannique, se suicide. Jo découvre qu il avait lui-même travaillé dans ce jardin pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale et décide de profiter de son voyage pour comprendre son geste.
À Sissinghurst, Jo découvre par hasard un journal intime parmi les archives des jardiniers. L étiquette porte le nom de son grand-père, mais, en le déchiffrant, elle doit se rendre à l évidence : ce journal n est pas le sien. Soupçonnant son auteur d être Virginia Woolf, elle file le faire expertiser chez Sotheby s. Là, on lui concède que le style et les thèmes rappellent en effet Woolf... à un détail près : les dates. Le 28 mars 1941, Virginia a rempli ses poches de pierres avant d aller se noyer dans l Ouse. Or le journal commence le 29.
Des détails du journal amènent Jo à jouer avec cette idée : et si Virginia Woolf ne s était pas suicidée ? Si on l avait tuée ?
D Oxford à Cambridge, de demeures prestigieuses en bibliothèques légendaires, dans des jardins dont la splendeur dissimule d obscurs secrets, Jo traque la vérité sur les derniers jours de la romancière. Mais elle n est pas la seule, et bientôt le journal est volé...
406 pages, Paperback
First published September 29, 2009
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1038 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Barron
37 books884 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Stephanie Barron was born Francine Stephanie Barron in Binghamton, NY in 1963, the last of six girls. Her father was a retired general in the Air Force, her mother a beautiful woman who loved to dance. The family spent their summers on Cape Cod, where two of the Barron girls now live with their families; Francine's passion for Nantucket and the New England shoreline dates from her earliest memories. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, a two hundred year-old Catholic school for girls that shares a wall with Georgetown University. Her father died of a heart attack during her freshman year.
In 1981, she started college at Princeton – one of the most formative experiences of her life. There she fenced for the club varsity team and learned to write news stories for The Daily Princetonian – a hobby that led to two part-time jobs as a journalist for The Miami Herald and The San Jose Mercury News. Francine majored in European History, studying Napoleonic France, and won an Arthur W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship in the Humanities in her senior year. But the course she remembers most vividly from her time at Princeton is "The Literature of Fact," taught by John McPhee, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker. John influenced Francine's writing more than even she knows and certainly more than she is able to say. If there were an altar erected to the man in Colorado, she'd place offerings there daily. He's her personal god of craft.
Francine spent three years at Stanford pursuing a doctorate in history; she failed to write her dissertation (on the Brazilian Bar Association under authoritarianism; can you blame her?) and left with a Masters. She applied to the CIA, spent a year temping in Northern Virginia while the FBI asked inconvenient questions of everyone she had ever known, passed a polygraph test on her twenty-sixth birthday, and was immediately thrown into the Career Trainee program: Boot Camp for the Agency's Best and Brightest. Four years as an intelligence analyst at the CIA were profoundly fulfilling, the highlights being Francine's work on the Counterterrorism Center's investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, and sleeping on a horsehair mattress in a Spectre-era casino in the middle of Bratislava. Another peak moment was her chance to debrief ex-President George Bush in Houston in 1993. But what she remembers most about the place are the extraordinary intelligence and dedication of most of the staff – many of them women – many of whom cannot be named.
She wrote her first book in 1992 and left the Agency a year later. Fifteen books have followed, along with sundry children, dogs, and houses. When she's not writing, she likes to ski, garden, needlepoint, and buy art. Her phone number is definitely unlisted.
Stephanie Barron was born Francine Stephanie Barron in Binghamton, NY in 1963, the last of six girls. Her father was a retired general in the Air Force, her mother a beautiful woman who loved to dance. The family spent their summers on Cape Cod, where two of the Barron girls now live with their families; Francine's passion for Nantucket and the New England shoreline dates from her earliest memories. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, a two hundred year-old Catholic school for girls that shares a wall with Georgetown University. Her father died of a heart attack during her freshman year.
In 1981, she started college at Princeton – one of the most formative experiences of her life. There she fenced for the club varsity team and learned to write news stories for The Daily Princetonian – a hobby that led to two part-time jobs as a journalist for The Miami Herald and The San Jose Mercury News. Francine majored in European History, studying Napoleonic France, and won an Arthur W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship in the Humanities in her senior year. But the course she remembers most vividly from her time at Princeton is "The Literature of Fact," taught by John McPhee, the Pulitzer Prize winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker. John influenced Francine's writing more than even she knows and certainly more than she is able to say. If there were an altar erected to the man in Colorado, she'd place offerings there daily. He's her personal god of craft.
Francine spent three years at Stanford pursuing a doctorate in history; she failed to write her dissertation (on the Brazilian Bar Association under authoritarianism; can you blame her?) and left with a Masters. She applied to the CIA, spent a year temping in Northern Virginia while the FBI asked inconvenient questions of everyone she had ever known, passed a polygraph test on her twenty-sixth birthday, and was immediately thrown into the Career Trainee program: Boot Camp for the Agency's Best and Brightest. Four years as an intelligence analyst at the CIA were profoundly fulfilling, the highlights being Francine's work on the Counterterrorism Center's investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, and sleeping on a horsehair mattress in a Spectre-era casino in the middle of Bratislava. Another peak moment was her chance to debrief ex-President George Bush in Houston in 1993. But what she remembers most about the place are the extraordinary intelligence and dedication of most of the staff – many of them women – many of whom cannot be named.
She wrote her first book in 1992 and left the Agency a year later. Fifteen books have followed, along with sundry children, dogs, and houses. When she's not writing, she likes to ski, garden, needlepoint, and buy art. Her phone number is definitely unlisted.
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September 1, 2019
I re-read this historical fiction mystery and it was better the second time around? How is that possible? Simple: damn fine writing. If you're a Virginia Woolf fan and you like mysteries, pick this gem up. Seriously!
May 4, 2020
Barron (an alias of Francine Mathews) is best known for her Jane Austen Mysteries series. Here she takes up the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West and crafts a conspiracy theory / alternative history in which Virginia did not commit suicide upon her disappearance in March 1941 but hid with Vita at Sissinghurst, her Kent home with the famous gardens. Investigating this in the autumn of 2008 are Jo Bellamy, an American garden designer who has been tasked with recreating Sackville-West’s famous White Garden at her wealthy client’s upstate New York estate, and Peter Llewelyn, a Sotheby’s employee who helps Jo authenticate a journal she finds hidden in a gardener’s shed at Sissinghurst.
Jo has a secret connection: her grandfather, Jock, who recently committed suicide, was a gardener here at the time of Woolf’s visit, and she believes the notebook may shed light on Virginia’s true fate and what led Jock to kill himself. There are romantic complications: Jo’s employer, Graydon, who makes a quick stop in England, expects her to become his mistress, whereas she’s interested in Peter, whereas he’s still not over his ex-wife, Margaux, a Woolf expert.
This is fun escapism for Americans after an armchair trip to England (including Oxford and Cambridge for research), but so obviously written by an outsider: I had to correct what felt like dozens of errors in the British vernacular and particular details (e.g. it’s not still dark in London at 9 a.m. in late October (8, okay; not 9); mobile phone use while driving has been illegal since 2003, so I wouldn’t expect a British character to pick up his phone at the wheel; the indoor smoking ban came into effect in July 2007, so the hotel dining room wouldn’t have been filled with cigarette smoke; “pulling a few” is not slang for having a few drinks – rather, “pulling” has the connotation of making a romantic conquest – so I’ve replaced it with “having a few pints”; and in some cases she’s literally made up slang, because I’ve never heard these phrases before in my life: “small pence,” “to tickle [someone’s] knickers”).
I’ve visited Sissinghurst and Knole and had enough of an interest in the historical figures involved to keep me going through a slightly silly, frothy novel.
Jo has a secret connection: her grandfather, Jock, who recently committed suicide, was a gardener here at the time of Woolf’s visit, and she believes the notebook may shed light on Virginia’s true fate and what led Jock to kill himself. There are romantic complications: Jo’s employer, Graydon, who makes a quick stop in England, expects her to become his mistress, whereas she’s interested in Peter, whereas he’s still not over his ex-wife, Margaux, a Woolf expert.
This is fun escapism for Americans after an armchair trip to England (including Oxford and Cambridge for research), but so obviously written by an outsider: I had to correct what felt like dozens of errors in the British vernacular and particular details (e.g. it’s not still dark in London at 9 a.m. in late October (8, okay; not 9); mobile phone use while driving has been illegal since 2003, so I wouldn’t expect a British character to pick up his phone at the wheel; the indoor smoking ban came into effect in July 2007, so the hotel dining room wouldn’t have been filled with cigarette smoke; “pulling a few” is not slang for having a few drinks – rather, “pulling” has the connotation of making a romantic conquest – so I’ve replaced it with “having a few pints”; and in some cases she’s literally made up slang, because I’ve never heard these phrases before in my life: “small pence,” “to tickle [someone’s] knickers”).
I’ve visited Sissinghurst and Knole and had enough of an interest in the historical figures involved to keep me going through a slightly silly, frothy novel.
August 3, 2010
I scarcely know how to begin, not something a reviewer should admit publically, I suppose. This wonderfully realized and written novel is a first class literary mystery. It deals with a three-week period in l941 that marks the end of a troubled life, the life of Virginia Woolf. It is serendipitous that this novel comes to my hand at a time that epitomizes a good deal of what she was all about. In a word, independence. Independence for women and independence for writers.
Virginia Woolf was an English writer, essayist and literary critic of the early Twentieth Century. Her parents did not send her to school. She was entirely self-taught and apparently randomly tutored by her literary critic father. She was a major influence on the kind of novels being written today, yet she was always, always, self-published. Hogarth Press, established by Woolf and her husband, Leonard, a political theorist of that era, in their kitchen, published Virginia’s writings along with those of E.M. Forester, and Sigmund Freud, among many others. Growing up she knew people like Henry James, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, and George Eliot. Her father, Leslie Stephen's, first wife was the daughter of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray.
In addition to her literary credentials as an accomplished novelist, she was a prolific essayist who published over 500 essays. Virginia Wolf helped coalesce the famous (or infamous) Bloomsbury Group, a collection of social, political and economic theorists of varying stripes, including artists, critics, philosophers and writers who wrote, debated, loved, married and argued life throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century.
Woolf was sexually abused by a relative as a child, and clearly had mental problems during her lifetime. Her companions through life, including relatives, were mostly liberated intellectuals who ignored social constraints. On March 28, 1941, she disappeared from her home. Three weeks later, her body was discovered in the nearby river Ouse which had already been extensively searched. Her body was promptly cremated and there was no funeral ceremony, public or private.
Which brings us to this novel. Sixty years after Woolf’s death, master garden and landscape designer, Jo Bellamy arrives in England. She is doing research for a wealthy client who wants her to recreate a famous garden of white flowers and plants at his Long Island Estate. Jo is trying to recover from her grandfather’s sudden suicide. The celebrated White Garden of the title is located at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. It was created by Woolf’s friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West.
What Bellamy discovers at Sissinghurst has the potential to set decades of literary analysis and speculation on its collective ear. Whilst grubbing about in some boxes in one of the garden sheds, Jo comes upon a diary which appears to have been written by Virginia Woolf. Well and good, the problem is the first entry is dated the day after Virginia Woolf is supposed to have drowned herself. Moreover, there appears to be a connection between the castle, the garden, Woolf and Jo’s dead grandfather. Shocked and amid a growing desire to learn more about her grandfather’s youth in Kent, Jo Bellamy sets out on a cross-country odyssey to try to authenticate the diary and uncover her grandfather’s connection to one of the most famous feminists and literary icons of the past century.
The novel is wonderfully written and mostly moves at an ever-increasing pace as Bellamy encounters an array of character who are far more interested in their own aggrandizement than in helping Jo. The diary is stolen, Jo has help from several people with questionable motives and engages in some pretty far-fetched antics in order to follow some tantalizingly obscure clues.
Ultimately of course, some of the questions surrounding the diary and the last three weeks of Virginia Woolf’s life are resolved, but not all. The author, skillfully evoking a past era of English letters and philosophical thought, has provided a rich and thought-provoking experience.
The novel is written with grace and is rich in atmosphere and history. It is presented as a carefully wrought piece that could be true, and that climaxes in a stunning and most satisfying conclusion.
Virginia Woolf was an English writer, essayist and literary critic of the early Twentieth Century. Her parents did not send her to school. She was entirely self-taught and apparently randomly tutored by her literary critic father. She was a major influence on the kind of novels being written today, yet she was always, always, self-published. Hogarth Press, established by Woolf and her husband, Leonard, a political theorist of that era, in their kitchen, published Virginia’s writings along with those of E.M. Forester, and Sigmund Freud, among many others. Growing up she knew people like Henry James, Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, and George Eliot. Her father, Leslie Stephen's, first wife was the daughter of the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray.
In addition to her literary credentials as an accomplished novelist, she was a prolific essayist who published over 500 essays. Virginia Wolf helped coalesce the famous (or infamous) Bloomsbury Group, a collection of social, political and economic theorists of varying stripes, including artists, critics, philosophers and writers who wrote, debated, loved, married and argued life throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century.
Woolf was sexually abused by a relative as a child, and clearly had mental problems during her lifetime. Her companions through life, including relatives, were mostly liberated intellectuals who ignored social constraints. On March 28, 1941, she disappeared from her home. Three weeks later, her body was discovered in the nearby river Ouse which had already been extensively searched. Her body was promptly cremated and there was no funeral ceremony, public or private.
Which brings us to this novel. Sixty years after Woolf’s death, master garden and landscape designer, Jo Bellamy arrives in England. She is doing research for a wealthy client who wants her to recreate a famous garden of white flowers and plants at his Long Island Estate. Jo is trying to recover from her grandfather’s sudden suicide. The celebrated White Garden of the title is located at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. It was created by Woolf’s friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West.
What Bellamy discovers at Sissinghurst has the potential to set decades of literary analysis and speculation on its collective ear. Whilst grubbing about in some boxes in one of the garden sheds, Jo comes upon a diary which appears to have been written by Virginia Woolf. Well and good, the problem is the first entry is dated the day after Virginia Woolf is supposed to have drowned herself. Moreover, there appears to be a connection between the castle, the garden, Woolf and Jo’s dead grandfather. Shocked and amid a growing desire to learn more about her grandfather’s youth in Kent, Jo Bellamy sets out on a cross-country odyssey to try to authenticate the diary and uncover her grandfather’s connection to one of the most famous feminists and literary icons of the past century.
The novel is wonderfully written and mostly moves at an ever-increasing pace as Bellamy encounters an array of character who are far more interested in their own aggrandizement than in helping Jo. The diary is stolen, Jo has help from several people with questionable motives and engages in some pretty far-fetched antics in order to follow some tantalizingly obscure clues.
Ultimately of course, some of the questions surrounding the diary and the last three weeks of Virginia Woolf’s life are resolved, but not all. The author, skillfully evoking a past era of English letters and philosophical thought, has provided a rich and thought-provoking experience.
The novel is written with grace and is rich in atmosphere and history. It is presented as a carefully wrought piece that could be true, and that climaxes in a stunning and most satisfying conclusion.
November 26, 2009
I snatched this one up, first because the cover caught my eye, and second, the title led me to believe it was a work of historical fiction. After reading the back cover and learning that it's really a mystery set in modern times, I was still gung-ho to read it.There is a little bit of history--and that part I liked, though I have to wonder about its authenticity. But for me, the rest of it was awfully contrived--"awfully" as both an intensifier and as in "exceptionally bad and displeasing." I thought the characters were flat and the plot devices were obvious and forced: Jo thinks Peter should open a restaurant just because "'You know you want to (cook)'"? This unconvincing and out-of-left-field device enables the two to hook up at the end, of course--because Jo will design and maintain his potager! How sweet it is. And boy, did Peter manage to tie up all those loose ends at the end in his and Jo's favor. When did he have the time to get the family to sign all those papers, much less agree to his ideas? As Peter and Jo were running around trying to solve the mystery of the lost pages of the manuscript and its connection to the secret brotherhood of the Apostles, while Margaux and Marcus were teaming up with the evil manipulator Grey, I had to wonder if Barron was under the influence. The influence, that is, of the Da Vinci Code.
August 5, 2010
I read this novel, which is written by a family friend, just after visiting Sissinghurst (the very famous gardens of Vita Sackville-West) where Virginia Woolf spent time. But I read it with some trepidation - I'm always nervous about any fiction involving Virginia Woolf because I'm such a purist about her - my adoration so deep - and so I took this on with some skepticism. As it turns out, I really enjoyed it. The sense of place in this novel is hugely important - and rarely have I had the pleasure of reading a book where I know the place of a book so well, having just been there days earlier. (The White Garden at Sissinghurst is totally glorious - and Helen had a great time romping down the little paths running into other people at every turn.) But also, it's just a fun story. A good romp - on the level of a Dan Brown book (but better) - with mystery and danger driving the narrative at a fast pace. In the end, I was dissastisfied with the portraits of both Virginia and Leonard here (and Vanessa too) - their relationship had to be shifted from historical truth in order to create the plot of this novel. But since this really isn't a book with character depth - it's a plot-driven book - I can walk away from it without any harm done. Fun read.
April 14, 2018
How does one make gagging noises in print?
The tip-off, that this was going to be an atrociously painful read, occurred when "... Imogen Cantwell felt a sudden frisson of fear -- as though a serpent, in the form of this mild American woman, had suddenly slithered through Sissinghurst's garden." (page 17).
A dime-store romance novel disguised as a "serious" Virginia Woolf/Vita Sackville-West mystery.
Alas, poor Virginia! Alas, poor Vita! ... that their illustrious lives should be reduced to this twaddle.
The tip-off, that this was going to be an atrociously painful read, occurred when "... Imogen Cantwell felt a sudden frisson of fear -- as though a serpent, in the form of this mild American woman, had suddenly slithered through Sissinghurst's garden." (page 17).
A dime-store romance novel disguised as a "serious" Virginia Woolf/Vita Sackville-West mystery.
Alas, poor Virginia! Alas, poor Vita! ... that their illustrious lives should be reduced to this twaddle.
January 18, 2024
This was a fun mystery novel that took an interesting turn. Gardening! Archives! Intrigue at Sotheby’s! The Bloomsbury Group!
October 13, 2009
As a gardener and an admirer of Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen series, I was very interested to read this book. I can't say that it quite lived up to my hopes for it, but in the end, I did find it an enjoyable and interesting read for its historical touches and for the bits of gardening lore. Barron seems to have an instinctive feel for gardens and gardening and I wondered if perhaps she herself is a gardener.
The thread that this tale hangs by is Barron's imagining that Virginia Woolf did not indeed die at the end of March 1941 as all the world believes but that she lived on for days or perhaps weeks. Her body was not found until late April and her death was ruled suicide. But what if it wasn't?
Barron's story has Woolf at Vita Sackville-West's place in early April, along with the grandfather of the protagonist in this story, Jo Bellanmy, a landscape designer from Delaware. Woolf had run away from her husband, Leonard, and was deeply fearful of something that was happening - or did she simply imagine it was happening?
A war was going on. Bombs were falling. There were spies abroad in the land. Barron manages to weave in the story of the Burgess/Philby nest of spies. Burgess, it seems, was a friend of the Bloomsbury Group of writers and had a connection to Harold Nicolson, Vita's husband, through a secret society known as The Apostles.
Jo Bellamy finds a diary, possibly written by Woolf, in a garden shed at the Nicholsons' place, Sissinghurst, where she has come to study the famous White Garden which she will recreate for her client. She seeks assistance from an Expert at Sotheby's in authenticating the material, and the two of them are off on a tale of intrigue and mystery as they follow clues to the puzzle of how and why the diary came to be.
Though the question of what really happened to Woolf is never answered and can never be answered, the denouement of the novel is altogether satisfying and, ultimately, it was a fun read.
The thread that this tale hangs by is Barron's imagining that Virginia Woolf did not indeed die at the end of March 1941 as all the world believes but that she lived on for days or perhaps weeks. Her body was not found until late April and her death was ruled suicide. But what if it wasn't?
Barron's story has Woolf at Vita Sackville-West's place in early April, along with the grandfather of the protagonist in this story, Jo Bellanmy, a landscape designer from Delaware. Woolf had run away from her husband, Leonard, and was deeply fearful of something that was happening - or did she simply imagine it was happening?
A war was going on. Bombs were falling. There were spies abroad in the land. Barron manages to weave in the story of the Burgess/Philby nest of spies. Burgess, it seems, was a friend of the Bloomsbury Group of writers and had a connection to Harold Nicolson, Vita's husband, through a secret society known as The Apostles.
Jo Bellamy finds a diary, possibly written by Woolf, in a garden shed at the Nicholsons' place, Sissinghurst, where she has come to study the famous White Garden which she will recreate for her client. She seeks assistance from an Expert at Sotheby's in authenticating the material, and the two of them are off on a tale of intrigue and mystery as they follow clues to the puzzle of how and why the diary came to be.
Though the question of what really happened to Woolf is never answered and can never be answered, the denouement of the novel is altogether satisfying and, ultimately, it was a fun read.
April 26, 2025
This is like a literary Da Vinci Code - a wild romp around Sissinghurst Castle and garden, Oxford, London, Cambridge - looking for clues about the disappearance Virginia Woolf - did she die on the day Leonard found the notes - or was it later. Was it suicide or murder? Was it spies Guy Burgess and Anthony Blount??? This was a hugely entertaining mystery. A mash up of fact and fiction. I think it was more fun for me because all I've read about Virginia and the Bloomsbury Group and Vita. The American in the story has heard of Virginia - but that's about it. The English characters have to educate her as they follow clues.
May 7, 2011
One would think that I would find a book about Virginia Woolf--any book, fictional or otherwise--to be entertaining. And yet this novel is poorly written, dull and ignorant of even basic details of Virginia's life. Only the portrait of the feminist scholar strikes me as having any entertainment value. The reader is presented with a mystery that turns out to be no such thing--by the end I wished only that all the characters had been butchered around page 30, when they were just starting to wear out their welcome. The solution to the mystery of "The White Garden"? A radical re-writing of history that comes off as the work of someone for whom Wikipedia is the ultimate resource.
June 6, 2015
Loved this book and it inspired me to learn more about Virginia Woolf. It addressed several of my favorite topic, gardening, England and WWII. Very good read.
January 7, 2025
Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville West led a tempestuous love life. I’m also loving their white garden. It is still there
August 31, 2017
Une lecture excitante, pleine de pep's et de rebondissements, avec une galerie de personnages pittoresques et des aventures rocambolesques. J'ai franchement adoré. ♥♥♥
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June 8, 2015
It was the "Virginia Woolf" in the title that attracted me to this volume. I was even happier to discover that it involved intrigue and mystery from WWII, scenery from one of my favorite places in the world, and a gorgeous garden. It began well enough and I was hooked rather quickly. It's not a large volume and I thought it would be done within just a day or two. However, by about halfway through it just became a slog and it took almost another month to finish. And that was after skipping a few chapters..... I didn't feel like I missed anything by skipping those pages and I was right (I did behave myself and go back to read them just in case). It was just so improbable and convoluted. Too many questions left unanswered, a romance there was an inkling of, but I felt actually progressed too quickly in the end, resolutions that were just too neat and tidy, etc. Bah.... I have returned this to the library with a very unsatisfied feeling.
October 25, 2021
I was not a good candidate for this book to be honest. First of all I do not love Virginia Woolf. I read for pleasure and her books I find monotonous or sad. Just knowing that I shouldn't have purchased this book. Secondly I hate when an author attempts to write a "lost" book by a famous author.. Or when they write in authors style and add on to previous works. Also it has a messy (rather unhealthy) love triangle and not very likable characters.
March 9, 2010
I have renewed this one from the library as many times as I can, thinking I wanted to finish it- even if I didn't much like it or care what happens to the characters. Why do we do this to ourselves? I wish that instead of being a book about a modern character reading an old journal this had been set in a re-imagined past entirely. Might have served the story better.
September 9, 2013
niente più che un divertissement per appassionati di virginia woolf. la trama è stiracchiata e improbabile, i personaggi vagamente macchiettistici ma le descrizioni di sissinghurst sono belle e si percepisce un certo rispetto per la materia trattata. insomma, prescindibile ma decente.
June 17, 2022
I read this for the herbal fiction book club. I’m scheduled to lead a discussion later in the month. I will be skimming through the book as a review.
There is not much of herbal interest in the novel. I would prefer to be discussing this work for a literature class. I think the events created for the historical part of the novel owe their inspiration to feminist literary criticism.
Stephanie Barron has taken the lacuna of the days between the date Virginia Woolf wrote her suicide letters and the date her body was found and used that period to create a mystery. What if Woolf really decided not to commit suicide? What if she instead turned to her former lover? What if darker forces were at work? Barron incorporates the mysterious historical death of someone called Jan Ter Braak to support the idea of possible dark forces.
All of the events of the fictional past come to light when a garden designer is studying the White Garden at Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst Castle as part of a project to recreate the garden for a wealthy client in Delaware. The discovery involves two and sometimes three groups chasing clues and each other around England. That is not the kind of action I like. This present day story was not very believable.
The novel did make me want to learn more about the gardens at Sissinghurst so I’ve ordered a book.
There is not much of herbal interest in the novel. I would prefer to be discussing this work for a literature class. I think the events created for the historical part of the novel owe their inspiration to feminist literary criticism.
Stephanie Barron has taken the lacuna of the days between the date Virginia Woolf wrote her suicide letters and the date her body was found and used that period to create a mystery. What if Woolf really decided not to commit suicide? What if she instead turned to her former lover? What if darker forces were at work? Barron incorporates the mysterious historical death of someone called Jan Ter Braak to support the idea of possible dark forces.
All of the events of the fictional past come to light when a garden designer is studying the White Garden at Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst Castle as part of a project to recreate the garden for a wealthy client in Delaware. The discovery involves two and sometimes three groups chasing clues and each other around England. That is not the kind of action I like. This present day story was not very believable.
The novel did make me want to learn more about the gardens at Sissinghurst so I’ve ordered a book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2021
Découverte totale de cette auteure complètement inconnue pour moi. J'ai reçu ce livre en cadeau pour l'achat de plusieurs poches.
C'est très bien écrit, le style est fluide et les pages se tournent presque toutes seules, comme un thriller.
Mais je suis passée un peu à côté du "mystère" et de son dévoilement Ui nécessitent une érudition que je n'ai pas. Je n'ai jamais lu Virginia Woolf et je ne suis pas au fait de la société littéraire anglaise des années 40, encore moins de ses sociétés secrètes.
Un livre agréable à lire mais qui nécessite quelques connaissances de bases pour en apprécier totalement le contenu.
Si vous êtes connaisseurs, foncez, ça devrait vous plaire.
Un bon 3,5/5 pour moi.
C'est très bien écrit, le style est fluide et les pages se tournent presque toutes seules, comme un thriller.
Mais je suis passée un peu à côté du "mystère" et de son dévoilement Ui nécessitent une érudition que je n'ai pas. Je n'ai jamais lu Virginia Woolf et je ne suis pas au fait de la société littéraire anglaise des années 40, encore moins de ses sociétés secrètes.
Un livre agréable à lire mais qui nécessite quelques connaissances de bases pour en apprécier totalement le contenu.
Si vous êtes connaisseurs, foncez, ça devrait vous plaire.
Un bon 3,5/5 pour moi.
September 12, 2019
This book is less serious than I thought it would be (why did I expect that, I wonder? Maybe that silhouette on the cover) and so it was a process of adjustments, reading it. Parts I liked were the wandering around the White Garden itself, and the somewhat madcap racing around England to solve the central mystery (Sussex, Oxford, London, etc.); I was less impressed with the protagonist herself, who kept inwardly berating herself. I never like that.
May 22, 2022
I enjoyed learning a bit about Virginia Woolf, since I knew absolutely nothing. I liked the mix of fact with fiction and the idea that perhaps she didn't die as everyone thought.
November 15, 2024
Captivating. I would like to think it wasn't just because of all the garden content but it very well may have been??? A lovely little mystery but more interesting was reading the snippets about the garden at Sissinghurst. It inspired me to order another book on Vita Sackville-West's famous garden. It also felt like a mini tour around England ~ so many famous places visited and a lot of name dropping of the incredible people in Virginia Woolf's era. Delightful read especially for a passionate gardener.
December 24, 2025
DNF à la page 127
C’était long, pénible et inintéressant. Je m’attendais à du mystère, une enquête et au final c’était ennuyant et je n’avais aucun intérêt à découvrir la fausse vérité.
C’était long, pénible et inintéressant. Je m’attendais à du mystère, une enquête et au final c’était ennuyant et je n’avais aucun intérêt à découvrir la fausse vérité.
September 7, 2018
I liked this book because, while this particular story is entirely fictional, a lot of information was given about the life of Virginia Woolf. Virginia's life and story are fascinating.
July 17, 2025
I was drawn to this book as a gardener, not as one who knows jack squat about Virginia Woolf. Indeed, I preferred the first half to the last because that's where the Sissinghurst descriptions were more frequent. However, I found the characters very likeable (except for the ones that weren't) and would definitely read more of her books.
April 6, 2022
2.5 stars I realize that I am not a fan of Barron’s stand alone novels; the Jane Austen mysteries are much better. This book passed the time, but if you are interested in Sissinghurst Castle or the Bloomsbury Group, there are better novels out there for you to read. When writing historical fiction, one really needs to be immersed in the world/time period, and there were things about this book that the suspension of disbelief was a little too much for me.
Although I did love this quote about Oxford: “People seem to expect an Austen film. Or Brideshead. When in fact Oxford is fairly urban. Americans like Cambridge better—it suits their idea of what an English university should look like.” (I expect Inspector Lewis, but that’s just me…)
Although I did love this quote about Oxford: “People seem to expect an Austen film. Or Brideshead. When in fact Oxford is fairly urban. Americans like Cambridge better—it suits their idea of what an English university should look like.” (I expect Inspector Lewis, but that’s just me…)
January 22, 2014
This was a great book. I was enthralled by what the author imagine had happened during the days that stand between Virginia woolf’s drowning on March 28th, 1941,and the discovery of her body on the river Ouse’s banks near her home on April 18, 1941 . Superb imagination!
It is an unbelievable story of suspense, unearthed treasures, lifetime guilt, and hunt for the truth, beautiful gardens real or imaginary, and all that is hidden in lives throughout time. Her characters are vivid and so diverse, through their stories, stephanie Barron introduces historical facts, which are a delight to her readers I know I learnt few things here and there and felt compelled to go and search for more as I was quite ignorant and the subject, if only for that fact The author was very successful in her literary endeavor if you ask me. She gives each of her characters a very distinctive voice that to my ears resounded so realistic. I was mesmerized. I really was entertained all along the book she has a keen ability to mix historical characters and purely fictional ones, which gives her story a distinctive atmosphere to her fiction that makes the reader sometime wonder if it is really fiction. Somehow it felt so natural to get into the story and believe all that was narrated. As the great writer that she is, she wraps up the story beautifully with a very satisfying end, reuniting past and present in a hopeful future.
But what I think I enjoyed the most is her mastery of the language It was so pleasant to read and she can write in different style, there is poems, Woolf’s narrative or is it Barron’s. And her letters from the apprentice gardener were so enjoyable for they felt so believable. I am no specialist but I had the best of time reading this book.
I recommend strongly this book
It is an unbelievable story of suspense, unearthed treasures, lifetime guilt, and hunt for the truth, beautiful gardens real or imaginary, and all that is hidden in lives throughout time. Her characters are vivid and so diverse, through their stories, stephanie Barron introduces historical facts, which are a delight to her readers I know I learnt few things here and there and felt compelled to go and search for more as I was quite ignorant and the subject, if only for that fact The author was very successful in her literary endeavor if you ask me. She gives each of her characters a very distinctive voice that to my ears resounded so realistic. I was mesmerized. I really was entertained all along the book she has a keen ability to mix historical characters and purely fictional ones, which gives her story a distinctive atmosphere to her fiction that makes the reader sometime wonder if it is really fiction. Somehow it felt so natural to get into the story and believe all that was narrated. As the great writer that she is, she wraps up the story beautifully with a very satisfying end, reuniting past and present in a hopeful future.
But what I think I enjoyed the most is her mastery of the language It was so pleasant to read and she can write in different style, there is poems, Woolf’s narrative or is it Barron’s. And her letters from the apprentice gardener were so enjoyable for they felt so believable. I am no specialist but I had the best of time reading this book.
I recommend strongly this book
May 7, 2015
I understand why reviewers may have disliked this book but I for one, thoroughly enjoyed it. It had a bit of mystery, history, romance and something I quite love...gardens.
I went in to this book knowing full well that it was fiction and a creative story surrounding the few weeks that Virginia Woolf disappeared/died and the discovery of her body in the river Ouse. The great thing about those weeks of a missing Virginia is that truly, anything could have happened. Could this account really be that far off base or did Virginia's passing occur exactly as history dictates? No one really can say for sure.
I very much enjoyed learning more about the characters in this book and found myself, over and over, looking them up online to find out more about them. I will never consider Leonard Woolf in the same way to be Sure. Not that I regarded him much anyways. The Sackvilles were beyond intriguing as well as the intellectuals who cameo'd throughout. While this is a work of fiction, there is still plenty of factual detail of people and places and events that made this little book a true gem. Fun read as well as an inspiration for several plants that may end up in my own little patch of earth.
I believe my criticism would be more about the neat and tidy but completely far fetched journey and discovery by Jo who of course had an unknown personal connection to Sissinghurst. Of course her grandfather worked there. Of course she was a gardner. Of course she would find a partially written manuscript by Virginia Woolf and go on a perfectly written search across England finding perfectly placed clues. And of course, she would blow off the millionaire for the man she asks for help. It was fun of course, but predictable.
Still, I think it was worth the read.
I went in to this book knowing full well that it was fiction and a creative story surrounding the few weeks that Virginia Woolf disappeared/died and the discovery of her body in the river Ouse. The great thing about those weeks of a missing Virginia is that truly, anything could have happened. Could this account really be that far off base or did Virginia's passing occur exactly as history dictates? No one really can say for sure.
I very much enjoyed learning more about the characters in this book and found myself, over and over, looking them up online to find out more about them. I will never consider Leonard Woolf in the same way to be Sure. Not that I regarded him much anyways. The Sackvilles were beyond intriguing as well as the intellectuals who cameo'd throughout. While this is a work of fiction, there is still plenty of factual detail of people and places and events that made this little book a true gem. Fun read as well as an inspiration for several plants that may end up in my own little patch of earth.
I believe my criticism would be more about the neat and tidy but completely far fetched journey and discovery by Jo who of course had an unknown personal connection to Sissinghurst. Of course her grandfather worked there. Of course she was a gardner. Of course she would find a partially written manuscript by Virginia Woolf and go on a perfectly written search across England finding perfectly placed clues. And of course, she would blow off the millionaire for the man she asks for help. It was fun of course, but predictable.
Still, I think it was worth the read.
October 25, 2009
Having recently read about 17 mysteries over a span of 3 month, I decided enough is enough, and that I would move on to other genre. So I was in my local public library where I came upon The White Garden A Novel of Virginia Woolf. Now I ask, does that sound like a mystery? It didn’t to me. I was thinking along the lines of Michael Cunningham’s book:The Hours|11899]. Had I looked further, I would have noticed the clue that the author has also penned the Jane Austen Mysteries. Even though I have never read any of her books, I would have known what to expect.
Naturally, as with most mysteries, once I started reading this book, I couldn’t put it down. The main character, Jo Bellamy, is an American landscape architect, and is sent to England to view and replicate the White Garden of Sissinghurst, the home of Vita Sackville-West by her wealthy clients. A short time before leaving for England, Jo experiences a family tragedy, when her grandfather, also a gardener, commits suicide. Her grandfather grew up in Kent, England, so there is a connection between him, and fictional events around the time of Virginia Woolf’s death.
Even though I wasn’t expecting a mystery, I liked this book a lot, and look forward to reading more of the author’s work. The story contains a found journal, missing documents, a chase, WWII, spies, betrayal, gardening, and other juicy elements. I’m glad I “found” this book.
Naturally, as with most mysteries, once I started reading this book, I couldn’t put it down. The main character, Jo Bellamy, is an American landscape architect, and is sent to England to view and replicate the White Garden of Sissinghurst, the home of Vita Sackville-West by her wealthy clients. A short time before leaving for England, Jo experiences a family tragedy, when her grandfather, also a gardener, commits suicide. Her grandfather grew up in Kent, England, so there is a connection between him, and fictional events around the time of Virginia Woolf’s death.
Even though I wasn’t expecting a mystery, I liked this book a lot, and look forward to reading more of the author’s work. The story contains a found journal, missing documents, a chase, WWII, spies, betrayal, gardening, and other juicy elements. I’m glad I “found” this book.
Read
May 19, 2019Ammetto che a spingermi a leggere questo libro è stato principalmente il titolo; tutto ciò che contiene il nome Virginia Woolf è fatale per me, dato che è una delle mie scrittrici preferite.
Non mi sono pentita di averlo letto, anzi. Un po' spy story e un po' pastiche letterario, un po' romanzo storico e un po' romanzo complottista, quest'opera di Stephanie Barron, che è anche autrice della serie poliziesca su Jane Austen, è molto coinvolgente, una lettura piacevole, che diventa anche una bella guida per gli amanti del giardinaggio.
La protagonista, Jo Bellamy, è un architetto paesaggista, che si trova per la prima volta nella sua vita nel Kent, a Sissinghurst, per studiare e copiare il Giardino Bianco, splendida creazione della padrona di casa, Vita Sackville-West. Ma il motivo principale non è questo; Jo, infatti, è tormentata dalla recente morte del nonno, Jock, l'uomo che le ha trasmesso la passione per i giardini. Sembra esserci qualcosa di misterioso, di poco chiaro in quella morte e, sapendo che il nonno è cresciuto proprio nel Kent, pensa di poter districare la matassa. Anche se la matassa è destinata ad ingarbugliarsi sempre di più, soprattutto in seguito ad una sensazionale scoperta che Jo fa proprio a Sissinghurst...
Parlando della storia in sè, bisogna dire che ci sono delle ingenuità e, in generale, è un po' inverosimile, ma ci sta. Molto belle e dettagliate le descrizioni dei giardini del castello di Vita, i personaggi sono ben approfonditi, ci sono anche parti ironiche e divertenti.
Una lettura consigliata.
Non mi sono pentita di averlo letto, anzi. Un po' spy story e un po' pastiche letterario, un po' romanzo storico e un po' romanzo complottista, quest'opera di Stephanie Barron, che è anche autrice della serie poliziesca su Jane Austen, è molto coinvolgente, una lettura piacevole, che diventa anche una bella guida per gli amanti del giardinaggio.
La protagonista, Jo Bellamy, è un architetto paesaggista, che si trova per la prima volta nella sua vita nel Kent, a Sissinghurst, per studiare e copiare il Giardino Bianco, splendida creazione della padrona di casa, Vita Sackville-West. Ma il motivo principale non è questo; Jo, infatti, è tormentata dalla recente morte del nonno, Jock, l'uomo che le ha trasmesso la passione per i giardini. Sembra esserci qualcosa di misterioso, di poco chiaro in quella morte e, sapendo che il nonno è cresciuto proprio nel Kent, pensa di poter districare la matassa. Anche se la matassa è destinata ad ingarbugliarsi sempre di più, soprattutto in seguito ad una sensazionale scoperta che Jo fa proprio a Sissinghurst...
Parlando della storia in sè, bisogna dire che ci sono delle ingenuità e, in generale, è un po' inverosimile, ma ci sta. Molto belle e dettagliate le descrizioni dei giardini del castello di Vita, i personaggi sono ben approfonditi, ci sono anche parti ironiche e divertenti.
Una lettura consigliata.
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