Hyde Park Gate News: The Stephen Family Newspaper

by Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Thoby Stephen

As children, Virginia Woolf, sister Vanessa Bell, and brother Thoby, collaborated on their own family newspaper. Published here for the first time ever, the Hyde Park Gate News also includes their original drawings. Ingeniously mimicking the style of the leading newspapers of their day, the Stephen children—Virginia, Vanessa, and Thoby—present a charming and candid portrayal of the day-to-day events at the family home in London and at their holiday home in St Ives. Gossipy, playful, and at times irreverent, they record the comings and goings of a host of figures while also proffering their own fictional, poetic, and artistic creations. Virginia Woolf is one of the most important figures of the Modernist Movement; her sister Vanessa Bell was a painter and a central figure of the Bloomsbury Group.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature, Biography

250 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.

During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Reviews

[Marko · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into Virginia's youth and, in general, the youth of upper-middle class Victorian childhood.

[Moira]

MWA HA HA it is MINE. For $5.98, from Half Price Books. MINE.

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book, I think, would delight many readers since Virginia Woolf, her sister Vanessa Bell and brother Thoby Stephen did join their ideas and take action by composing these mimicking, amusing and candid news reports, fiction and poems of their own when Virginia was ten, Vanessa thirteen And Thoby twelve. They have since revealed their writerly creations when they were so young that we find them amazing due to their literary aptitude. As affirmed in its Forward by Hermione Lee who wrote "Virginia Woolf" (1996), “It is an enchanting, funny and vigorous example of nineteenth-century juvenilia. It tells us a great deal about the characters, values, and familial behavior of the Stephens. And, for readers of Woolf, it has an extraordinary impact.” (p. vii)

The following excerpts presented in its one-column format, not two like those in the book would be partially extracted.

------ * --------
Riddles
1. What is the differ-
ence between a
spider and a dead
horse?
2. What is the dif-
ference between a
camera and the
whooping-cough?
3. If c-a-t spells
cat how do you
spell it?
…
Answers
1. One has fly bites
and the other bites
flies.
2. One makes fac-
similes and the
other makes sick
families.
3. I-t.
… (p. 4)
------- * -------

An Easy Alphabet for
Infants
------- * -------
A is for Prince Albert
so good and so kind
B for the black prince
Who was never behind
C for Carlyle
A great author was he
D for Drake
Who sailed O’er the sea
E for Miss Edgeworth
Who wrote many books
F for the Frenchmen
Who took good care of their looks
G for Goliath
so great and so strong
H the 8th Henry
Who to his wifes did great wrong
I for Hal Irving
a painstaking actor
J for Sam Johnson
Your minds benefactor
… (p. 7)
------ * ------

SUNDRY INTERESTING
JOTINGS.
Many people do not know that
the hight of mount Eveerest is
29002 feet above the sea.

Many people do not know
that rats some times bite
people to death.

Many people do not know
that a man named Howe
invented sewing machines.
... (p. 16)
-------- * --------

AN ARTICLE ON CHEKINESS
Young children should
be nipped in the bud of
cheekiness otherwise impertinance
which when the child in-
creases in years it grows
into audacity. It is
then indeed a great
hinderance to mankind
for nobody likes to have
a fellow in his employment
who has not a civil tongue
in his head. The way to
check it is thus: at the
first sign of cheekiness
take him or her as the
case may be and
give him or her
a sound licking. Repeat
again if necessary.
... (p. 26)
------- * -------

Mr Thoby Stephen
came home on
Wednesday. It makes
one feel quite young
again when looking
on his ruddy features
which display all the
rudiments of health.
How nice it must
be to be young. As one
gets older one appreciates
more the value of
being young. … (p. 53)
------ * ------
etc.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

young virginia woolf = pure gold. favorite excerpt: (nora.) my own tom i love you with that fervent passion with which my father regards Roast beef but i do not look upon you with the same eyes as my father for he likes Roast Beef for its tast but i like you for your personal merits.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful, daily news created by the Stephen Family. Virginia Woolf and her siblings in her teen years during 1890s. Clever and engaging. A peek into the lives of a highly literate family, meant to amuse and impress parents with exceedingly high standards.

[Alix · Rating 2 out of 5]

Will not read again - vaguely interesting, but nothing extremely special.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly charming and acerbic in equal measure, but the footnotes tend to be rather confusing at times.