On or About December 1910

"On or about December 1910 human character changed", Virginia Woolf remarked, and well she might have. The company she kept, the Bloomsbury circle, took shape before the coming of World War I, and would have a lasting impact on English society and culture after the war. Drawing upon historical and literary evidence, Peter Stansky captures the dazzling world of early Bloomsbury. The picture he presents, with all its drama and detail, encompasses the conflicts and sureties of a changing world of politics, aesthetics, and character. Stansky makes it clear how Bloomsbury could subvert Edwardian materialism from a position of financial security and family connections and places Bloomsbury's artistic and domestic rebellions against the backdrop of the women's suffrage movement, military buildup, and the struggle to limit the power of the House of Lords.