I thought it was about time I shared a few more pictures of my very lovely library of books and this time I’ve decided on taking a look at my fairly extensive Virago collection! These have had to be photographed on the shelves and the picture quality isn’t going to be that brilliant as they were taken at a bit of an awkward angle and the lighting is not that great – so apologies for any fuzziness!
As you can see, the Viragos *do* take up quite a lot of space in my library – spreading over several shelves and double stacked. And that’s after I had a little bit of a cull!
When I last had a bit of a tidy, I put all the books neatly in alphabetical order. That’s rather gone by-the-by thanks to the books that have come in since. And as you can see, the occasional non-Virago has slipped in when I had the book in a different edition or it’s a Virago author.
More books from the right of the shelves – again plenty of overflow where new volumes have arrived, and all double stacked.
There are quite a few titles by Rebecca West and Edith Wharton, two wonderful and prolific writers. Needless to say, I’ve not read as many of these as I’d like to!
The Wests have overflowed onto another shelf, where they’re joined by some Virago compilations.
And behind the Wests are some Rosamond Lehmanns and all my Elizabeth Taylors. I rather wish I had enough space to have all my books shelved in single rows because you do tend to forget what you have when it’s tucked behind other books.
I first started reading the Virago titles when the Modern Classics range began to take off in the late 1970s and possibly the first one I owned was Antonia White’s “Frost in May”, the very first VMC. Picking favourites is hard, but some of the earliest ones I read were these Steve Smiths:
I loved these to bits but I haven’t read them for so long – the beautiful covers seem to really capture what’s best and most striking about VMC jacket design and I do wish they were still produced like this.
Some more recent favourites are these books by Ivy Litvinov, a fascinating woman. Born in England, she married an exiled Russian revolutionary who ended up as a prominent Soviet diplomat. This collection of short stories and crime novel are marvellous!
And finally one of my favourite Viragos, a book that I read fairly recently when I started to rediscover the imprint after a bit of a gap – F. Tennyson Jesse’s “A Pin to see the Peepshow”. A fictionalised retelling of the Thompson/Bywaters murder case, it’s a wonderfully written piece of fiction which packs a huge emotional punch and brilliantly evokes the time and place it’s set in. If for nothing else than bringing back into to print this and other wonderful women’s writing, Virago would deserve a place in history. I’ve no doubt I shall always read Viragos and I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing some of my collection!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 07:57:01
Love those bookshelves! Very comforting to see so many titles that I also cherish. No t sure why it’s comforting, except to see other people share my passion for books. My Viragos are filed alphabetically by author among the rest of my fiction. Unless they are waiting to be read – that’s another collection entirely!
Thanks for sharing.
Caroline.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:37:58
It’s always nice to know others love books as much as you do! And we don’t talk about the books I haven’t read yet, because I think I would actually struggle nowadays to know which is which!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 08:18:38
Thank you for sharing your books. I love looking at other people’s book shelves.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:36:38
Me too – the first thing I do when I go into someone’s house is look at their books (which is probably very rude!)
Sep 30, 2016 @ 09:06:38
I admit my shelves are in alpha order and not double stacked and i dust them every week.
I love the “PEEPSHOW” Virago–one of my favourites along with Elizabeth Taylor and the 2 books that Dorothy Edwards wrote before her untimely death.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:36:06
Yes, Peepshow is wonderful. I have the Dorothy Edwards books and I really want to get to them soon.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 14:39:17
I must re read them–must be 15 years since i read them.The covers are wonderful.(Dorothy Edwards–“WINTER SONATA” and “RHAPSODY” are 1986 issues from Virago.I think you should blog about them Kaggsy as i cannot recall any other person doing so lately.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 15:00:14
Well, I think I have them both, so maybe I should get round to them soon! 🙂
Sep 30, 2016 @ 09:39:17
What a lovely post! The only publisher I keep separate is Persephone, but I love seeing my Viragoes interspersed with everything else (I’m also q
Sep 30, 2016 @ 09:40:08
… oops! (I’m also quite good at passing along any I don’t think I’ll read again, so I don’t have as many as you). I think the Antonia Whites were the first ones I read, in the 80s and I love the Stevie Smiths, too!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:35:40
I really want to revisit the Steve Smiths – oh for more reading time…
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:35:21
My Persephones are separate too… 🙂
Sep 30, 2016 @ 09:47:44
Beautiful! My local independent bookstore (now closed, since the owner’s retirement) carried a large collection of Viragos on their own book rack. How I wish I had bought more of them! Recently I just acquired the 4 vols of Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage, inspired by following the posts b of Jane at Beyond Eden’s Rock who is reading her way through the 13 novels, as you probably know. Thanks for sharing a glimpse of your cherished collection!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:35:02
Very welcome! I’m reading the Richardsons too, along with Jane and a few others, and it’s certainly a rewarding, if sometimes demanding, undertaking!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 11:01:15
You’ve given me serious book envy! What a great post.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:34:19
Thanks! 🙂
Sep 30, 2016 @ 11:19:04
I have just gone a lovely shade of Virago green…… with envy! Fabulous collection Karen, thanks for giving us all a peek – I love snooping at other people’s bookshelves. 🙂
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:34:11
Me too – that’s why I though I’d share mine!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 11:40:03
That is lovely, and wonderfully therapeutic to look at on a stressful end of the working week kind of day.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:33:58
Glad to have been of service! 🙂
Sep 30, 2016 @ 12:34:28
I’m swooning at the sheer loveliness of your Virago Collection. I think my first one was ‘Frost in May’ also, which has since disappeared. Lots of new suggestions which I’ll be following up. Thanks for sharing these beauties, Karen.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 13:33:46
Very welcome! There’s such variety in the Virago imprint that you can always guarantee finding something interesting!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 15:15:06
What a fabulous collection! I’m so jealous 🙂
Sep 30, 2016 @ 15:31:11
🙂 It *is* pretty, isn’t it? Sometimes I forget how lovely my library is until I take the time to stand back and really look at it!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 18:54:31
What a wonderful collection. I have lots but probably not quite that many. All the ones I have read are one bookcase and then there are loads buried in my tbr bookcase – many I have probably forgotten about.
Sep 30, 2016 @ 20:47:58
It’s so difficult when everything is packed away on shelves – that’s how I manage to forget which books I own and end up buying duplicates!
Sep 30, 2016 @ 20:53:24
ha yes – me too – several times.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 14:16:05
Ha ha! I had a major redecoration a couple of years ago, and everything got taken away in storage for a month so the painter could get to the walls. When everything came back I took the opportunity to do library shelving for the first time for years – and discovered many duplicates, some triplicates and even one quad! (hangs head in shame)
Oct 01, 2016 @ 16:22:10
I must confess I’d like to have the time to pull everything off the shelves and sort them into a nice neat order – one day, maybe…
Sep 30, 2016 @ 22:43:05
I can barely type through pure jealousy 😀 I just bought A Pin to See the Peepshow last week so I’m really pleased that you rate it so highly – I’m really looking forward to reading it.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 07:43:24
Oh, I do hope you like it – one of my favourite Viragos!
Oct 01, 2016 @ 12:50:06
That is a gorgeous book collection, such beautiful shelves. I am jealous!
Oct 01, 2016 @ 16:18:41
They *are* quite lovely now that I come to look at them, yes!
Oct 01, 2016 @ 13:48:22
Bookshelves are the first thing I look for when I enter somebody’s home for the first time . More often than not, there aren’t any. They (the people) then drop 50 storeys down in my esteem ! How ridiculously snob of me.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 14:06:49
My books are “upstairs” and not on general view”.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 16:20:45
Most of mine are tucked away too, but we do have plenty in the front room as well.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 15:40:50
bish. Snobbish.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 16:19:35
No, I’m the same. I remember going to a work colleague’s house decades ago and being stunned by the lack of books – I wondered what they did with themselves when they weren’t working?!?!?
Oct 01, 2016 @ 16:43:51
It’s all made SO much more difficult by ereaders. Asking if you can browse someone’s Kindle just looks nosy, whereas the bookshelf is fair game!
Oct 01, 2016 @ 16:55:37
What is this “Kindle” thing of which you speak???? 😉
Oct 01, 2016 @ 17:05:22
Virtual book burning, Karen. Though they tell me the forests are happy
Oct 01, 2016 @ 18:44:14
Nooooooooo….. I know we have save the forests, but I can’t live without paper books!
Oct 01, 2016 @ 14:06:09
How many have you got and how many did Virago publish–talking about the old dark greenies?
Oct 01, 2016 @ 16:20:26
Alas, the answer to both questions is that I don’t know. One day I will manage to get all of my books onto LibraryThing. I would guess at 500+ for the Green cover Viragos but I can’t be sure.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 19:33:35
Cor 500 is more than any one in England.Well done.Any you want or need but do not have?This is not an offer as i have 32.Including a Vera Brittain book which is meant to be a bit average—THE DARK TIDE 1923.
Oct 02, 2016 @ 13:30:38
Well, I was guesstimating 500 for the number of Viragos published, not the ones I own – but I just did a rough count of my books which come in at around 350. The Virago list on LibraryThing is at around 600 but I’m not sure when the green covers ceased.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 14:11:35
Gorgeous. I don’t know whether I most want to stand and admire – or to rummage! I have one deep bookshelf which lends itself to double stacking. If only when I bought other bookshelves I had thought ahead a bit more and made sure every bookshelf was deep enough for a whole row behind a row, as well as the sideways lying on top, I might never have reached the one-in-one-out situation I have been in for so many years.
Oct 01, 2016 @ 16:21:16
Double shelving is essential in my house, but it does cause havoc when trying to find a book and work out whether you own it or not….
Oct 02, 2016 @ 08:40:48
i would like to” zoom in” but i cannot do so.A technical problem?
Oct 02, 2016 @ 13:27:31
I don’t think so – if you click on the picture they should get a bit bigger.
Oct 02, 2016 @ 17:56:44
You have a magnificent collection! And I think all of your photographs are drool-worthy.
Oct 02, 2016 @ 18:15:15
Thank you! 🙂
Oct 03, 2016 @ 17:01:11
Beautiful! I particularly liked the Stevie Smith ones, I’ve love to get a nice set of all her work. I shall make that my mission 😉
Oct 03, 2016 @ 18:00:04
That’s a good plan – go for it! 🙂
Oct 04, 2016 @ 17:19:42
Beautiful shelves, Karen!
I first learned about Virago reading your blog, if memory serves me right; and I admit that I’ve grown a very serious interest in these books. I haven’t read any of them yet because I don’t own any. Yet!
I’m anticipating a burst of pleasure once I set myself on Virago journey. It’s such a wonderful collection.
Oct 04, 2016 @ 19:17:11
Thanks! They’re wonderful books, and such a varied collection. You have many pleasures awaiting you!
Oct 09, 2016 @ 03:19:36
What a lot of Viragos you have! Some I’ve never heard of. I did buy two of your Stevie Smiths at Skoob and read Novel on Yellow Paper on my trip. I wish more Viragos came my way, but there are many, many, many more in ENgland.
Oct 09, 2016 @ 12:55:06
We *are* very lucky to have so many Virgos over here. And there are many of them I’ve not heard of either!