Vita Sackville-West

I chose my next few reads with no more strategy than to choose some novels by authors who had selected for their titles a quotation from John Milton. Vita Sackville-West’s ‘All Passion Spent.’ The line is from ‘Samson Agonistes’ – ‘And calm of mind, all passion spent.’

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this book. It was the first novel by Vits Sackville-West I had read and I found it a book of real quality. I’d only really known about Sackville-West in the contexts of her garden and her relationship with Virginia Woolf.

‘All Passion Spent’ tells the story of Lady Slane, eighty-eight years old and just widowed as the novel opens. She has spent her long life supporting her husband in his diplomatic and political career and caring for her six children. The book narrates Lady Slane’s decision to defy her children and live independently and Sackville-West’s portrayal of her decision, the unlocking for Lady Slane of a period full of a calm regard and reflection for her own life and the several new friends who enter her late life is quite beautifully done.

The portrayal of Lady Slane as an old lady is clever, observant and perceptive especially as I think the author was about forty when she wrote the novel.

I was very moved.