Rupert Brooke

31:4 Book Reviews of James, the 2 volume 1977 version and the 1 volume 1985 version are the expressions by writers and artists of the importance of James, especially the James Edel created, for their work. Ending the collection is a letter from Edel's friend Rupert Hart-Davis (an earlier one begins the Fromm collection) which comically criticizes the practice of "Edelatry" and calls for an end to such constant praise. Yet the satiric tone merely heightens the accomplishments of Edel which the two collections, in differing ways, confirm. Ira B. Nadel University of British Columbia RUPERT BROOKE Paul Delany. The Neo-Pagans: Rupert Brooke and the Ordeal of Youth. New York: The Free Press, 1987. $24.95 From the dust jacket of this book Rupert Brooke looks out, quite beautiful, into the middle distance but not quite establishing contact, somewhat removed and ethereal. In this study, based on intensive research and presented with great insight, Paul Delany has brought Brooke down to earth as well as his lesser known friends, the "Neo-Pagans" as Virginia Woolf christened them. He has achieved an extraordinary sense of the day-to-day life of the group. His concem with Brooke as a writer is minimal; we are given very little history of his publications and his writings, and very few critical comments. Yet this is cultural history of a fascinating sort. There is some question whether Brooke and his friends haven't been too effectively "deconstructed," after such an intelligent discussion. Brooke's reputation, it seems to me, has come up a bit in the world of late and the reaction against him as the sentimental poet of the first World War has faded. Yet when he and his friends are looked at closely, it is hard not to conclude that, like most human beings, their existence consists largely of the trivial, and silly and unreflective actions. What is the significance of the life of Brooke and his friends? They were part of an attempt to fight free of the restraints of Victorianism. But to a considerable extent they were still caught in its grip and style—there tends to be a fairly unbearable earnestness about their activities, a comparative lack of sophistication. Throughout the book, the "control" group is Bloomsbury, slightly older but still not as famous as it would become, although, as did the "neo-pagans," meeting continually. Both groups were deeply influenced by Cambridge. From time to time the groups intersected; Bloomsbury was quite intrigued by these young writers. Despite the considerable time that Bloomsbury spent in the Sussex countryside, London was its home in contrast to the emphasis on the countryside found among the "neo-pagans." At times, members of Bloomsbury joined the "neo-pagans" in camping out and in their great affection for nudity, a public paganism. But, ironically, the "neo-pagans" were more conservative sexually than Bloomsbury, perhaps because they were a little younger. They were more heterosexual, although Brooke's homosexual encounter 467 31:4 Book Reviews is given in detail in his own words (rather nicely placed opposite a picture of his powerful mother) and a link with minor Bloomsbury was James Strachey's endless and unsuccessful pursuit of Brooke, a decisive factor in his election to the Apostles. He was not particularly well qualified academically. (The ironic final step taken years later was Strachey's affair with Noel Olivier, Brooke's deepest and unconsummated love.) Partially for practical reasons of birth control and partially from the belief that there shouldn't be sex before marriage, at least with the person one was intending to marry, the "neo-pagans" went to bed together less than one might expect. As Bertrand Russell remarked about the group: "Young people now-a-days are odd—Xtian names & great familiarity , rendered easy by a complete freedom from passion on the side of the men" (124). Brooke pursued the double standard, although both within the circle, so that Ka Cox became his lover, to whom he wrote very frank letters, while Noel Olivier was the woman he still continued to wish to marry. Bloomsbury had not completely divorced itself from Victorian roots, but it appears to be more...