Flush

PREFACE BY SALLY BEAUMAN
144pp
ISBN 9781903155455

Every publisher's list should have a book about a dog, and Flush is a delightful and unique classic by one of our greatest writers. A 'biography' of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's spaniel (1840-54), its direct inspiration was a new edition, in 1930, of the Brownings' love letters in which 'the figure of their dog made me laugh so I couldn't resist making him a Life.'

Rather to Virginia Woolf's dismay, Flush was a great popular success. Yet it is a surprisingly feminist book: 'Although ostensibly about the taming of a pedigree dog, Flush addresses the way society tames and classifies women,' writes Sally Beauman in the preface. It may at first appear to be one of Virginia’s lighter works, but beneath its charm lies a novel as beautifully written and quietly subversive as any of her masterpieces.

The novel follows Flush, a spirited cocker spaniel, as he is taken from his countryside home where he lived with Miss Mitford, to the enclosed world of Wimpole Street, where he becomes the devoted companion of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Through his canine perspective, Woolf explores not only issues of class, love, and the limits of understanding but also the profound relationship between humans and animals – one of devotion and quiet communication.

Both playful and thought-provoking, Flush is a novel that will delight dog lovers and literary readers alike, offering a beautifully crafted meditation on freedom, captivity, and companionship.

For more on Flush, have a look at the Persephone Perspective.

Endpaper

The endpaper we chose is a C19th marbled paper of the type that was then often used as endpapers. 'I loved, too, the edition's beautiful endpapers with the swirling Victorian designs in purple (the colour in which Virginia Woolf herself often wrote) that suggest the extremely ''bookish'' nature of this work.'

Picture Caption

Spaniel in a landscape by Samuel Spode, 1835