Bohemia in London : The Social Scene of Early Modernism

This original study discovers the bourgeois in the modernist and the dissenting style of Bohemia in the new artistic movements of the 1910s. Brooker sees the bohemian as the example of the modern artist, at odds with but defined by the codes of bourgeois society. Bohemia in London reconstructs the usual history, situating the canonic names of modernism in the world of groups and coteries which shaped the allied experiments in art and life. Thus it renews once more the complexities and radicalism of the modernist challenge. This original and imaginative study, now available in paperback, discovers the bourgeois in the modernist and the dissenting style of Bohemia in the caf̌ society and 'at homes' of the new artistic movements of the 1910s. Brooker sees the bohemian as a conspicuous example of the modern artist; at odds with but defined by the commercial, moral and sexual codes of bourgeois society. Bohemia in London brings new life and depth to the legendary anecdotes of the usual history, situating the canonical names of Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis, Eliot and Woolf alongside subordinated figures such as Iris Barry, Frida Strindberg, William Roberts, Vivienne Eliot and Vanessa Bell. Thus it aims to reconstruct the social world of companionship and rivalry at venues such as South Lodge, the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, the Cabaret Club and Gordon Square which shaped the allied experiments in art and life. It presents us anew with the radical potential of modernism in the modern metropolis Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Bourgeois-Bohemians....Pages 1-26 ’the Nineties Tried Your Game’....Pages 27-51 ‘Our London, My London, Your London’....Pages 52-71 Nights at the Cave of the Golden Calf....Pages 72-92 1914: ‘Our Little Gang’....Pages 93-112 Café Society....Pages 113-131 The Nerves in Patterns....Pages 132-157 Bloomsbury’s Bohemia....Pages 158-177 Back Matter....Pages 178-PS6