Restoration Love Story: Exit the Actress by Priya Parmar

Nell Gwynn

When I was reading Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar I noted that many marked it as 'want to read' because they enjoyed Parmar's previous book Exit the Actress about the Restoration actress Nell Gwynn.

I had read about Nell in Samuel Pepys' Diary. At university I kept hearing about this Samuel Pepys dude. I bought an 1890s three volume set of Pepys Diary edited by Henry S. Wheatly and read it; later my husband gifted me the complete diary published by University of California.

"And so to bed." (how Samuel Pepys ends his diary entries)

I went to bed with Pepys for years. And it was my husband's idea.

Pepys loved the theater (read excerpts of his diary about his theater going here.) Under Oliver Cromwell's government the theaters had been closed. With the restoration of the monarchy, and Charles II on the throne, the country made up for all those years of enforced Christian perfection. Bawdy and sexy and profligate things were happening. (Starting at the top with Charles, The Merry King himself!)

Men had traditionally played female roles. One famous actor, Edward Kynaston, or Teddy in Parmar's book, was complimented by Pepys as being 'the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life." Now females were pushing their way into the theater. Of course they were all prostitutes. Why, Nell Gwynn danced on stage and SHOWED HER LEGS. Scandalous!

"Creed and I walked out to see what play was acted to-day and we find it "The Slighted Mayde"...we saw it well acted, though the play hath little good about it, being most pleased to see the little girl dance in boy's apparel, she having very fine legs, only bends in the hams, a I perceive all women do."
Samuel Pepys Diary, Monday, February 23, 1663

On March 2, 1667 Pepys and his wife went to see the Mayden Queen by Dryden. Pepys wrote, "there is a comical part done by Nell, which is Florimell, that I never can hope ever to see the like done again, by man or woman...so great performance of a comical part was never, I believe, in the world before as Nell do this, both as a mad girle, then most and best of all when she comes in like a young gallant,; and hath the notions and carriage of a spark the most that ever I saw any man have. It makes me, I confess, admire her."

Charles in 1653 when in exile

Nell Gwynn was famous for being rising from an orange seller in the theater to becoming one of its stars. Nell was also admired by theater lover Charles II and she later became his mistress. Catching the eye of Charles II was not the hard part. He had seven mistresses and they bore his only living children. Nell remained a favorite and on his death bed he remembered her and hoped they didn't let "poor Nell starve."

Charles II. The model for Captain Hook.

Parmar's version of Nell's rags to riches story is full of ambiance and details about the 17th c.

The book is written in the form of diary entries by Nell, interspersed with letters, recipes, and gossip columns. The reader 'hears' Nell's voice first person. (It was during this time period that personal 'closets' allowing privacy became fashionable--leading to diary writing.) Letters between Charles II and his sister offer readers some insight into the royal world. Readers will enjoy the camaraderie of the theater denizens and their lively antics. 

I had so much fun with Nell and The Wits. They are better company than Vanessa and Virginia could ever be. I suddenly want to revisit Pepys and Fielding and Restoration drama. 

Exit the Actress
by Priya Parmar
Simon & Schuster
Publication 2011
available in ebook, paperback, and hard cover

Art, Friendship, Love, Sex and Inventing Modernism

Before reading Priya Parmar's book Vanessa and Her Sister I knew very little about the Stephen family and the Bloomsbury Group. I had read many books by Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster. I recognized the names of Roger Fry and Vanessa and Clive Bell, and knew that Lytton Stachey wrote Eminent Victorians. John Maynard Keynes I knew was an important economist. But I had never studied them. I requested this book from NetGalley hoping to learn more.

The story is presented through the fictional pages of a diary kept by artist Vanessa Stephen, sister of Virginia Stephen (who later married Leonard Woolf). Their brother Thoby Stephen brings home his Cambridge University chums and they form a weekly meeting to discuss art and life and to gossip about their friends. They each go on to prominence as artists, writers, publishers, art critics, and philosophers. Interspersed with the diary entries are letters and telegrams to other group members, sent by Roger Fry, Leonard Woolf, and Lytton Stachey. The Bloomsbury men shifted their relationships between friend and lover, some later entering into relationships with women as well.

I was quite charmed from the first by Vanessa's voice. Although she tells us that Virginia insists she is not a "word" person, Vanessa is lyrical and visual in her descriptive language. Virginia needs careful handling; she can be charming and witty, cruel and selfish, and is prone to emotional breakdowns. She has also perfected the art of manipulation, and is always self-centered. Vanessa raises doubts about her sister's sexual orientation, and some thought that Virginia only ever loved her older sister Vanessa.

At first their gatherings seem splendid and full of fun with Thorby as the center. After his loss things go awry, and relationships alter. Vanessa marries Clive Bell, and Virginia jealously tries to inveigle herself between them. Alliances shift, lovers trade off, stodgy 19th c values are flaunted. We think the 1960s were radical? This group was breaking all the rules in the first decade of the century!

The novel ends rather in the middle of things, with the author offering a brief description of what became of the major players. The more well known group members included the author E. M. Forster; author Virginia Woolf ; artists Vanessa and Clive Bell; biographer Lytton Stachey; art critic Roger Fry and artist Helen Fry; artist Duncan Grant; poet Rupert Brooke; economist John Maynard Keynes; Leonard Woolf, Civil Service and later publisher and husband to Virginia.

I went online to research and learn more, and there was a lot more to learn. I suppose all books have to end somewhere. I would have liked to read about another decade or two about them. It was like a soap opera bred with High Art to produce a tale about geniuses throwing themselves against all the 'artificial' boundaries, trying to reinvent art and life.

The Virginia Woolf Blog has articles on Virginia and Clive Bell's flirtation. See Vanessa's paintings at  http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/vanessa-bell.

Vanessa and Her Sister: A Novel by Priya Parmar
Random House Publishing House-Ballantine
Publication Dec 30, 2014
ISBN 9780804276378
$26.00