Making history: the Bloomsbury group's construction of aesthetic and sexual identity

This essay examines the way England's well-known Bloomsbury group in the first decades of this century negotiated the legacy of prominent figures of the generation before in order to create its own identity. Looking at the group's ideas about both aesthetics and sexuality, the author shows how the group privileged Leo Tolstoy over J. A. M. Whistler, and Oscar Wilde over Walter Pater. The introduction and conclusion seek to set this study in the context of current issues in gay and lesbian studies.