Book Review: "Among the Bohemians" by Virginia Nicholson

When I bought this book I knew it was going to mean something. I had never heard of the book, never heard of the author and yet, there was something that drew me to it. Perhaps it was the chance to learn about new authors I hadn't heard of (even though the vast majority of them I had heard of before), maybe it was the front cover which read 'Experiments in Living' - or maybe it was because the term 'bohemian' was about to be broken down and rebuilt in an image of something to do with Modernism. No, it isn't the Bloomsbury Group - though they would call themselves bohemians - they were perhaps the reason the movement began to break down. There's something raw and powerful about these people who lived on basically nothing, borrowing each other money and skipping meals when they couldn't afford to eat. They lived in squalor. They lived without even basic necessities. But who were they really?

One of the points covered in the book is about love and the way in which it was almost considered 'bohemian' to talk about sexual encounters and have affairs. Yes, this was realised by the Bloomsbury Group, who perhaps were not as bohemian as our more constantly-appearing names like Dylan Thomas and Arthur Ransome. The writer seems to write this through these muse characters who are women who had relationships with married men. One of the examples is the woman who had a relationship with HG Wells. Would I call HG Wells bohemian? Not really, but he is perhaps more that way than say Virginia Woolf and her sister. This chapter was also quite interesting because it lead into the raising of children and how they should be raised in a bohemian household.

Another great point the book covers is the difference between bohemian men and women. Where it is more acceptable for the men to be these 'rambling' artists on the journey of self-discovery, it is not so that way for women who must, if they are married especially, take up domesticity to some degree. Even though this would ultimately make sure that many of the women in this era would not marry and have children, others did and thus sacrificed their ability to remain 'bohemian', becoming housewives and in some cases, hating it. From the interior design methods which were eventually appropriated by the upper classes in order to make them look more 'counter-culture' to the way in which travel was perhaps one of the most important things for the bohemian lifetyle (especially regarding moving from a wealthy area to a more affordable one), the original bohemians found the rich people encroaching on their lives with the desperate want to be 'cool' and 'relatable' to the growing literate working class. For the true bohemians it was about art, for the rich it was about gaining access to more of an audience - it was about money.

One of the people featuring frequently in the book is the late and great poet, Dylan Thomas. Perhaps one of the truest bohemians, Thomas is most famous for his anthology Under Milk Wood and for his ability to get absolutely hammered at any one time. Another writer featured is Arthur Ransome and his career long before he wrote the classic Swallows and Amazons. I think there's a case to learn about who became great perhaps later in their lives and who died penniless. For example: there are writers who commit suicide in this book because they are struggling so much. One man at the age of 48, finds himself penniless and out of writing work, he knows he cannot afford his next meal and so lies down in his home and turns on the gas to kill himself. This is the reality of these people.

I absolutely loved reading this book. It is perhaps one of the better books on the topic of who the bohemians were, especially those in English-speaking countries. Do other countries and cultures have bohemianism? I think so. Would I like to read about it? Yes, I would. But for now, I have found many new things to read because of this book here. Hopefully, I can find them cheaply on the internet. God knows, the bohemians wouldn't like their work to cost too much and only be available to the literate middle class.

Oh wait...