In the 1920s , British artists were asked to produce miniature works for a dollhouse made for Queen Mary , the wife of King George V and grandma of the UK ’s current Danaus plexippus , Elizabeth II . writer like A.A. Milne , Rudyard Kipling , andArthur Conan Doyleall submitted teeny - tiny versions of their stories , most of which were publish elsewhere , to be placed in the Windsor Castle dollhouse . But Vita Sackville - West , the acclaimed British writerbest knownas the divine guidance for Virginia Woolf’sOrlando , submitted a story that was a wholly young piece , one that would persist unidentified , even to her estate , for decade .
Finally uncovered , that Scripture is nowavailableto the world for the first prison term . Chronicle Books just published the first full - size variation ofA Note of Explanation : An Undiscovered Story from Queen Mary ’s Dollhouse , so you’re able to read it without strain your eyes .
The playful children ’s story is accompany by Art Deco - trend representative byKate Baylayand an afterword by Matthew Dennison , who published abiographyon Sackville - West in 2014 . Dennison callsA Note of Explanation“unique among Vita ’s fabrication " for its playful storyline .
He notes that Sackville - West ’s story , about a prison term - travel fay who appears in poove tales across time and quad , may have influence Woolf’sOrlando , which was published four years afterA Note of Explanationwas placed in Queen Mary ’s dollhouse . Dennison describes that novel as the “ floor of long - lived , gender - fluid Vita , the sum of all of her ancestors . ” The sprite who seem inA Note of Explanation , meanwhile , “ embraces old and new , fact , fiction , Romance language , and modernity — much like the role of Orlando … much like Vita herself . ”
It ’s available for $ 20 onAmazon .
