Lesson 15
No Signpost in the Sea
Questions:
What is the general function of a “signposts”?
What is the special feature of a sea?
What can you predict about the implication of the
title of the text?
No Signpost in the Sea
by Victoria (Vita) Mary Sackville-West
 Questions
for further discussion:
 Suppose if one has been informed that
one’s days in the world are numbered,
what do you think one may choose to do
as the best option?
About the author:
 Victoria
(Vita) Mary Sackville West (1892—
1962): an English poet and novelist
 Sackville-West, Vita (Victoria Mary
Sackville-West), 1892–1962, English writer;
wife of Sir Harold Nicolson and
granddaughter of the 2d Baron Sackville.
Both she and Nicolson were members of the
Bloomsbury group
Victoria (Vita) Mary SackvilleWest
Her poems in The Land (1926), Selected
Poems (1941), and The Garden (1946) won
praise, but she is better known for her novels,
The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent
(1931). Among her other works are Knole
and the Sackvilles (1922), about her family's
past, and her charming fictional portrait of
her grandmother, Pepita (1937)
Victoria (Vita) Mary
Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West (March 9, 1892 – June 2, 1962)
was an English poet, novelist and gardener. Her
long narrative poem, The Land, won the
Hawthornden Prize in 1927. She won it again, the
only writer to do so, in 1933 with her Collected
Poems. She helped create her own gardens in
Sissinghurst, Kent which provide the backdrop to
Sissinghurst Castle. She was famous for her
exuberant aristocratic life, her strong marriage, and
her passionate affairs with women.
Victoria (Vita) Mary
Sackville-West
 Early
life
 Sackville-West was born at Knole House in
Kent, and her first love affair was with this
ancient and huge house; because she was a
woman, she could not inherit it, and this
affected the rest of her life. She was the
daughter of the 3rd Baron Sackville and his wife
Victoria Sackville-West. She was christened
"Victoria Mary Sackville-West" but was known
as "Vita" throughout her life.
Personal life, marriage and
bisexuality
In 1913, she married Harold Nicolson, at different
times a diplomat, journalist, broadcaster,
Member of Parliament, author of biographies
and novels, and, crucially, a fellow bisexual in
favour of what would now be called an open
marriage. Both she and her husband had
several consecutive same-sex relations outside
their marriage, as was common among the
Bloomsbury Group of writers and artists to which
they belonged.
Affair with Violet Trefusis
The affair that had the deepest and most
lasting effect on Vita's personal life was that
with novelist Violet Trefusis, daughter to
courtesan Alice Keppel. By the time both Vita’s sons
were out of diapers, Vita and Violet had eloped
several times from 1918 on, mostly to France,
where Vita would dress as a young man when they
went out. The affair eventually ended badly, with
Trefusis pursuing Sackville-West to great lengths,
until Sackville-West's affairs with other women
finally took there toll, but Trefusis refused to give
up.
Victoria (Vita) Mary SackvilleWest
Also, the two women had made a bond to
remain exclusive to one another, meaning
that although both women were married,
neither could engage in sexual relations with
their husband. Sackville-West received word
that allegedly Trefusis had been involved
sexually with her (Trefusis') husband,
indicating she had broken their bond,
prompting her to end the affair. Despite the
poor ending, the two women were devoted
to one another, and deeply in love.
Victoria (Vita) Mary Sackville-
West
Sackville-West wrote an autobiographical
account about this period, which was later
edited and published by her son Nigel
Nicolson as Portrait of a Marriage. Nigel had
to perform some heavy explaining of his
choice of title, given that it was, in fact, the
portrait of an extra-marital affair. The piece
aired in a three-part Masterpiece Theatre
series July 19 through Aug. 2 1992. [1]
Victoria (Vita) Mary SackvilleWest
Vita's novel Challenge also bears witness of
this affair: Vita and Violet had started
writing this book as a collaborative endeavour, the male character's name, Julian,
being Vita's nickname while passing as a
man. Vita's mother, Lady Sackville, found
the portrayal obvious enough to insist the
novel not be published in England. Nigel
(1973, p. 194),
Victoria (Vita) Mary SackvilleWest
however, praises Vita: "She fought for the
right to love, men and women, rejecting the
conventions that marriage demands
exclusive love, and that women should love
only men, and men only women. For this
she was prepared to give up everything…
How could she regret that the knowledge of
it should now reach the ears of a new
generation, one so infinitely more
compassionate than her own?"
Victoria (Vita) Mary SackvilleWest
Affair with Virginia Woolf
The affair for which Sackville-West is most
remembered was with the prominent writer
Virginia Woolf in the late 1920s. In consequence, Woolf wrote one of her most famous
novels, Orlando, which Nigel Nicolson called
"the longest and most charming love-letter in
literature". Unusually, Orlando's moment of
conception was "captured on film" so to
speak.

Victoria (Vita) Mary SackvilleWest
As excerpted from her diary
posthumously by her husband Leonard
Woolf, for an entry dated October 5th 1927,
Virginia records: "And instantly the usual
exciting devices enter my mind: a biography
beginning in the year 1500 and continuing to
the present day, called Orlando: Vita; only with
a change about from one sex to the other."
Sackville-West


In 1931 Sackville-West became involved in an affair with
journalist Evelyn Irons, who worked for the Daily Mail as a
fashion correspondent. [2]
These affairs, and others not listed here, were, however, no
impediment to a true closeness between Sackville-West
and her husband, which appears from their nearly daily
correspondence (also published later by their son Nigel),
and from an interview they gave for BBC radio after World
War II. They were truly devoted to each other, and Nicolson
gave up his diplomatic career partly so that he could live
with Vita in England, uninterrupted by long solitary postings
to missions abroad.
Victoria (Vita) Mary SackvilleWest
Well known writings
 Front dustjacket of "The Land", designed by
George Plank.
 The Edwardians (1930) and All Passion Spent
(1931) are perhaps her best known novels
today. In the latter, the elderly Lady Slane
courageously embraces a long suppressed
sense of freedom and whimsy after a lifetime
of convention. This novel was faithfully
dramatized by the BBC in 1986 starring Dame
Wendy Hiller
Sackville-West
Sackville-West's science-fantasy Grand
Canyon (1942) is a "cautionary tale" (as
she termed it) about a Nazi invasion of an
unprepared United States. The book takes
an unsuspected twist, however, that
makes it something more than a typical
invasion yarn.
Sackville-West
In 1946 Sackville-West was made a Companion
of Honour for her services to literature. The
following year she began a weekly column in the
Observer called In your Garden. In 1948 she
became a founder member of the National Trust's
garden committee.
 Sissinghurst Castle is now owned by the National
Trust. Sissinghurst Castle Garden is the most
visited garden in England.

Sackville-West
"Travel is the most private of pleasures. There is
no greater bore than the travel bore. We do not
in the least want to hear what he has seen in
Hong-Kong." [3]
 “The Land” (1926) helped her to gain the initial
recognition in the field of literary works, through
which she was award Hawthorndon Prize and
was praised as one of the most beautiful
bucolics in English literature.

Sackville-West

Her poetry is traditional in form, reminiscent of the
work of the English nature poets of the age of
romanticism.

Sackville-West drew on her background for the
setting of “The Edwardians (1930), the story of a
young aristocrat who, while enjoying the
privileges of his position, is nonetheless tempted
to rebel and be free of the tradition he find himself
confined to.
Sackville-West
 “All
Passion Spent”, which she composed,
resembles ”The Edwardians” in its
description of the conflict between the
heroine’s secret desire to be an artist and
the 19th-century tradition that decreed her
as a self-effacing wife.
 A prolific writer, Sackville-West is the
author of 15 novels, as well as biographies
and travel books.
About the novel “No Signposts in the
Sea”
a)
Edmund Carr: an influential political columnist
and bachelor who had devoted all of his time
to the career, having little time to entertain
himself before he decided to take the voyage
abroad.
It should be stressed that Sackville-West drew
on her background for the setting of the
“Edwardians”(1930), the story tinged with an
undercurrent of sadness, are nonetheless
idyllic.
No Signposts in the Sea
The release from pressure; the
lackadaisical rhythms of ship life; the
shifting panorama of magnificent skies
and sea, of enticing, passing shores
and the infrequent ports-of-call; his
growing knowledge of Laura the
widow—all these combine to give Carr
an unfamiliar peace and a profound change
in perspective.
No Signposts in the Sea
b) Laura: a widow and an acquaintance of
Edmund Carr’s, who could be considered
as the incarnation of Vita Mary SackvilleWest. Her qualities, her intelligence and
warmth stiffened by a deep reserve, have
struck him as uncommon; he decides to be
abroad with her.
No Signposts in the Sea
c) Colonel: an Empire builder, who tended to
appear quite knowledgeable which was the
result of his frequent travels worldwide, who
often tried to put right what Edmund Carr
was commenting on the natural
surroundings, say, the seas, the mountains,
to name just a few.
Questions for predictions:



What is the ultimate purpose of the author to
have three main characters in the novel?
What can you imagine the theme of the story
would be by considering the personal
background of “Edmund Carr’s, Laura’s and
Colonel’s?
What is the implication of the title now after the
introduction?
Power, prestige, practicality
 the
former watchwords of Edmund Carr’s—
lost their ring. Illusion, while he had abhorred,
and personal entertainment he had not had
time for, and the natural world, un-invaded by
civilization, begin to seem transcendent.
 Carr’s growing love for Laura, despite his
self-acknowledgement that she must be
unattainable for him (who looked like a
delicate and beautiful flower waiting for some
venturesome man to climb to the peak of the
mountain to pick it up), shatters this everexpanding felicity as the voyage went on.
Power, prestige, practicality
A handsome, pompous and sometime obstinate
yet unpredictably engaging Colonel form a three,
a kind of ‘Triangle Relation’ among the Three.
 Edmund Carr is catapulted willy-nilly into the
all-too-human ignominy of jealousy, despair,
meanness, and outbursts of disappointment
against his “rival”.

Questions for further consideration on the
part of students while reading:
 1 . What
was the emotional reaction to the
abrupt change for Edmund Carr himself when
he realized the sudden change of the way of
life? Can you find any example to illustrate or
explain this kind of sudden change?
2. What did the author imply by mentioning
the concept of “hard materialist”?
 3.
Why did the author refer to the natural
scenery from time to time? Was it just a matter
of coincidence or a deliberate arrangement?
 4. What is the implication of depicting two
kinds of the description of two kinds of natural
scenery: the vast expanse of desert where
nothing could escape from the view of the
people and the steep cliffs where there were
beautiful flowers or plantations were growing
without being disturbed or even damaged?
Referents used in the text:
young moon, virgin, flying fish,
precipitous bluffs, sandy beach, cliffs,
islands, moonlings, calf-love,
seabirds, albatross
1.I have never had much of an eye...
I have never paid much attention to nor have ever had
a keen appreciation of the clothes of women.
have an eye for: to have the ability to see, judge and
understand clearly; to have a keen appreciation of
something
have an eye to something: to have as one's aim or
purpose
have eyes only for: to desire or be interested in
have set eyes on: to see, look at

2. in the evening she wears soft rich colors...
colors: metonymy: clothes of these colors;
 rich colors: deep intense colors such as "dark red,
olive green and midnight blue;

rich
a rich banquet
 rich wine
 rich odors
 rich soil
 rich soil
 a rich mine
 a rich prize
 a country rich her natural resources
 a rich harvest (bumper)

3. beguile oneself: cause time to pass without
being noticed
 kill one's time
 idle away one's time
 while away one's time
4. who is not too offensively an Empirebuilder,...
 What is the implication of this statement?