The Perfect Library

The library in the Beast's Castle - Beauty and the Beast

I am waiting for the remaining books on the Booker long list to come in to my local library which has led me to think about what makes the 'perfect library'. Should it be dark and musty or bright and clean? Millions of books stacked higgledy-piggledy or all in neat, orderly rows? Let me know about your favourite library.

In Disney's wonderfully saccharine animated film, Beauty and the Beast, the Beast gives Belle this huge library - the ultimate gift. With more books than she can ever read in her lifetime (or if she can, I am really inadequate). Belle was without a doubt my favourite Disney character as she had brown hair, brown eyes and was obsessed with books.

Moving away from the realms of fantasy, my favourite library has to be the University of London Library at Senate House (pictured below). Senate House was built between 1932-37 and was the inspiration for the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. As an English Literature student I would spend many autumnal days searching through the dusty shelves for books on anything from Woolf to early printing presses. The interior of the library is strikingly early twentieth century with parquet floors and original 1930s light fittings. It is a haven for those in love with modernist literature as the surroundings evoke the contents of the books perfectly. One of my best times at university was spent in the Special Collections room studying the original 1628 copy of The World Encompassed by Sir Francis Drake. A real opportunity for a 19 year old student.

The library does offer membership to non-students, so you can go and explore the literary idyll yourself.

Senate House Library, Malet Street, London

Mrs Dalloway, London and June

The month of June always brings Woolf's Mrs Dalloway to mind.

"[...] the triumph and the jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June."

Clarissa Dalloway drops into the stream of life as she steps out into ‘the triumph and the jingle’ of London. She is getting ready for a party to be given in the evening with the hope of an appearance from the Prime Minister. As she walks through the streets of London on her way to buy flowers we watch the character respond passionately to her surroundings, ‘I love walking in London.’ The description of London’s streets associates the major characters with the places in which they currently live or in which they walk resulting in a cinema-like quality to the novel. The chaos of life is explored through Woolf’s ability to produce a cross-section of one day in London.

London is incredibly vivid and Woolf captures a reality that incorporates us all in the streets. The main characters work side by side whilst other people, such as Sir William Bradshaw, interweave and create the visible links. As Clarissa buys her flowers, Septimus is just outside on the pavement unable to pass, these faint overlaps create a lucid and flowing cross-section of London life.

This is a stunning piece of literature that has been imaginatively written and successfully executed. We skip along through the short time span whilst characters precipitate moods in which we explore early twentieth century society and ourselves. The reader is left wanting to drop a part of themselves in the continuous stream of life in order to experience the ‘lark’ and ‘plunge’ that is Clarissa’s fine June day in London.

You can buy a poster of the original Mrs Dalloway dust jacket, designed by Vanessa Bell, at the V&A Shop - which is where I took the above image from.