Violet Trefusis (née Keppel; 6 June 1894 – 29 February 1972) was an English writer and socialite. She is chiefly remembered for her lesbian affair with the poet Vita Sackville-West. She also wrote novels and many non-fiction works, both in English and French. The affair was featured in novels by both parties, and also in Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography, as well as in many letters and memoirs of the period, roughly 1912-1922. Many are preserved at Yale University Library. Trefusis was an inspiration to many writers' fiction and was a pivotal character in their novels including Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate as "Lady Montdore" and in Harold Acton's The Soul's Gymnasium as "Muriel," a fictional portrait of her.
Read more about Violet Trefusis: Early Life, Her Affair With Vita Sackville-West, Work, Later Life in France, Writings
Famous quotes containing the words violet and/or trefusis:
“It were as wise to cast a violet into a crucible that you might discover the formal principle of its colour and odour, as seek to transfuse from one language into another the creations of a poet. The plant must spring again from its seed, or it will bear no flower—and this is the burthen of the curse of Babel.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“You are my lover and I am your mistress and kingdoms and empires and governments have tottered and succumbed before now to that mighty combination.”
—Violet Trefusis (1894–1972)