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Bloomsbury Group, the name given to a group of friends who began to meet about 19o5-6; its original centre was 46 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, which became in 19o4 the home of V. *Bell and V. *Woolf (both then unmarried). It was to include, amongst others, *Keynes, *Strachey, D. *Garnett, D. Grant, E. M. Forster, and R. *Fry. This informal association, based on friendship and interest in the arts, derived many of its attitudes from G. E. Moore's Principia Ethica; 'By far the most valuable things...are...the pleasures of human intercourse and the enjoyment of beautiful objects;...it is they...that form the rational ultimate end of social progress.' Its members, many of whom were in conscious revolt against the artistic, social, and sexual restrictions of Victorian society, profoundly affected the development of the avant-garde in art and literature in Britain. Bloomsbury was attacked by *Leavis as dilettante and élitist, and its aims and achievements fell temporarily out of favour, but the late 196os witnessed a great revival of interest and the publication of many critical and biographical studies (notably *Holrayd's two-volume life of Strachey, 1967-8) seeking to re-asses Bloomsbury's influence.

(Text from Drabble, Margaret. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford, New York: OUP, 1998.; © Margaret Drabble and Oxford University Press 1985, 1995; cited here by permission of Oxford University Press.)