I’m rewatching Reilly, Ace of Spies and Reilly’s wife is described as running off with a Bloomsbury type. The time period is 1905. Does a Bloomsbury type mean a bohemian intellectual?
Yes, though the use of the term in 1905 is probably anachronistic.
The “Bloomsbury group” was an informal but close group of friends, living in or near Blooomsbury or socialising there, who were characterised by interest/involvement in the arts, especially literature; intellectualism; an interest in philosophy; hedonism; left-liberal politics; criticism or rejection of “the bourgeois habits and conventions of Victorian life”; and a connection with the Trinity College, Cambridge or King’s College, Cambridge (for the men) or King’s College London (for the women).
Although the group began to come together around about 1905, I don’t think anybody identified a “Bloomsbury group” or “Bloombury set” by that name until somewhat later.
Thanks. It might be a little later than 1905, in the series, it’s after the Russo-Japanese war, but before WWI.
I think that would be appropriately called Bloomsbury, based on this passage in Wikipedia:
In 1905 Vanessa began the “Friday Club” and Thoby ran “Thursday Evenings”, which became the basis for the Bloomsbury Group,[8] which to some was really “Cambridge in London”.[6] Thoby’s premature death in 1906 brought them more firmly together[7] and they became what is now known as the “Old Bloomsbury” group who met in earnest beginning in 1912. In the 1920s and 1930s the group shifted when the original members died and the next generation had reached adulthood.[9]
Which wife? Reilly was married several times. He had many mistresses. It’s not clear why he would care that much about his wife leaving him, whichever wife that was. Sidney Reilly was Ian Fleming’s inspiration for the character James Bond. The character of James Bond was supposed to be like someone like Sidney Reilly if he was born about thirty or forty years later. He didn’t care much about whether he was married to the woman he was having sex with at the moment. James Bond was married once in the movies, but his wife was murdered soon after the wedding. Ian Fleming was somewhat like his character of James Bond. Fleming was married once (and the marriage lasted until his death), but both Fleming and his wife had no problem with having affairs during their marriage. Anyway, 1905 is too early for anyone to refer to a person as a Bloomsbury type, since they weren’t generally known until about a decade later.
Margaret. It is suspected that she and Reilly murdered her first husband. Like I said, it could be later than 1905, it’s after the Russo-Japanese war, but before WWI.
It’s still hard to imagine Reilly ever saying, “So my wife Margaret has left me for some guy who’s in a literary group that won’t be well known until a few decades from now. This is so discouraging. Margaret and I had to put in such work to get rid of her first husband.” Then the woman he’s having sex with at the time said, “Could you please not talk about other women while we have sex, since it kind of spoils the mood?”. Then Reilly says, “Sorry, I’ll try to concentrate on what we’re doing now.”
On their wedding day, in the book.
That’s not what happened, she ran off (with some of her money) and Reilly was trying to find her to kill her, then he slept with his own half-sister instead and then when he was getting ready to wed a rich woman in Russia, Margaret showed back up and said he was already married, so Reilly told her that he really would kill her if she didn’t leave Russia. Oh, and Reilly’s sister committed suicide and it’s not clear what happened to Margaret.
Haven’t seen the show for years, but I don’t remember any of his women running off. His wife admitted to adultery in Port Arthur, but she didn’t run off. Was it some other character’s wife?
No, it was his wife, Margaret, the minister’s wife he meets in the first episode. He marries her after her first husband dies and leaves her in London while he’s running around. When he gets back fro spying in Germany, he finds his house empty and Cummings tells him that she’s run off with a Bloomsbury type. They use the term more than once.
He traces her to Paris where he’s made it clear he’s planning on killing her, but runs into his half sister and starts an affair with her. She then commits suicide.
Later, Reilly is in Moscow planning to marry a wealthy aristocrat when Margaret shows up and starts making trouble for him. Reilly has her jailed and threatens to kill her if she doesn’t leave Russia, which she does.
Described here:
Now well ensconced in high society in St Petersburg, Russia, Reilly has supposedly severed ties with British intelligence in favour of employment by German arms manufacturers. While keeping abreast of the “arms deal of the century” — the pending commission to rebuild the Tsar’s navy, destroyed in Russia’s late war with Japan — Reilly makes time with Nadia, unhappy wife of the influential Russian Count Massino. As British, German and American ship-builders vie for the lucrative contact, it emerges that Reilly (despite his animus against the King’s man, Zaharov) is still working as an active secret agent for “C”. He proposes to marry Nadia, but without benefit of divorce from Margaret, who now inconveniently arrives in town.