VIRGINIA WOOLF
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English writer, who is considered one of the foremost modernist authors of the 20th century and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
She was born in an affluent household in South Kensington, London, attended the Ladies' Department of King's College and was acquainted with the early reformers of women's higher education. Having been home-schooled for the most part of her childhood, mostly in English classics and Victorian literature, Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. She published her first novel titled The Voyage Out in 1915, through her half-brother’s publishing house, Gerald Duckworth and Company. Her best-known works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
Woolf became one of the central subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism, and her works have since garnered much attention and widespread commentary for "inspiring feminism", an aspect of her writing that was unheralded earlier. Her works are widely read all over the world and have been translated into more than fifty languages. She suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life and took her own life by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.
Who Was Virginia Woolf?
Early Life
Literary Work
Suicide and Legacy
Where to start with Virginia Woolf
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Born into a privileged English household in 1882, author Virginia Woolf was raised by free-thinking parents. She began writing as a young girl and published her first novel, The Voyage Out, in 1915. She wrote modernist classics including Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and Orlando, as well as pioneering feminist works, A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. In her personal life, she suffered bouts of deep depression. She committed suicide in 1941, at the age of 59.
Born on January 25, 1882, Adeline Virginia Stephen was raised in a remarkable household. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen, was a historian and author, as well as one of the most prominent figures in the golden age of mountaineering. Woolf’s mother, Julia Prinsep Stephen (née Jackson), had been born in India and later served as a model for several Pre-Raphaelite painters. She was also a nurse and wrote a book on the profession. Both of her parents had been married and widowed before marrying each other. Woolf had three full siblings — Thoby, Vanessa and Adrian — and four half-siblings — Laura Makepeace Stephen and George, Gerald and Stella Duckworth. The eight children lived under one roof at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington.
Two of Woolf’s brothers had been educated at Cambridge, but all the girls were taught at home and utilized the splendid confines of the family’s lush Victorian library. Moreover, Woolf’s parents were extremely well connected, both socially and artistically. Her father was a friend to William Thackeray, the father of his first wife who died unexpectedly, and George Henry Lewes, as well as many other noted thinkers. Her mother’s aunt was the famous 19th century photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
From the time of her birth until 1895, Woolf spent her summers in St. Ives, a beach town at the very southwestern tip of England. The Stephens’ summer home, Talland House, which is still standing today, looks out at the dramatic Porthminster Bay and has a view of the Godrevy Lighthouse, which inspired her writing. In her later memoirs, Woolf recalled St. Ives with a great fondness. In fact, she incorporated scenes from those early summers into her modernist novel, To the Lighthouse (1927).
As a young girl, Virginia was curious, light-hearted and playful. She started a family newspaper, the Hyde Park Gate News, to document her family’s humorous anecdotes. However, early traumas darkened her childhood, including being sexually abused by her half-brothers George and Gerald Duckworth, which she wrote about in her essays A Sketch of the Past and 22 Hyde Park Gate. In 1895, at the age of 13, she also had to cope with the sudden death of her mother from rheumatic fever, which led to her first mental breakdown, and the loss of her half-sister Stella, who had become the head of the household, two years later.
While dealing with her personal losses, Woolf continued her studies in German, Greek and Latin at the Ladies’ Department of King’s College London. Her four years of study introduced her to a handful of radical feminists at the helm of educational reforms. In 1904, her father died from stomach cancer, which contributed to another emotional setback that led to Woolf being institutionalized for a brief period. Virginia Woolf’s dance between literary expression and personal desolation would continue for the rest of her life. In 1905, she began writing professionally as a contributor for The Times Literary Supplement. A year later, Woolf's 26-year-old brother Thoby died from typhoid fever after a family trip to Greece.
After their father's death, Woolf's sister Vanessa and brother Adrian sold the family home in Hyde Park Gate, and purchased a house in the Bloomsbury area of London. During this period, Virginia met several members of the Bloomsbury Group, a circle of intellectuals and artists including the art critic Clive Bell, who married Virginia's sister Vanessa, the novelist E.M. Forster, the painter Duncan Grant, the biographer Lytton Strachey, economist John Maynard Keynes and essayist Leonard Woolf, among others. The group became famous in 1910 for the Dreadnought Hoax, a practical joke in which members of the group dressed up as a delegation of Ethiopian royals, including Virginia disguised as a bearded man, and successfully persuaded the English Royal Navy to show them their warship, the HMS Dreadnought. After the outrageous act, Leonard Woolf and Virginia became closer, and eventually they were married on August 10, 1912. The two shared a passionate love for one another for the rest of their lives.
Several years before marrying Leonard, Virginia had begun working on her first novel. The original title was Melymbrosia. After nine years and innumerable drafts, it was released in 1915 as The Voyage Out. Woolf used the book to experiment with several literary tools, including compelling and unusual narrative perspectives, dream-states and free association prose. Two years later, the Woolfs bought a used printing press and established Hogarth Press, their own publishing house operated out of their home, Hogarth House. Virginia and Leonard published some of their writing, as well as the work of Sigmund Freud, Katharine Mansfield and T.S. Eliot.
A year after the end of World War I, the Woolfs purchased Monk's House, a cottage in the village of Rodmell in 1919, and that same year Virginia published Night and Day, a novel set in Edwardian England. Her third novel Jacob's Room was published by Hogarth in 1922. Based on her brother Thoby, it was considered a significant departure from her earlier novels with its modernist elements. That year, she met author, poet and landscape gardener Vita Sackville-West, the wife of English diplomat Harold Nicolson. Virginia and Vita began a friendship that developed into a romantic affair. Although their affair eventually ended, they remained friends until Virginia Woolf's death.
In 1925, Woolf received rave reviews for Mrs. Dalloway, her fourth novel. The mesmerizing story interweaved interior monologues and raised issues of feminism, mental illness and homosexuality in post-World War I England. Mrs. Dalloway was adapted into a 1997 film, starring Vanessa Redgrave, and inspired The Hours, a 1998 novel by Michael Cunningham and a 2002 film adaptation. Her 1928 novel, To the Lighthouse, was another critical success and considered revolutionary for its stream of consciousness storytelling.The modernist classic examines the subtext of human relationships through the lives of the Ramsay family as they vacation on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
Woolf found a literary muse in Sackville-West, the inspiration for Woolf's 1928 novel Orlando, which follows an English nobleman who mysteriously becomes a woman at the age of 30 and lives on for over three centuries of English history. The novel was a breakthrough for Woolf who received critical praise for the groundbreaking work, as well as a newfound level of popularity.
In 1929, Woolf published A Room of One's Own, a feminist essay based on lectures she had given at women's colleges, in which she examines women's role in literature. In the work, she sets forth the idea that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Woolf pushed narrative boundaries in her next work, The Waves (1931), which she described as "a play-poem" written in the voices of six different characters. Woolf published The Years, the final novel published in her lifetime in 1937, about a family's history over the course of a generation. The following year she published Three Guineas, an essay which continued the feminist themes of A Room of One's Own and addressed fascism and war.
Throughout her career, Woolf spoke regularly at colleges and universities, penned dramatic letters, wrote moving essays and self-published a long list of short stories. By her mid-forties, she had established herself as an intellectual, an innovative and influential writer and pioneering feminist. Her ability to balance dream-like scenes with deeply tense plot lines earned her incredible respect from peers and the public alike. Despite her outward success, she continued to regularly suffer from debilitating bouts of depression and dramatic mood swings.
Woolf's husband, Leonard, always by her side, was quite aware of any signs that pointed to his wife’s descent into depression. He saw, as she was working on what would be her final manuscript, Between the Acts (published posthumously in 1941),that she was sinking into deepening despair. At the time, World War II was raging on and the couple decided if England was invaded by Germany, they would commit suicide together, fearing that Leonard, who was Jewish, would be in particular danger. In 1940, the couple’s London home was destroyed during the Blitz, the Germans bombing of the city.
Unable to cope with her despair, Woolf pulled on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones and walked into the River Ouse on March 28, 1941. As she waded into the water, the stream took her with it. The authorities found her body three weeks later. Leonard Woolf had her cremated and her remains were scattered at their home, Monk's House.
Although her popularity decreased after World War II, Woolf's work resonated again with a new generation of readers during the feminist movement of the 1970s. Woolf remains one of the most influential authors of the 21st century.
These beautiful Vintage Classic editions of Virginia Woolf’s greatest works will have you wanting to dive into the stories but where do you begin reading this famous member of the Bloomsbury Group? Enthusiastic Woolf fan, Eric Karl Anderson of LonesomeReader, gives his thoughts on how to start and why you’ll want to keep reading the work of this brilliant author.
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It was on a particularly lonesome and directionless day that I wandered into my local library and first came upon Virginia Woolf’s novels. Since I was aware she was revered as one of the greatest English writers of the early twentieth century, I felt somewhat intimidated picking up her books but once I started reading I became enraptured by her sumptuous prose and heartfelt writing on ordinary life. Somehow daily details are elevated into moments of startling significance in her fiction. Her writing has that rare ability to literally reshape how you see the world around you. I don’t feel like I read her books so much as live through them.
In recent decades, Virginia Woolf has also become such a cult figure that her life is as much a subject of fascination as her writing. As a central figure of the influential Bloomsbury Group, she was embroiled in their complicated and, at the time, scandalous affairs. Their fascinating lives, beset by tragedy, have been turned into films and television dramas. Woolf has become a revered figurehead whose life and thoughts have helped shaped modern ideas about feminism, sexuality and mental health. Yet, it’s in her artfully crafted books that we most feel her indomitable spirit and continue to hear the voice of Virginia herself. Each time I read these imaginative books I find something so fresh and new it’s like the purple ink from her pen has only just dried.
Although this novel was produced roughly mid-career, it represents the epitome of Virginia’s distinct style and marks the perfect point at which to enter her writing. The plot of the story is deceptively simple. Clarissa Dalloway is throwing a party and the novel follows her preparations throughout the day culminating in the event itself. Twinned with her tale is the story of WWI veteran Septimus who suffers from hallucinations and haunting memories. The details of this day expand voluminously to encompass their whole lives and celebrate the importance of our moment-to-moment thoughts and feelings.
Virginia’s mother died when she was only thirteen years old. This novel is perhaps the author’s most personal as it memorialises her in the vibrant and boisterous character Mrs Ramsay, who tends to her family and guests while at their summer home. Woolf has an extraordinary way of showing how experience is filtered through an individual’s perception at a particular time, through their stream of consciousness. This style works beautifully to create a story so emotionally moving you’ll feel the true poignancy of all that’s lost in the inevitable onward march of time.
For something a little bit different from Woolf’s original style, you’ll be awed by the dazzling breadth of Woolf’s imagination, demonstrated in this slender and very funny novel. Here a life bursts through the boundaries of mortal limits with its title character traversing centuries and changing gender. Orlando experiences life as nobleman at the court of Elizabeth I, a diplomat in Constantinople and survives into the twentieth century to become a celebrated poet. The character is brilliantly portrayed by Tilda Swinton in the film adaptation of this novel, but the book itself must be read to experience the true exuberance of its astounding story.
Virginia is at the height of her writing powers in The Waves. You’ll notice how it crystallises the subjects and style displayed in the four previous novels. Here we see recorded the lives of six characters as they grow from childhood to old age; poetic language captures each of their sensory experiences of the world. Each section begins with a description of the sun as it moves across the sky and thus frames their lives in a single day. It may feel strange to read at first, but savour it slowly and its wisdom will seep in. Without a doubt, this is my favourite novel ever written. It’s a book to be kept all your life and read at intervals as you’ll differently identify with its six distinct protagonists as they age and change alongside you.
Now that you’ve appreciated the artfulness of Virginia’s novels, you’ll find it thrilling to read this extended essay which still remains a nuanced and triumphant feminist statement. She writes so creatively and movingly about the social and economic factors which prevent women from achieving their full creative potential. As an example, she imagines a fictional character Judith as a sister to Shakespeare who possesses all his talent but is inhibited by society’s expectations for women. It’s particularly poignant reading her thoughts about the marginalisation of female writers and realising the bravery required for her to write and publish her other revelatory works of fiction.
In The Years, we appreciate how the scenes Woolf writes about encapsulate both the minutely small and the grand, sweeping elements of life simultaneously. She uses a less poetic writing style in this novel that charts the lives of a genteel family over a period of fifty years, but only through particular moments in particular years. Details of the changing seasons and weather colour the mood of each chapter. Interestingly, during Virginia’s lifetime this was her bestselling book but its popularity has diminished over time. However, it’s a compelling panoramic look at the way personality changes with the shifting sands of history.
When Virginia Woolf left her house on the last day of her life on March 28 in 1941, she left behind a note to Vanessa Bell, her sister, and a note to Leonard Woolf, her husband.
The notes hinted that Virginia was going to kill herself but didn’t say how or where. Little did she realize that the river she planned to drown herself in would sweep away her body and prevent her friends and family from discovering what happened to her for three whole weeks.
After the discovery of her hat and cane on the bank of the nearby river Ouse, her family assumed she had drowned herself but had no evidence to confirm it.
A couple of news articles published during that time frame document the weeks her loved ones, and the world, spent waiting to find out what happened.
New York Times Headline on April 3 in 1941: Missing in England; Virginia Woolf Believed Dead
In one article, published in the New York Times on April 3, Leonard Woolf is quoted as saying:
“Mrs. Woolf is presumed to be dead. She went for a walk last Friday, leaving a letter behind, and it is thought she has been drowned. Her body, however, has not been recovered.”
The article confirmed Virginia was missing but states the police were not investigating her disappearance:
“The circumstances surrounding the novelist’s disappearance were not revealed. The authorities at Lewes said they had no report of Mrs. Woolf’s supposed death. It was reported her hat and cane had been found on the bank of the Ouse River. Mrs. Woolf had been ill for some time.”
Although there was little doubt that Virginia had killed herself, there was no body, no evidence, no funeral and no closure for her friends, family or her fans. In a letter written by Virginia’s brother-in-law Clive Bell, dated April 3, Bell reveals to his friend, Frances Partridge, that the family had hoped to find her alive but that hope had waned as the days went on:
“For some days, of course, we hoped against hope that she had wandered crazily away and might be discovered in a barn or a village shop. But by now all hope is abandoned; only, as the body has not been found, she cannot be considered dead legally.”
Yet, according to a biography on Virginia Woolf by Nigel Nicholson, some of her friends, such as Nicholson’s mother Vita Sackville-West, thought it best if her body was never found and hoped it was instead carried out to sea so that her loved ones would not have to face it.
Three weeks later, some children made the gruesome discovery when Virginia’s body washed up near the bridge at Southease. On April 19, the Associated Press announced to the public “Mrs. Woolf’s Body Found,” and confirmed she had drowned herself. The article hinted that the ongoing war with Germany may have played a part in her suicide:
“Dr. E. F. Hoare, Coroner at New Haven, Sussex, gave a verdict of suicide today in the drowning of Virginia Woolf, novelist who had been bombed from her home twice. Her body was recovered last night from the River Ouse near her week-end house at Lewes…. Her husband testified that Mrs. Woolf had been depressed for a considerable length of time. When their Bloomsbury home was wrecked by a bomb some time ago, Mr. and Mrs. Woolf moved to another near by. It, too, was made uninhabitable by a bomb, and the Woolfs then moved to their weekend home in Sussex.”
The coroner read a portion of her suicide note to the reporters, but misquoted it. The reporters printed the misquote in the article. The note did not mention the war but Virginia did state she was not well and felt she couldn’t go through another breakdown.
Virginia was later cremated and her remains were buried under one of the two intertwined Elm trees in her backyard, which she had nicknamed “Virginia and Leonard.” Leonard marked the spot with a stone tablet engraved with the last lines from her novel The Waves:
“Against you I fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding, O Death!
The waves broke on the shore.”
Virginia’s suicide note to Leonard read:
“Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier ’til this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer. I don’t think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.”
