243- ] English Literature
Virginia Woolf Summary
(b. 1882, London, England; d. 1941, Sussex, England)
Virginia
Woolf is a renowned British novelist associated with the modernist movement in
literature; her writing is characterized by experiments in language, narrative,
and the treatment of time. Woolf is often considered one of the most innovative
writers of the 20th century, best known for fractured narratives and writing in
a stream-of-consciousness prose style, in which characters are depicted through
their interior monologue; her books were sometimes called psychological novels.
In her work, she also discusses the issues and prejudices surrounding women’s
writing in the Western world.
Born
Adeline Virginia Stephen, Woolf was the daughter of Leslie Stephen, a literary
critic and editor, and Julia Jackson Duckworth of the Duckworth publishing
family. She was educated by her father at their home at Hyde Park Gate. Her
mother passed away in 1895, while Woolf was still in her teens, and the death of
her father in 1904, led Woolf into a much-documented bout of depression.
Following her father’s death, Woolf moved to Bloomsbury with her sister Vanessa
and her two brothers. The house was integral to Woolf’s burgeoning literary
career as it served as the earliest meeting place for the circle of artists and
writers she would join, known as the Bloomsbury group, which included Woolf’s
sister Vanessa (Stephen) Bell, Clive Bell, Maynard Keynes, Vita Sackville-West,
and Leonard Woolf.
Woolf
began writing reviews for the Times Literary Supplement in 1905. Her brother
Thoby died in 1906, and in 1912, Woolf married Leonard Woolf, a literary critic
and writer on economics. In 1915, she published her first novel, The Voyage
Out. Woolf had worked on The Voyage Out since 1908 and had completed it in
1913, but as the result of another emotional breakdown in the early years of
her marriage, publication of the novel was delayed until 1915. Two novels
followed—the relatively traditional Night and Day, 1919, and the more experimental
Jacob’s Room, 1922, a fictional treatment of her late brother Thoby’s life.
It
was not until 1925, with the publication of Mrs. Dalloway, that Woolf’s writing
began to reveal what would become her signature modernist style. The
interconnected narrative of Mrs. Dalloway, originally titled The Hours, weaves
the everyday lives and interior thoughts of her characters together. Through
her new literary technique, Woolf hoped to express her own experiences as a
woman and a female writer in a way that was different from the male writers
before her. In her later works To the Lighthouse, 1927, and The Waves, 1931,
Woolf developed her literary technique, and the resulting
stream-of-consciousness narrative style offers her reader unprecedented access
to her characters’ minds; her characters’ thoughts are written as if at the
moment of occurrence—free-flowing and unedited.
In
1922, Woolf began a long-standing affair with English poet Vita Sackville-West,
which reportedly lasted for most of the 1920s. Her book Orlando,1928, was
illustrated with images of Sackville-West as the protagonist. The reasons for
the end of the affair are unknown, but the women remained friends for the
remainder of Woolf’s life. Though this is thought to be Woolf’s first and most
devoted lesbian relationship, it is believed she was romantically involved with
other women during her lifetime including musician Ethel Smyth, who also has a
place setting at The Dinner Party.
Perhaps
Woolf’s best-known non-fiction work, A Room of One’s Own, 1929, developed out
of two lectures she delivered at woman’s colleges at Cambridge; in these
lectures Woolf delves into the history of women’s writing in both social and
economic terms and the circumstances faced by the contemporary woman writer. In
it she famously wrote: “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is
to write fiction; and that, as you will see, leaves the great problem of the
true nature of woman and the true nature of fiction unsolved” (Woolf, A Room of
One’s Own, 1).
Though
Woolf continued to live in Bloomsbury during the 1930s, the Bloomsbury group
stopped meeting and she spent much of the decade working on two novels, The
Years, 1937, and Three Guineas, 1938. She worried about the public reception of
these novels, but The Years outsold any of her previous works. At the end of
the decade, she also wrote her autobiography, A Sketch of the Past,1939–40, and
began her final novel, Between the Acts, 1941, which was published posthumously
by her husband. On March 28, 1941, at the age of fifty-nine, Woolf drowned
herself in the Ouse River, near her home in Sussex. Two suicide notes were
found in the house, one addressed to her sister Vanessa and the other to her
husband Leonard.
Now
one of the most revered icons of twentieth-century feminism, Woolf has been
celebrated not only for her fiction and non-fiction works but also in popular
culture. Her introduction of new narrative methods and her encouragement of
women’s writing have resulted in a wealth of still-treasured literature that continues
to inspire generations of readers, writers, and scholars.
Virginia
Woolf at The Dinner Party
The
three-dimensionality of Virginia Woolf’s plate, which Judy Chicago likens to a
blooming flower, is meant to symbolize Woolf’s advocacy for unrestricted expression.
The imagery used in Woolf’s plate, which includes seed forms in its center,
harkens back to the powerful fertility imagery of the goddess plates at The
Dinner Party, referencing, in this case, creative fecundity. Chicago intends
the flower form to serve as a metaphor for the fruitfulness of Woolf’s creative
genius. The center seems to burst out from the petals, referencing Woolf as a
woman who urged other women to break free from the confines of pre-existing,
predominantly masculine literature and instead to write in a style reflective
of themselves (Chicago, The Dinner Party, 151).
A
stitched and painted light beam glows from beneath the plate, iconography from
her book To the Lighthouse. It symbolizes the radiance of Woolf’s literary
legacy, as she “illuminated a path toward a new, woman-formed literary
language” (Chicago, The Dinner Party, 151).
The
delicate chiffon fabric of the runner can be interpreted as a reference to
Woolf’s now legendary mental fragility. On the front of the runner, her death
by drowning is suggested by the wave pattern embroidered around the illuminated
letter “V” in her name, a motif which also references her book The Waves.
Virginia
Woolf, one of the most important modernist writers of the 20th century, changed
literature with her experimental approach to writing and plunging psychological
insight. Woolf, known for her novels, essays, short stories and a handful of
poems, often explored topics around identity, gender, time and memory. When her
literary career took off in the early 1900s, she wrote in a style characterized
by stream-of-consciousness prose, lyrical beauty and emotional depth. Her
contributions to modernist literature include prominent novels like Mrs.
Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. For readers seeking timeless and introspective
works, Virginia Woolf’s literary creations remain essential reading material.
Top
Books Written By Virginia Woolf
Virginia
Woolf wrote nine novels alongside numerous essays, short stories and critical
works. Her books are ranked here based on their literary value, cultural impact
and reader acclaim. Woolf’s best-known novels include Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and
To the Lighthouse (1927), but her lesser-known works, including Orlando (1928)
and Jacob’s Room (1922), are also important for anyone exploring her oeuvre for
the first time.
12.
The Common Reader (1925, 1932)
This
is arguably Woolf’s most popular collection. With over 25 selections, this
two-book series combines essays on literature, art and culture. Here, Woolf
uses accessible prose and analyzes authors like Jane Austen, George Eliot and
Montaigne to offer candid detail and insights into her formed literary
philosophy and why it is the way it is. Through these essays, Woolf not only
critiques the works of great authors but also reflects on the evolution of
literature itself.
