Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Virginia Woolf
-
Standard Name: Woolf, Virginia
Birth Name: Adeline Virginia Stephen
Nickname: Ginia
Married Name: Adeline Virginia Woolf
Thousands of readers over three or four generations have known that Virginia Woolf was—by a beadle—denied access to the library of a great university. They may have known, too, that she was a leading intellect of the twentieth century. If they are feminist readers they will know that she thought . . . back through her mothers and also sideways through her sisters and that she contributed more than any other in the twentieth century to the recovery of women's writing.
Marcus, Jane. “Introduction”. New Feminist Essays on Virginia Woolf, edited by Jane Marcus, Macmillan, p. i - xx.
xiv
Educated in her father's library and in a far more than usually demanding school of life, she radically altered the course not only of the English tradition but also of the several traditions of literature in English.
Froula, Christine. Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Avant-Garde. Columbia University Press.
2
She wrote prodigiously—nine published novels, as well as stories, essays (including two crucial books on feminism, its relation to education and to war), diaries, letters, biographies (both serious and burlesque), and criticism. As a literary journalist in a wide range of forums, she addressed the major social issues of her time in more than a million words.
Woolf, Virginia. “Introduction; Editorial Note”. The Essays of Virginia Woolf, edited by Andrew McNeillie, Hogarth Press, pp. vols. 1 - 4: various pages.
ix
She left a richly documented life in words, inventing a modern fiction, theorising modernity, writing the woman into the picture. She built this outstandingly influential work, which has had its impact on both writing and life, on her personal experience, and her fictions emerge to a striking degree from her life, her gender, and her moment in history. In a sketch of her career written to Ethel Smyth
she said that a short story called An Unwritten Novelwas the great discovery . . . . That—again in one second—showed me how I could embody all my deposit of experience in a shape that fitted it.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
Virginia Woolf
, who was present in the audience, looked ironical (she did not agree with these opinions) and saw that Sackville-West was out of her depth.
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin.
168
Literary responses
Vita Sackville-West
Woolf
found the book full of nooks and corners which I enjoy exploring . . . . gives the sense of your being away, travelling, not in any particular geographical country: but travelling far away...
Literary responses
Vita Sackville-West
There was a widespread feeling that VSW
had been too circumspect and scholarly. Virginia Woolf
told Vita that she found the book solid, strong, satisfactory
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
6: 49
, but wished she had allowed herself a...
Literary responses
Vita Sackville-West
Virginia Woolf
reported that she read it like a shark swallowing mackerel. I think its [sic] far better than Saint Joan, more masterly and controlled. She added: It must be a bestseller into the...
Literary responses
Vita Sackville-West
On its appearance Woolf
praised its suavity and ease; and its calm; and its air of rings widening widening till they imperceptibly touch the bank.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
4: 256
Years later she still thought it the best...
Literary responses
Vita Sackville-West
Critical response was disappointingly muted. Woolf
particularly liked the poem addressed to Enid Bagnold
, which includes the self-description, I, God's truth, a damned out-moded poet.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
5: 252n1
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin.
267
Reception
Vita Sackville-West
Woolf reported reading the novel all in a gulp with pleasure in bed; very well done I think.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
VSW
's growing romance with Virginia Woolf
, which had lasted for three years, produced a significant moment of intimacy
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin.
149
during a visit by Woolf to Long Barn.
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin.
149
Literary responses
Vita Sackville-West
Woolf
confessed to liking this less than Sackville-West's other novels, not being able to make the characters come alive. But this may be my fault though. . . . I suspect that my knowledge of...
Dedications
Vita Sackville-West
VSW
published Sissinghurst, a poem dedicated to Virginia Woolf
.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Editors Nicolson, Nigel and Joanne Trautmann, Hogarth Press.
4: 256
Author summary
Vita Sackville-West
VSW
wrote prolifically and almost obsessively from her childhood in the early twentieth century. She began with poems, plays, and fiction about her family's romantic links to English history. As an adult she used these...
Travel
Vita Sackville-West
VSW
travelled widely all her life. The first of her many visits to Florence, in spring1907, was followed a couple of years later by one to Ukraine (then a province of Russia).
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin.
24, 32
Literary responses
Vita Sackville-West
Her biographer Victoria Glendinning describes her Diary of a Journey to France with Virginia Woolf
in 1928 as rather flat.
Glendinning, Victoria. Vita. Penguin.
200
Textual Features
Vita Sackville-West
Written several years before Woolf
's Orlando, this tale features a fairy who lives through eons of fairy history before settling in the dolls' house at the present day, wearing a 1920s short skirt.
Intertextuality and Influence
Sappho
Following Michael Field
, many twentieth-century, lesbian-identified writers treat Sappho
as a crucial precursor. She became a figure for modernism with the work of HD
and Virginia Woolf
. The Lavender Nation
was named from...