Seeing as how we'll be starting on
Virginia Woolf's works and she happens to be one of my favorite
writers, I figured we could do a little context on her. I think that
knowing the context of the writer can bring a better understanding of
the literature. I have done my own work with Woolf, in and out of
class; Her story has always interested me. Her life was so tinged
with sadness, tragedy, and even mental illness, yet she still managed
to push through. Suicide frequents her writings and she did not find
it a sin or cowardice. She was a feminist (you'll get to read more
about that tomorrow in class), and people still constantly talk about
her writings. Any of the information I did not know I got at
www.online-literature.com/virginia_woolf/
Virginia Woolf was born Adeline
Virginia Stephen in London, England on 25 Jaunary, 1882. She was born
into a rather privelaged family, and her father was the first editior
of the Dictionary of National Biography. She was one of eight
children, four of whom were her half siblings. She was very close
with her older sister Vanessa. Their home was frequented by many
successful Victorian authors and they had a massive library that
helped to add to the children's home education.
Her family had a summer home in St.
Ives off the Atlantic Ocean and she had fond memories of her time
spent there. It even influenced her writing. They stopped going after
her mother died when Virginia was only 13. She had a mental
breakdown, the first of many. The death of Stella, her older sister
prompted another breakdown, and the death of her father, another one.
She was bipolar, and some wonder if she did not have a form of
schizophrenia. Her episodes would be so bad she would withdraw from
her busy social life and get frustrated that she couldn't seem to
focus long enough to read or write. She wrote that she heard voices
and had visions and would occasionally go to nursing homes for 'rest
cures'. In 1905, living with her sister Vanessa and her brothers
Thoby and Adrian in a different neighborhood in London, she started
to feel better. She started writing again and taught English and
History at Morley College. The very next year when travelling, Her
brother Thoby died from Typhoid Fever.
After Leonard Woolf (political
journalist, author, and editor) proposed to her three times, they
finally married in August of 1912 (she was 30 years old). When World
War II broke out two years later, they retreated to their country
home 'Monk's House'. She was working on a satirical coming-of-age
story, her first novel, The Voyage Out.
Not long after that, Virginia and her husband founded the Hogarth
Press. She wrote seemingly constantly. Leonard
was constantly anticipating her next episode. She would get migraines
and be sleepless. She eventually drowned herself on the 28th
of March in 1941. She filled her coat pockets with rocks and went
into the River Ouse. Her ashes were spread at 'Monk's House'. She
left this letter to Leonard;
Dearest,
I feel certain I am going mad again... And I shan't recover this
time... I am doing what seems the best thing to do... I can't fight
any longer... 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.
After
Virginia died, her husband edited her many unpublished works,
journals, and correspondences. Her works are seen to be some of the
most important feminist works, and she was among the founders of the
modernist movement with T.S. Eliot, Ezra pound, James Joyce, and
Gertrude Stein.
