Virginia Woolf Books

DeSalvo has given us something ground-breaking, heart-breaking, but above all important, in this book. This book brings so much insight into Woolf, her work, and the time in which she lived (ie V.W. as representative of the experience of other children of the time) and does it all in 305 immensely readable pages. This is that kind of fantasy bridge book that allows true readers insight into an author without first having to go and study critical theory for ten years to even get through most books about great authors! I am an avid, organic, non-academic reader and this book was excellent for me. I think it also rescues and gives Virginia Woolf to all of us, as a writer, a woman, a child, a victim of circumstance. As opposed to mad, she was one incredible artist who adapted extremely well in such an isolated and shaming time. DeSalvo you should be honored (as you were, by Kennedy Fraser's New Yorker review, which led me to you!)

I cannot believe that this speculative, didactic
rant has received all 5 stars. If you want to know
and understand Virginia Woolf, read Hermione Lee's
great (and definitive) biography. Period.

Scholarly without suffering from an overuse of lexicon, DeSalvo's study investigates how sexual abuse affected not only the development of Virginia Woolf's life and fiction but also the lives of the other members of her family as well as their internecine tangle of relationships. DeSalvo portrays the Stephen household and reveals how its adult members and doctors treated female members who diverged from societal norms or who behaved, it was then thought, "hysterically"--often, we now know, in response to incest.

The book is an important, passionate attack on the still-prevalent notion that Woolf suffered from madness: "her biographers have continued to portray her as mad, rather than having been treated as if she were mad." Instead, Woolf was responding as any adolescent would to childhood trauma, and what should be noted (and celebrated) is her success at survival. "What seems almost a miracle," DeSalvo writes, "is watching Virginia Stephen, at fifteen, in the process of creating herself as a significant, purposeful, dignified human being."

The meat of the book is the first part and a chapter entitled, "1897: Virginia Woolf at Fifteen." The three opening chapters present biographical sketches of Laura (the "madwoman in the attic" of Woolf's household) and of Virginia's sisters Stella and Vanessa; the section on the year 1897 shows how Virginia responded to her own experiences. These portraits detail overwhelming evidence for rampant incest, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse; it also describes the treatment accorded to girls who in any way departed from the patriarchal expectations of the middle-class Victorian family household. In addition, DeSalvo discusses how these childhood experiences replicated themselves in the complex web of Woolf's adult relationships: "Virginia flirted with Clive, her sister's husband; Angelica, Vanessa and Duncan's daughter, married Bunny Garnett, Duncan's former lover; Virginia said that she would seduce Angelica...; Bunny teased that he would seduce Quentin [Vanessa's son]."

The weakest sections of the book, it must be said, are those that subject Woolf's juvenilia and diaries to speculative psychoanalysis. "I believe that we are seeing Virginia use that process which psychoanalysts refer to as "reversal of the opposite." "I believe that Virginia is communicating something of great significance here...." (DeSalvo's repetition of the phrase "I believe," while honest in alerting the reader to the speculative nature of her statements, is unnecessary and ultimately cloying.) The irony here is that Woolf's adolescent writings are both revealing and fascinating on their own, without placing them on the couch.

Fortunately, DeSalvo's interpretations of Woolf's adult writing are more grounded and informative. Examined are "The Voyage Out," "Jacob's Room," "To the Lighthouse," "The Waves," "The Years," "Between the Acts," as well as selections from her nonfiction. Not only does DeSalvo's commentary shed new light on novels I've already read, but it will also affect (for the better) the way I read Woolf's work in the future. And that's the best reason for owning this book: it doesn't simply add to our knowledge of Woolf's biography; it also enhances our understanding of her literature.

DeSalvo has given us something ground-breaking, heart-breaking, but above all important, in this book. This book brings so much insight into Woolf, her work, and the time in which she lived (ie V.W. as representative of the experience of other children of the time) and does it all in 305 immensely readable pages. This is that kind of fantasy bridge book that allows true readers insight into an author without first having to go and study critical theory for ten years to even get through most books about great authors! I am an avid, organic, non-academic reader and this book was excellent for me. I think it also rescues and gives Virginia Woolf to all of us, as a writer, a woman, a child, a victim of circumstance. As opposed to mad, she was one incredible artist who adapted extremely well in such an isolated and shaming time. DeSalvo you should be honored (as you were, by Kennedy Fraser's New Yorker review, which led me to you!)

beware of the reader who gave this one star. his/her strongly negative reaction to this book is so powerful and illogical that it probably indicates one of three things.

1) he/she was sexually abused and either has repressed these memories or is in denial about the experience; either the fact that it happened or that it had any effect on his/her life. therefore, he/she is hostile to the suggestion that sexual abuse is traumatic and has damaging repercussions. (i know this personally, because, as a surviror myself, i used to do the same thing. before i had come to terms with my past, a friend of mine tried to talk to me about her own experiences of sexual abuse. it was so painful for me to here, that i repressed this pain to my unconscious, and on a conscious level, i convinced myself that she was either lying or exagerating her pain. i even got angry at her for bringing it up and told her not to talk to me about it again.)

2. he/she had abused one or more children in the past, and/or is currently abusing one or more children. (abusers usually like to stay in denial that abuse is damaging to the children, and to convince themselves that the children even enjoy it. this book would force him/her to face the ugly truth of the damage he/she is doing. no wonder he/she has such bad things to say about this book!)

3. he/she has children who were, or are currently being abused by someone (probably her boyfriend or husband or something like that, or perhaps his/her father) and he/she wants to stay in denial that this is damaging to his/her children. that way, he/she can avoid confronting the abuser, and can justify to himself/herself why he/she goes on allowing the abuser to do this.


the fact is that this is an excellent book. well researched, thorough, informative, enlightening, academic and yet easy to read. i can understand people having mixed feelings about this book, and giving a rating of perhaps three stars. but anyone who gives one star is obviously making a distorted judgement. obviously this book hit a little to close to home for that reader. something in this book provoked a very deep and powerful emotional reaction which seems to have blotted out their logical reasoning, thus destroying their ability to give this a fair rating.

From its magnificent cover, to its brilliant and sensitive insights into the psychology of illness--being ill, being near someone who is ill, anticipating being ill or well again--this book is a jewel. I love the way it feels in my hands. I love the way my eyes roam over the pages. I love the way it feels beneath my pillow. I've given it to friends and they have given it to their friends. And I am so pleased that Paris Press--"beautiful and daring feminist books"--has reprinted it as Woolf and Vanessa Bell intended. Precious!

On Being Ill is a small masterpiece. This is a unique book--compassionate, intelligent, affirming, and comforting, both for the "healthy" among us, and those who have experienced illness. This is Woolf at her best: brilliant, daring, probing, and Hermione Lee's Introduction is a gem.

Also, for those of us who care about design, the book is a beauty, a work of art in itself.

Put this book among those most dear to you!

This book is so small, the Introduction, pp. xi-xxxii, by Hermione Lee (April 15, 2002), plus notes to p. xxxiv, (the truly scholarly pages substantiating the material which ought to be considered, now that an entire book, VIRGINIA WOOLF'S ART AND MANIC-DEPRESSIVE ILLNESS by Thomas Caramagno (University of California Press, 1992) covers the topic), have more paragraphs than the main text, which only has nine or ten, unless you count multiple breaks for lines of some poet on p. 20 and Rimbaud at the top of p. 21 as indicating some flight beyond the normal bounds of the paragraph in which "Incomprehensibility has an enormous power over us in illness, more legitimately perhaps than the upright will allow" (p. 21) expresses itself as a single sentence.

The sentences are what astounds. The first sentence is constructed like an erudite train to somewhere: "Considering how ..., how ..., how astonishing ..., what ..., what ..., what ..., how we go down into the pit of death ...--when we think of this, as we are so frequently forced to think of it, it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love and battle and jealousy among the prime themes of literature." (pp. 3-4). This hardly gives a firm foundation for those humorous moment when the primary reaction of anyone who is not in on the joke is: I think I'm going to be sick.

In this discerning and somewhat humorous essay, Virginia Woolf remarks on humanity's experiences with illness, whether mental or physical, and on how it is rarely the subject of literature or art. She notes our contradictory nature toward sympathy and offers an opinion about what illness tells us about the natural world. Hermione Lee's fascinating introduction firmly places this remarkable work in the context of Woolf's life and writing. This Paris Press edition recreates the original artwork and typeset of the 1930 printing of "On Being Ill".

For anyone who enjoys Virginia Woolf, this play is a great find. Anyone who is involved in Women Studies, Photography, or Humanities needs to add this book to their bookshelf. Freshwater: A Comedy connects Virginia Woolf with her aunt, photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. My suggestion is pick up any book on Julia Margaret Cameron to get the full effect of the eccentricies and fobiles of the wealthy and famous of the 1900's.

Woolf's only play is a farce about her great-aunt, Julia Cameron, a famous Victorian photographer. The edition with drawings by Edward Gorey is marvelous and succinct. I am not sure I got all the references nor the inside humor (and it all seems like one big private joke [this play was intended for private enjoyment after all]), so I am not as moved as I usually am by Woolf's work, and yet it has a sort of magic and wit. Overall it's a welcome addition to one's collection of Woolf or Gorey, even if it is nearly inaccessible to the layman.

I stumbled upon this book while looking for Edward Gorey illustrations and have since bought two to give as gifts! Freshwater gives the reader insight into Virginia's life, humor, times, and friends. An amusing, quick read that makes you want to get a group of people together to act it out.

Almost one hundred years ago to the month (November 1899), Freud published his landmark book, "The Interpretation of Dreams," in German. The world hasn't been the same since then. No matter what you think of him (many who dislike Freud base their views on what others have said about him or done with his theories), he changed the concept of what it means to be a human being. This long essay (it runs 95 pages with index) came out in 1925, when he was at the height of his fame. It recounts the development of his career and his theories of sexual development. As such it provides an overview of the subjects for which he became famous. It isn't a personal book, concentrating on professional rather than personal associations. I would call it an intellectual memoir--but whatever you call it, it is well worth reading.

Am I a Freudian? Definitely not. But my life as many in the western world was and still is impacted positively by his understandings and writings.
Freud's short work"An Autobiographical Study" is a good introduction or review, either, into his, as stated in the translator's note, "professional rather than personal" history. It was penned for inclusion into a larger work setting forth the state of medicine in the early years of the century. It was subsequently reprinted with his "The Problem of Lay-Analysis". Here published separately, it includes a postscript written by Freud in 1935, four years before his death.
The type size, face and paper color of this edition make easy reading even for these old eyes of mine.
I found it a quick read, footnoted where necessary, and insightful. It is a good place to begin a study of Freud or psychoanalysis. In chronological order Freud explains the beginning and growth of the key fundamental elements of psychoanalysis and techniques of it's practice. He further shows how his understandings had become a part of many other academic disciplines and places in ordinary life.

I came at this book with an interest in Mansfield (and to a lesser extent Woolf) and was tired of the countless studies (chapters and essays) comapring the two. Needless to say, then, I approached this study with trepidation and assumed I would not think much of it. But what a surprise! Smith has done a terrific job with her research and has produced a study that towers over the others I've seen. The study smells of sweat and hard work. I put it alongside Sidney Janet Kaplan's and Patricia Dunbar's studies of Mansfield. It is one of the best.

I came at this book from the Mansfield camp and a little exhausted by all of the stale comparisons between Mansfield and Woolf. However, Smith's work is full of well-researched and thoughtful analysis. It's an amazing study--particularly of Mansfield, I think--and one that belongs on the same shelf as Kaplan's KM & THE ORIGINS OF MODERNIST FICTION and Dunbar's RADICAL MANSFIELD. Essential reading for Mansfield scholars and fans alike.

I have long been interested in Virginia Woolf and her works but only recently have I come to admire and respect Vita Sackville-West also. This is a wonderful account of a close friendship between two highly intellectual women and the lives they led. If you are interested at all in either of these women, I highly recommend this book. You can either it read it in order or you can skip around to sections you find most interesting, it doesn't matter, you will get the same results. They had amazing and wonderful lives which they chose to share with each other and then left us their letters. This book is like finding a treasure!

I read this book in really few time, and enjoyed it page after page. The life of these two women unfolded as the years went by. It's the right reading if you want to find out how Vita and Virginia lived, beyond their works; and if you want to discover how pure, and intense a relationship can be. Time has no meaning then.
Just, throughout the reading I wondered if it's right for us to know such personal details of two persons who surely didn't want to make their letters public. It's said it's literature, a treasure of mankind. But the uneasy feeling remains.

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? is simply one of the great plays of the 20th century, standing beside A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and ALL MY SONS. The writing is lyrical and succeeds on every level, the symbolism dazzling in both its simplicity and, conversely, its intricacy. But beware, for some reason known only to him, Albee chopped the original version of the play from three to two acts and with it lost some of the scathing dialogue and labyrinthine twists and turns of the plot. All new printings of the play feature the revised version, so if you are going to buy this amazing play PLEASE search out a used copy of the original. Five stars for sure...would there were more!

"Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf" is supposed to be a modern masterpiece, but instead I find a confusing plot, annoyingly minimalistic characterization, and the annoying banter between Geroge and Martha. They may or may not have a son, he may have died recently or a long time ago, and I sort of feel for the boring young couple trapped by these two lunatics. A tired take on those "Punch and Judy" plays.

A WRITER'S DIARY: BEING EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF Edited by Leonard Woolf was in a tradition I love, the practical and inspirational inner life of writers recorded in diaries or letters. Within pages of starting it, I was already back to regular journal writing myself. This volume includes entries from Monday, August 4, 1918, to Sunday, March 8, 1941, within four days of her suicide by drowning.

The real value of this book, I think, which was heavily edited by her husband to protect people still living, I'm told, is that it clearly spells out the troubles and mental burdens of the writer that she was. I loved reading about her processes in writing books of hers that I have read, ORLANDO, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, MRS. DALLOWAY. (I forgot the affection I held for Mrs. Dalloway until I read about her writing it, and I just felt love for that book all over again.)

One can see the practical issues a writer faces, and I think this book performs the valuable service of illustrating that creative work is WORK, that it doesn't just rise from a magical well of talent and become complete -- voila! -- in the world. She frets about sales, about timing, about editing, about what her friends, Lytton Strachey, Morgan (E.M. Forster) and Tom (T.S. Eliot) will say. What the reviewers will understand of what she was trying to do, what her method should be, etc. It's a vivid account of the pain of creation. And she reminds herself each time a book comes out that she goes through these stages of happiness, dejection and waiting every time she publishes. When her book THREE GUINEAS came out, referring to the media response, she wrote from her home in the countryside, "It's true I have a sense of quiet and relief. But no wish to read reviews, or hear opinions... Mercifully we have 50 miles of felt between ourselves and the din."

She also notes how the slightest criticism is so much more resounding to her that the highest praise (we've all been there!), revealing explicitly that common trait of depressives, that their successes are somehow a sham perpetrated on the world by a cunning and knowing secret failure of a self.

An interesting angle of this book is her experiences in World War II with the bombing of London by the Nazis. She and her husband, Leonard, lost two homes they had in London, and she sometimes wondered if she would die that day in a raid, even forcing herself to write how she imagined dying by bombing would feel. It made me think of de Beauvoir's autobiography, how it was most gripping when she wrote of her life in France during WWII and the Vichy government. I think, particularly in this area, Woolf's unexpergated diaries, which were published later, would prove even more vital and interesting.

She also writes about what she is reading. Woolf was an accomplished critic, and she clearly like to write, to express herself in that way, whether for publication, or for catharsis as an "external processer" in her diaries, and her notes on what soothes her and what is boring for her (some chapters of ULYSSES) and what she ought to be reading if she's about to get killed in an air raid (SHAKESPEARE) are fascinating.

This book is VERY episodic, and while it's a little harder to pick up again, because of the lack of a conventional plot of ongoing issues, it's easy to keep reading for pages and pages once one does pick it up again. There is no plot really apparent here about her mental illness. Her suicide isn't something the reader of this volume sees coming, though she is often ill with headaches and later on, influenza, and as the war continues, she is thinking about the concrete matters of death.

Her lovely writing, colloquial, chatty, insightful and carefully plotting her worries and happinesses is a joy. Her last entry is about finding occupation to keep oneself going and motivated. She is even scheming what she could do with her time, and is grateful to have supper to cook, now that the cook has left the household to be with her sister during the raids. It's very vibrant and lively. It's hard to believe she isn't out there somewhere still making her charming and insightful notes in her journals.

This is a good book for people curious about the process of writing or about the thoughts of Woolf as she composed her books specifically. I would recommend it to them.

This is one of the greatest books ever compiled/edited (here, by the brilliant Leonard Woolf-too often completely disregarded for his own unique editorial genius) after Virginia Woolf's most tragic suicide. What you will learn from this book is the spectacularly heroic efforts VW expended moment to moment, hour to hour, day to day, month to month, year to year, and decade to decade to prevail over those inner demons by utilizing her great gift of writing herself out. This is an extraordinary Masterpiece in English Literature as well. A must-have for anyone with even a scintilla of understanding about Bi-Polar Illness and Depression insofar as how torturously difficult it can be to simply carry on...let alone glitter like the Heavenly star VW surely was. Oh - and as long as her books are still in print, I don't see her as really "gone" at all.

This book was a required reading for a course I'm taking, great reading.

Virginia Woolf is an author of myriad voices. The letters in Congenial Spirits are selections from Woolf's letters that provide insight to what Woolf thought and felt as she wrote. If you think that you know Woolf from blurbs in anthologies or from her novels, I recommend that you spend some time with her letters and her diaries. You will discover that Woolf is much more complex than the simplistic "stream of consciosness" moniker often applied to her.