Virginia Woolf: Difference between revisions

Virginia showed an early affinity for writing. By the age of five she was writing letters. A fascination with books helped form a bond between her and her father.{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} From the age of 10, with her sister Vanessa, she began an illustrated family newspaper, the ''Hyde Park Gate News'', chronicling life and events within the Stephen family,{{sfn|Harris|2011|p=18}} and modelled on the popular magazine ''[[Tit-Bits]]''.{{sfn|Lowe|2005|p=vii}} Virginia would run the ''Hyde Park Gate News'' until 1895, a few weeks before her mother's death.{{sfn|Lowe|2005|p=ix}} In 1897 Virginia began her first diary,{{sfn|Woolf|1990|loc=1 January 1898|p=134}} which she kept for the next twelve years.{{sfn|Woolf|1990}}

 

 

In the spring of 1882, Leslie rented a large white house in [[St Ives, Cornwall]].{{sfn|Eagle|Carnell|1981|p=232}}{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} The family would spend three months each summer there for the first 13 years of Virginia's life.{{sfn|Harris|2011|pp=19-20}} Although the house had limited amenities, its main attraction was the view overlooking Porthminster Bay towards the [[Godrevy Lighthouse]].{{sfn|Gordon|2004}} The happy summers spent at Talland House would later influence Woolf's novels ''[[Jacob's Room]]'', ''[[To the Lighthouse]]'' and ''[[The Waves]]''.{{sfn|Wright|2011|p=22}}

=== Bloomsbury (1904–1912) ===

 

[[File:46 Gordon Square London.jpg|thumb|upright|46 Gordon Square| alt=Photograph of 46 Gordon Square, Virginia's home from 1904 to 1907]]

 

Two days after Thoby's death, Vanessa accepted a previous proposal of marriage from Clive Bell.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=210,226}} As a couple, their interest in [[avant-garde]] art would have an important influence on Woolf's further development as an author.{{sfn|Briggs|2006a|pp=69–70}}

 

[[File:Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw (5025918683).jpg|thumb|upright|29 Fitzroy Square|alt=Photo of 29 Fitzroy Square, Virginia's home from 1907 to 1910]]

After Vanessa's marriage, Virginia and Adrian moved into 29 [[Fitzroy Square]], still very close to Gordon Square.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=233}}{{sfn|Bell|1972|p=196}} The house had previously been occupied by [[George Bernard Shaw]], and the area had been populated by artists since the previous century. Duncan Grant lived there, and Roger Fry would move there in 1913.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|p=233}} Virginia resented the wealth that Vanessa's marriage had given her; Virginia and Adrian lived more humbly by comparison.{{sfn|Lee|1997a|pp=233-235}}

 

=== Further works (1920{{ndash}}1940) ===

{{main|Memoir Club}}

{{multiple image | header = ''Bloomsberries''| align = center | direction = horizontal | total_width = 600 | float = none

1920 saw a postwar reconstitution of the Bloomsbury Group, under the title of the [[Memoir Club]], which as the name suggests focussed on self-writing, in the manner of [[Proust]]'s ''[[A La Recherche]]'', and inspired some of the more influential books of the 20th century. The Group, which had been scattered by the war, was reconvened by [[Molly MacCarthy|Mary ('Molly') MacCarthy]] who called them "Bloomsberries", and operated under rules derived from the [[Cambridge Apostles]], an elite university debating society that a number of them had been members of. These rules emphasised candour and openness. Among the 125 memoirs presented, Virginia contributed three that were published posthumously in 1976, in the autobiographical anthology ''[[Moments of Being]]''. These were ''22 Hyde Park Gate'' (1921), ''Old Bloomsbury'' (1922) and ''Am I a Snob?'' (1936).{{sfn|Rosenbaum|Haule|2014}}

 

[[File:Vita Sackville-West at Monk's House.jpg|thumb|[[Vita Sackville-West]] at Monk's House {{circa|1934}}|alt=Photo of Vita Sackville-West in armchair at Virginia's home at Monk's House, smoking and with dog on her lap]]

On 14 December 1922{{sfn|Bell|1972|loc=Vol. II |p=235}} Woolf met the writer and gardener [[Vita Sackville-West]],{{sfn|Todd|1999|p=13}} wife of [[Harold Nicolson]]. This period was to prove fruitful for both authors, Woolf producing three novels, ''To the Lighthouse'' (1927), ''Orlando'' (1928), and ''The Waves'' (1931) as well as a number of essays, including "[[Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown]]" (1924) and "[[A Letter to a Young Poet]]" (1932).{{sfn|Hussey|2006}} The two women remained friends until Woolf's death in 1941.