Virginia Woolf: A Biography

by Quentin Bell

Book Overview

The first full-scale biography of the eminent British writer, written by her nephew. Index; photographs. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156935805
• Release Date: March 1974
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.4" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Virginia Woolf: A Biography

Virginia Woolf: A Biography By now, it is the most chronologically complete biography of Virginia Woolf, also giving interesting details about her ancestors. Some data of the family life might have been omitted in the book but in general it is a pretty objective and accurate work showing a lot of academic research.

Very detailed

history of Virginia Woolf. So much has been written about VW (her life and her works), there is no need to add anything here. This book is written by VW's nephew, and is impressively comprehensive in scope. This is a two-volume biography, but it is sold as a single volume. Chapters are divided by years (e.g., Volume I, Chapter eight, is simply titled "1909"). The eight appendices include: Clive Bell and the Writing of "The Voyage Out"; The Dreadnought Hoax; and, Virginia Woolf and Julian Bell.

If she only knew valium

Well, after reading this exhaustive biography I think with more or less reason several things. Virginia Woolf was a woman of great intelligence but unbalanced and at the cost of her instinctive life, I think not homosexual as it's said, but mostly uninterested in the sexual part of life. She has the drive to justify this and she said a real artist needed to be nor man nor woman in order to avoid prejudices and to possess a clear vision of the real facts of life, a doubtful point of view because there are great artist with strong sexual drive straight or not. I believe she was surely not primarily so ill at the mental sphere, because all these medications as digital, symptoms as palpitations and physical exhaustion, faints, etc, are symptoms of physical or even social diseases, yes, with repercussion in the psychic life, added to the extremely exigent work of writing his works. For all that I believe V. Woolf was no so mad as it's commonly said and could be saved by a more scientific and modern medicine. Certainly, personal and historical contingences as the death of friends and familiars, WWI and over all WWII with the fear to the Nazi invasion of England and repression against Jews as her husband and intellectuals as herself could not be avoided although I believe by 1941 these fears were objectively less probable. I can' avoid a pity for this woman.

A definitive source...

I read VIRGINIA WOLFE: A BIOGRAPHY by Quentin Bell after I had read several other books about Wolfe. I was pleased to discover that Bell included some of the more unsavory aspects of Woolfe's life even though he was a blood relative and wrote his book in an age that frowned on revealing "dirty" family secrets. I am referring to the presumed incestuous behavior of Woolfe's brothers towards Virginia and Vanessa. Quentin Bell was the son of Virginia's sister the artist Venessa Bell. Virginia and Vanessa were the daughters of the very prominent English Victorian Leslie Stephen. Stephen married Virginia's mother Julia after her first husband Herbert Duckworth died. The brothers accused of incest were sons from the first marriage and much older than Virginia who was the next to the youngest child of Julia and Leslie. Much has been written about the end of Virgina's life, how she placed several heavy stones in her pockets and walked into the river Ouse near her home and drowned herself in the early 1940s. As recently as last week on Garrison Keilior's "Writer's Almanack" on NPR on the anniversary of her birth this event was mentioned again as if it was the only thing she ever did of interest.But Virginia did not take her life easily. She had survived some horrific events including the death of her beloved brother Thoby--her closest sibling, and the deaths of many other loved persons during WWI, as well as the death of Lytton Strachey her best friend. Moreover, at the time of her death, her London home in Bloomsbury had been bombed and Hitler was threatening to invade England. Virginia's husband Leonard was Jewish and they were both aware of what Hitler was doing to the Jews. The most wonderful aspect of Bell's book is that he tells the complete story of Virgina's life--how she coped with sorrow and used her life experiences to frame her art. She was probably the most original writer of the 20th Century, and much of the glory that went to James Joyce should have gone to her. At the very least, she was his equal. She wrote in a 'stream of consciousness subjective voice' before James, but she wrote in an era when women writers found it difficult to become published. In fact, Virginia and Leonard started their own publishing press to deal with this deficiency. Even so, Virginia's work remained relatively obscure until it was "discovered" during the women's movement of the 1960's. This is an illuminating, sad, and reflective book written by a man who knew and loved her. If you want to know more about Virginia Wolfe this is the place to begin.

A Most Interesting Perspective

An amazing and unique look at the life of Virginia Woolf, through the thoughts and studies of her own nephew--Quentin Bell. Filled with history, quotes, parts of letters and diary entries, this makes a wonderful and educational read. A peek into the society of Bloomsbury and beyond. This biography follows Virginia and all who were close to her through turbulent times and the happiness and stress of new households.