Virginia Woolf Books

"A room of my own", book by Virginia Woolf.

"A Own Room", book by Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf was a British writer who lived during the first half of the XNUMXth century, punctually in the decades of 1910, 1920 and 1930, although some of his works were published posthumously. He is one of the most prominent figures in European modernist literature, on a par with Thomas Mann and James Joyce.

He belonged to the group of avant-garde artists and intellectuals called the Bloomsbury Circle, which also included Roger Fry, Clive Bell, Duncant Grant, Bertrand Russell and Vanessa Bell, the writer’s sister. She was also the founder, together with her husband Leonard Woolf, of the Hogarth Press publishing house.

Virginia Woolf's trends

He wrote mainly novels, short stories and essays. His works are characterized by breaking the traditional narrative line (presentation of characters - middle - ending) and focus on the internal life of his characters, whom he shows through interior monologues and everyday events.

She is also an emblematic figure of the feminist movement of the 1970s, when her work was revalued.  In fact, her books are among the best feminist works. This relevance within feminism is mainly due to her essay A room of your own, in which it raises the difficulties that writers faced in their time due to their status as women.

Biography

Adeline Virginia Stephen was born in Kensington, London, on January 25, 1882. She was the daughter of Leslie Stephen, also a writer, and Julia Prinsep Jackson, who used to model for Pre-Raphaelite painters. She grew up surrounded by books and works of art. She did not formally attend educational institutions, but was home-schooled by her parents and private tutors.

From her youth, she was prone to depressive episodes and showed symptoms associated with personality disorders. Although these circumstances did not diminish her intellectual abilities, they did cause her health problems and eventually led to suicide in 1941.

After the death of his parents, he went to live with his brothers Adrián and Vanessa at the latter's home on Bloomsbury Street.. There he established relationships with various writers, artists and critics, who made up the famous Bloomsbury Circle. This group was made up of personalities from different branches of knowledge and the arts. They had in common the criticism (often satirical) that they showed in their work towards Puritanism and Victorian aesthetic values.

In this environment, she met the prominent editor and writer Leonard Woolf, whom she married in 1912, when Virginia was 30 years old.. In 1917 they founded the Hogarth Press together, which would become one of the largest in London at the time. They published the work of Virginia and Leonard there, as well as that of other notable writers of the time such as Sigmund Freud, Katherine Mansfield, TS Elliot, Laurens van der Post, and translations of Russian literature.

Quote by Virginia Woolf.

Quote by Virginia Woolf.

During the 1920s he had a romantic relationship with the writer Victoria Sackville-West, to whom he dedicated his novel Orlando. This fact did not cause the breakdown of their marriage, as both they and their colleagues were against the sexual exclusivity and severity of the Victorian era.

In 1941 he suffered a prolonged depressive episode, which was aggravated by the ruin of his house during the bombings of World War II and for other reasons. On March 28 of that year he committed suicide by drowning in the River Ouse. His remains rest in Sussex, under a tree.

Works

His published novels are:

  • End of trip (1915)
  • Night and day (1919)
  • Jacob's room (1922)
  • Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
  • To the lighthouse (1927)
  • Orlando (1928)
  • Waves (1931)
  • Flush (1933)
  • The years (1937)
  • Between acts (1941)

His numerous short stories have been published in different compilations. These include: Kew Gardens (1919) Monday or Tuesday (1921) The New Dress (1924) A Haunted House and Other Short Stories (1944) Mrs. Dalloway's Party (1973) and The Complete Shorter Fiction (1985)

He also published a biography of his colleague Roger Fry in 1940 and numerous essays and non-fiction texts., among which stand out: Modern fiction (1919) The common reader (1925) A room of your own (1929) London (1931) Death of the moth and other writings (1942) Women and literature (1979) and many others. At the moment you can get his complete works for free download.

Virginia Woolf featured books

Mrs. Dalloway

Mrs. Dalloway is the first of Virginia Woolf's novels to achieve widespread critical acclaim and the general public after its publication in 1925, to the point of being considered a classic of XNUMXth century literature.

It narrates a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a London society lady, wife of a deputy. Although the main character's life is banal and nothing historically transcendent occurs throughout the story, the richness of this work lies in the fact that it is narrated from the thoughts and perceptions of the characters, which turns a common story into something ethereal , both close to the reader and universal.

En Mrs. Dalloway there is room for fantasy, celebrations and tragedy from the everyday. As narrated from thoughts, it takes place at various times and offers an impression of the life of the London upper class after the First World War. His own images of poetry and his novel narrative place him on a similar line to Ulises by James Joyce.

Orlando

Orlando: a biography, is a novel that recounts the misadventures and travels of Orlando, an English aristocrat, who lives from the Elizabethan period to the XNUMXth century. During this time, he went from being a prolific courtly writer to being an ambassador in Turkey, where one morning he woke up as a woman. The fact of being a woman brings many difficulties when trying to acquire properties, and as the centuries go by it leads to many other obstacles and denials.

Orlando it is a parody of the great biographies of historical figures. It is loaded with references to classical literature, particularly Shakespeare and deals with controversial issues at the time such as homosexuality and gender roles.

Art about Virginia Woolf on a wall.

Art about Virginia Woolf on a wall.

Waves

Published in 1931, after Mrs. dalloway y To the lighthouse, complete, along with these two, Virginia Woolf's trilogy of experimental novels. By many critics it is considered his most complex work.

The novel tells the story of six friends (Rhoda, Bernard, Louis, Susan, Jinny, and Neville) through their own voices. The characters reveal their lives, dreams, fears, and thoughts through monologues. But these are not traditional monologues in the style of the theater, but thoughts and ideas that connect and give the reader little by little a picture of the inner world of each character.

As Mrs. Dalloway It is an essential novel to know and study the European avant-garde narrative, and XNUMXth century literature in general.


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