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    Biography of Virginia Woolf - Docx Final

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    Virginia Woolf was a renowned English writer born in 1882 to a privileged family. She grew up in a literary household but suffered trauma from the deaths of family members and sexual abuse. Woolf began writing professionally in 1900 and published her first novel in 1915. Some of her most famous works include Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One's Own. She struggled with mental illness throughout her life and ultimately died by suicide in 1941.

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    Biography of Virginia Woolf - Docx Final

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    Tresha Gabaino
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    Virginia Woolf was a renowned English writer born in 1882 to a privileged family. She grew up in a literary household but suffered trauma from the deaths of family members and sexual abuse. Woolf began writing professionally in 1900 and published her first novel in 1915. Some of her most famous works include Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One's Own. She struggled with mental illness throughout her life and ultimately died by suicide in 1941.

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    Virginia Woolf was a renowned English writer born in 1882 to a privileged family. She grew up in a literary household but suffered trauma from the deaths of family members and sexual abuse. Woolf began writing professionally in 1900 and published her first novel in 1915. Some of her most famous works include Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One's Own. She struggled with mental illness throughout her life and ultimately died by suicide in 1941.

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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    373 views2 pages

    Biography of Virginia Woolf - Docx Final

    Uploaded by

    Tresha Gabaino
    Virginia Woolf was a renowned English writer born in 1882 to a privileged family. She grew up in a literary household but suffered trauma from the deaths of family members and sexual abuse. Woolf began writing professionally in 1900 and published her first novel in 1915. Some of her most famous works include Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One's Own. She struggled with mental illness throughout her life and ultimately died by suicide in 1941.

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    of 2

    Marah C.

    Cedillo
    MAED-English
    Educ 224

    Biography of Virginia Woolf

    Childhood & Early Life


     Virginia Woolf was born as Adeline Virginia
    Stephen into a privileged English family on 25
    January 1882. Her parents, Sir Leslie Stephen, an
    editor and a critic, and Julia Prinsep Stephen, a
    photographer, were quite freethinking people,
    who educated her in their own literate and well-
    connected house.
     Because of her father being an editor himself, and
    having a connection to William Thackeray, she
    grew up in an environment which had the
    influence of the Victorian literary society. There
    was also a library in their house, from which the
    children were taught classics and English
    literature. Her brothers were educated at
    Cambridge and they often used to bring home
    their Cambridge contacts, which further helped in
    her intellectual advancement.
     Her family made summer migrations from their
    London townhouse to the Talland House, which
    was situated on the rugged Cornwall coast. This
    annual relocation helped structure her childhood
    in the terms of opposites, as she experienced city and country, winter and summer, repression and
    freedom, etc.
     Her mother passed away in 1895, followed by her sister two years later, which left her in a state of
    shock. She also lost her father in 1904, which led to her losing her mental stability. It was revealed later,
    that she also suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her half-brothers which only further added to her
    trauma.

    Career
     Virginia Woolf had begun writing professionally in 1900. The first of her writings, which was a
    journalistic account of a visit to the Bronte family, was published anonymously in a journal in December
    1904. She started writing for ‘The Times Literary Supplement’ the following year.
     She published her first novel ‘The Voyage Out’ in 1915, though it was originally titled ‘Melymbroisa.’
    The book was mostly about the experiences in her own life. She continued writings novels, self-
    publishing most of them, and slowly she became a famous personality in the Victorian literary society.
     In 1928, Virginia Woolf started taking a grassroots approach to inspiring feminism. She started
    addressing undergraduate women in various colleges. ‘A Room of One’s Own’ and ‘Three Guineas’
    were two of her non-fiction works that discuss the hardships that women writers and intellectuals had to
    go through since it was men who held legal and economic power. She wanted to make people realize the
    effects of industrialization as well as create awareness about birth control too.
     It was during the bombing of London in 1940 and 1941 when she worked on ‘Between the Arts.’ Here,
    she portrayed war as threatening art and humanity itself. Though she raised several questions in this
    work, she later felt that her work was of little significance as England seemed on the verge of invasion
    and civilization about to slide over a cliff. It was such horrors that made her unable to write. She found
    herself haunted by her fears, which led to her killing herself by drowning in 1941. Her work was
    published later that year after her death.
     With the end of the Second World War, her posthumous popularity suffered. However her works gained
    popularity again in the 1970s with the advent of feminist criticism. Despite her fame, she earned
    criticism for being anti-Semitic and for her snobbery—attributes she had herself admitted to in her
    personal diary.

    Major Works
     Her first work ‘The Voyage Out’ was published on 26 March 1915 by her half-brother Duckworth’s
    company. It was written during the periods when she was psychologically vulnerable, and suffered from
    depression.
     In 1981, an alternate version of ‘The Voyage Out’ under its original title of ‘Melymbrosia’ was
    published by Loise DeSalvo, an American writer, editor and professor. DeSalvo claimed that her work
    was an attempt to restore the text of the novel as Virginia Woolf had originally conceived it, and
    contained much more commentary of subjects like homosexuality, women’s issues, and colonialism.
    Since Woolf had been warned by her colleagues that publishing such an outspoken work would affect
    her career, the earlier version had been heavily edited.
     ’To the Lighthouse’ was another one of her important works. It was published in 1927 by the Hogarth
    Press—which she had co-founded with her husband. What’s unique about this novel was that it
    contained little dialogue, and almost no action, as most of it was written as thoughts and observations.
    Childhood emotions were recalled and adult relationships were highlighted. She had begun writing this
    book as a way of understanding as well as dealing with unresolved issues concerning her parents. That is
    why similarities with her life can be seen in the book.
     ’The Waves’ was published in 1931. It was one of her most experimental novels. It consisted of six
    characters, through which Virginia Woolf explores concepts of individuality, self, and community. It is
    difficult to assign a genre to this novel, because of its complexity. Even the term ‘novel’ may not
    describe it in an accurate way because of its complexity. As described in Woolf’s biography, it was less
    of a novel and more of a ‘playpoem.’ The book was translated by Marguerite Yourcenar in 1937.
     'Flush: A Biography’ was published in 1933 by Hogarth Press. The book, which views city life through
    the eyes of a dog, is a harsh criticism of the unnatural ways in which people live in the city. Woolf’s
    emotional and philosophical views are verbalized in this book.

    Awards & Achievements


     Her work ‘To the Lighthouse’ was named No. 15 by the Modern Library in 1998, on its list of the
    100 best English language novels of the 20th century. The ‘TIME’ magazine also chose it as one of
    the best English language novels from 1923 to presentin2005.

    Personal Life & Legacy


     Virginia Stephen married writer Leonard Woolf in 1912. They shared a close bond and a led a
    happy married life, which lasted till her death in 1941. The two also collaborated profe ssionally.
     She was bisexual and believed in exploring her sexuality. She met the writer and gardener Vita
    Sackville in 1922, with whom she had a sexual relationship.
     Because of the trauma she endured in her childhood, she suffered from mental illnesses for most of
    her life. Unable to bear it anymore, she committed suicide by filling her pockets with stones and
    then drowning herself in a river on 28 March 1941. Her body was found on 18 April of the same
    year. Her husband Leonard buried her cremated remains in the garden of their house in Sussex.

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