Viviane Forrester
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231153560
- eISBN:
- 9780231535120
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231153560.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This portrait sheds new light on Virginia Woolf's relationships with her family and friends and how they shaped her work. The book draws on revelations about Woolf that often remain buried and ...
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This portrait sheds new light on Virginia Woolf's relationships with her family and friends and how they shaped her work. The book draws on revelations about Woolf that often remain buried and carefully applies them to a narrative of her development and influence. The book blends recently unearthed documents, key primary sources, and personal interviews with Woolf's relatives and other acquaintances to render in unmatched detail Woolf's complicated relationship with her husband, Leonard; her father, Leslie Stephen; and her half-sister, Vanessa Bell. The text connects these figures to Woolf's mental breakdown while introducing the concept of “Virginia seule,” or Virginia alone: an uncommon paragon of female strength and conviction. This biography inhabits her characters and vivifies their perspective, weaving a colorful, intense drama that forces readers to rethink their understanding of Woolf and her world.Less
This portrait sheds new light on Virginia Woolf's relationships with her family and friends and how they shaped her work. The book draws on revelations about Woolf that often remain buried and carefully applies them to a narrative of her development and influence. The book blends recently unearthed documents, key primary sources, and personal interviews with Woolf's relatives and other acquaintances to render in unmatched detail Woolf's complicated relationship with her husband, Leonard; her father, Leslie Stephen; and her half-sister, Vanessa Bell. The text connects these figures to Woolf's mental breakdown while introducing the concept of “Virginia seule,” or Virginia alone: an uncommon paragon of female strength and conviction. This biography inhabits her characters and vivifies their perspective, weaving a colorful, intense drama that forces readers to rethink their understanding of Woolf and her world.
