Virginia Woolf (British Library Writers' Lives Series) - Hardcover

Webb, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195215591 ISBN 13: 9780195215595

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000

Synopsis

English novelist and essayist Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) remains one of the most fascinating and enigmatic writers of this century. The daughter of Leslie Stephen, editor of Oxford's own Dictionary of National Biography, she was educated privately and married critic and journalist Leonard Woolf. Together they founded the Hogarth Press and were at the center of the Bloomsbury circle, which included Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Vita Sackville-West, and many other notable intellectuals, all of whom appear frequently in the narrative. Webb deftly puts into this context Woolf's large and varied literary output--diaries, letters, journalism, essays, short stories, and novels--as well as her constant battles with mental illness that culminated in her suicide by drowning. Woolf's writing, especially Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, A Room of One's Own, and her diaries, are favorites of high school students and adults of all ages.

About the series:
The British Library is in a unique position when it comes to biographical research, especially concerning British authors. This revered institution boasts the world's largest collection of original manuscripts, as well as an outstanding collection of letters, personal diaries, first editions, and other literary treasures. The titles in this series take full advantage of this vast source of documentary evidence by illustrating each of these lively writers' biographies with state-of-the-art facsimiles of pertinent documents and reproductions of art from the period. Penned by expert biographers, each of these books also contains an index, further reading list, and a chronology of the writer's life.

About this title

About the Author

Ruth Webb, University of London.

Reviews

Grade 10 Up-The highlights of the writer's life and literary career are related in a compact, balanced manner. Webb introduces the political, social, and personal preferences of Woolf's set, the unconventional Bloomsbury Group, with objectivity. Although the workmanlike prose is a bit dry at times, the well-organized information will be useful for reports and the text is enriched by a wealth of diary entries and excerpts from letters. Full-color and black-and-white photos and reproductions of original letters, paintings, and drawings enhance the text. Older readers would do well with Quentin Bell's Virginia Woolf (Harcourt, 1974; o.p.) but Webb's title is attractively packaged and may appeal to a wider range of students.
Starr E. Smith, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195215591
• ISBN 13: 9780195215595
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128