Virginia Woolf - Hardcover

King, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393037487 ISBN 13: 9780393037487

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1995

Synopsis

Exploring the relationship between Virginia Woolf's troubled life and her writing, a biography reveals her struggle with depression, use of writing to capture the joy of existence, and paradoxical focus on subjects she knew best--destruction, death, and fragility.

About this title

About the Author:

James King is professor of English at McMaster University.

From Booklist:

A life is open to any number of interpretations, especially the life of a writer as revolutionary as Virginia Woolf. King, an exemplary literary biographer of such complex individuals as William Blake, sets out to explore Woolf's "inner landscape" and the relationship between her unusual, often painful life and her creative and tremendously influential writings. He accomplishes these goals with unfailing sensitivity, acumen, respect, and candor. King guides us through the maze of Woolf's traumatic youth, which was punctuated by her mother's death, her father's moods, sexual abuse, and an overly intimate relationship with her sister Vanessa. King convincingly links these experiences to Woolf's ambivalent sexuality, strong feminist viewpoint, bouts with debilitating depression, and determination to write a wholly new type of novel. King sorts through the tangled liaisons of the competitive and lusty Bloomsbury crowd, including Woolf's infatuations and rivalries with women, and describes her difficult but ultimately nurturing marriage. Woolf's life has never been so thoroughly chronicled. Not only will King's discerning biography satisfy the most ardent Woolf aficionado, but it will also provide an excellent foundation for first-time readers of Woolf's celebrated letters, diaries, essays, and incomparable novels. Donna Seaman

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0393037487
• ISBN 13: 9780393037487
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 699