63-512: Adeline Virginia Woolf ( / w ʊ l f / ; née Stephen ; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer. She is considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors. She pioneered the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born into an affluent household in South Kensington , London. She was the seventh child of Julia Prinsep Jackson and Leslie Stephen in
126-577: A man's surname at birth that has subsequently been replaced or changed. The diacritic mark (the acute accent ) over the e is considered significant to its spelling, and ultimately its meaning, but is sometimes omitted. According to Oxford University 's Dictionary of Modern English Usage , the terms are typically placed after the current surname (e.g., " Margaret Thatcher , née Roberts" or " Bill Clinton , né Blythe"). Since they are terms adopted into English (from French), they do not have to be italicized , but they often are. In Polish tradition ,
189-536: A blended family of eight that included the modernist painter Vanessa Bell . She was home-schooled in English classics and Victorian literature from a young age. From 1897 to 1901, she attended the Ladies' Department of King's College London . There, she studied classics and history, coming into contact with early reformers of women's higher education and the women's rights movement. After her father's death in 1904,
252-479: A celebrated photographer, and Lady Henry Somerset , a campaigner for women's rights. Virginia was named after her aunt Adeline, but because of her aunt's recent death the family decided not to use her first name. Both of the Stephens had children from previous marriages. Julia, from her marriage to barrister Herbert Duckworth , had George , Stella, and Gerald ; Leslie had Laura from a marriage to Minny Thackeray,
315-725: A circle of young men, including Clive Bell , Lytton Strachey , Leonard Woolf (whom Virginia would later marry), and Saxon Sydney-Turner , to whom he would introduce his sisters at the Trinity May Ball in 1900. These men formed a reading group they named the Midnight Society, which the Stephen sisters would later be invited to. After their father's death, Vanessa and Adrian decided to sell 22 Hyde Park Gate in South Kensington and move to Bloomsbury . This
378-433: A daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray . Both former spouses had died suddenly, Duckworth of an abscess and Minny Stephen in childbirth. Leslie and Julia Stephen had four children together: Vanessa , Thoby , Virginia, and Adrian . Virginia lived at 22 Hyde Park Gate until her father's death in 1904. She was, as she described it, "born into a large connection, born not of rich parents, but of well-to-do parents, born into
441-649: A depression similar to one which she had earlier experienced. The onset of the Second World War, the destruction of her London home during the Blitz , and the cool reception given to her biography of her late friend Roger Fry all worsened her condition until she was unable to work. When Leonard enlisted in the Home Guard , Virginia disapproved. She held fast to her pacifism and criticised her husband for wearing what she considered to be "the silly uniform of
504-522: A joint lease on it. Located at the end of a tree-lined road, the house was in a Regency-Gothic style, "flat, pale, serene, yellow-washed", remote, without electricity or water and allegedly haunted. The sisters had two housewarming parties in January 1912. Virginia recorded the events of the weekends and holidays she spent there in her Asham Diary , part of which was later published as A Writer's Diary in 1953. In terms of creative writing, The Voyage Out
567-640: A large white house in St Ives, Cornwall . The family would spend three months each summer there for the first 13 years of Virginia's life. Although the house had limited amenities, its main attraction was the view overlooking Porthminster Bay towards the Godrevy Lighthouse . The happy summers spent at Talland House would later influence Woolf's novels Jacob's Room , To the Lighthouse and The Waves . Both at Hyde Park Gate and Talland House,
630-515: A libertarian society with sexual freedom for all. Virginia appears not to have shown interest in practising the group's free love ideology, finding an outlet for her sexual desires only in writing. Around this time she began work on her first novel, Melymbrosia , which eventually became The Voyage Out (1915). In November 1911 Virginia and Adrian moved to a larger house at 38 Brunswick Square , and invited John Maynard Keynes, Duncan Grant and Leonard Woolf to become lodgers there. Virginia saw it as
693-709: A new opportunity: "We are going to try all kinds of experiments", she told Ottoline Morrell . This arrangement for a single woman living among men was considered scandalous. Several members of the Bloomsbury Group attained notoriety in 1910 with the Dreadnought hoax , in which they posed as a royal Abyssinian entourage (with Virginia as "Prince Mendax") and received a tour of the HMS Dreadnought by Virginia's cousin Commander Fisher , who
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#1732764924478756-420: A number of other inexpensive weeklies to ape its format, some short-lived and others, such as Answers becoming major successes in their own right. Within the first six months of its existence, Tit-Bits had inspired twelve imitators, growing to 26 within a year of its debut. Examples of papers said to be imitators include: In All Things Considered by G. K. Chesterton , the author contrasts Tit-Bits with
819-563: A quiet country retreat close to London, for the sake of her still-fragile mental health. In the winter of 1910 she and Adrian stayed at Lewes and started exploring the area of Sussex around the town. She soon found a property in nearby Firle , which she named "Little Talland House"; she maintained a relationship with that area for the rest of her life, tending to spend her time either in Sussex or London. In September 1911 she and Leonard Woolf found Asham House nearby, and Virginia and Vanessa took
882-543: A standpoint of pacifism and anti-censorship. Leonard was exempted from the introduction of conscription in 1916 on medical grounds. The Woolfs employed two servants at the recommendation of Roger Fry in 1916; Lottie Hope worked for a number of other Bloomsbury Group members, and Nellie Boxall would stay with them until 1934. The Woolfs spent parts of the period of the First World War in Asham, but were obliged by
945-536: A tenant in December of that year. Leonard proposed to Virginia on 11 January 1912. Initially she expressed reluctance, but the two continued courting. Leonard decided not to return to Ceylon and resigned his post. On 29 May Virginia declared her love for Leonard, and they married on 10 August at St Pancras Town Hall . The couple spent their honeymoon first at Asham and the Quantock Hills before travelling to
1008-404: A very communicative, literate, letter writing, visiting, articulate, late nineteenth century world." The house was described as dimly-lit, crowded with furniture and paintings. Within it, the younger Stephens made a close-knit group. Virginia showed an early affinity for writing. By the age of five she was writing letters. A fascination with books helped form a bond between her and her father. From
1071-618: A view across the Ouse towards the hills of the South Downs . Leonard Woolf describes this view as being unchanged since the days of Chaucer . The Woolfs would retain Monk's House until the end of Virginia's life; it became their permanent home after their London home was bombed, and it was where she completed Between the Acts in early 1941, which was followed by her final breakdown and suicide in
1134-518: A young age. There is speculation that this contributed to her mental health issues later in life. There are also suggestions of sexual impropriety from George Duckworth during the period that he was caring for the Stephen sisters. Julia Stephen fell ill with influenza in February 1895, and never properly recovered, dying on 5 May, when Virginia was only 13. This precipitated what Virginia later identified as her first "breakdown"—for months afterwards she
1197-416: Is the feminine past participle of naître , which means "to be born". Né is the masculine form. The term née , having feminine grammatical gender , can be used to denote a woman's surname at birth that has been replaced or changed. In most English-speaking cultures, it is specifically applied to a woman's maiden name after her surname has changed due to marriage. The term né can be used to denote
1260-570: The National Review , capitalising on her father's literary reputation in order to earn commissions. Vanessa added another event to their calendar with the "Friday Club", dedicated to the discussion of the fine arts. This introduced some new people into their circle, including Vanessa's friends from the Royal Academy of Arts and Slade School of Fine Art (where she had been studying), such as Henry Lamb and Gwen Darwin , and also
1323-549: The Bloomsbury Group . Later, it would include John Maynard Keynes , Duncan Grant , E. M. Forster , Roger Fry , Leonard Woolf, and David Garnett . Virginia began teaching evening classes on a voluntary basis at Morley College , and would continue intermittently for the next two years. This work would later influence themes of class and education in her novel Mrs Dalloway . She made some money from reviews, including some published in church paper The Guardian and
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#17327649244781386-498: The Cambridge Apostles , an elite university debating society that a number of them had been members of. These rules emphasised candour and openness. Among the 125 memoirs presented, Virginia contributed three that were published posthumously in 1976, in the autobiographical anthology Moments of Being . These were 22 Hyde Park Gate (1921), Old Bloomsbury (1922) and Am I a Snob? (1936). On 14 December 1922 Woolf met
1449-623: The Times , saying: "Let any honest reader... ask himself whether he would really rather be asked in the next two hours to write the front page of The Times , which is full of long leading articles, or the front page of Tit-Bits , which is full of short jokes." Reference to the magazine is also made in James Joyce 's Ulysses , George Orwell 's Animal Farm , C. P. Snow 's The Affair , James Hilton 's Lost Horizon , Virginia Woolf 's Moments of Being , H. G. Wells ' The First Men in
1512-465: The Home Guard". After the Second World War began, Woolf's diary indicates that she was obsessed with death, which figured more and more as her mood darkened. On 28 March 1941, Woolf drowned herself by walking into the fast-flowing River Ouse near her home, after placing a large stone in her pocket. Her body was not found until 18 April. Her husband buried her cremated remains beneath an elm tree in
1575-659: The Moon and Kipps , A. J. Cronin 's The Stars Look Down and P. G. Wodehouse 's Not George Washington . It has been also mentioned in Stanley Houghton 's play The Dear Departed . Wells also mentioned it in his book Experiment in Autobiography . The magazine is parodied as "Chit Chat" in George Gissing 's New Grub Street . In the closing scene of the film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949),
1638-507: The Stephen family moved from Kensington to the more bohemian Bloomsbury , where, in conjunction with the brothers' intellectual friends, they formed the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group . In 1912, she married Leonard Woolf , and in 1917, the couple founded the Hogarth Press , which published much of her work. They rented a home in Sussex and permanently settled there in 1940. Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. During
1701-443: The Stephens began to entertain their brother Thoby's intellectual friends at Gordon Square. The circle, who were largely members of the Cambridge Apostles , included Saxon Sydney-Turner , Lytton Strachey , Clive Bell and Desmond MacCarthy . Their social gatherings, referred to as "Thursday evenings", were a vision of recreating Trinity College. This circle formed the nucleus of the intellectual circle of writers and artists known as
1764-810: The Strand. From the outset, the magazine was a mass-circulation commercial publication on cheap newsprint which soon reached sales of between 400,000 and 600,000. By the turn of the century, it became the first periodical in Britain to sell over one million copies per issue. Like a mini-encyclopedia it presented a diverse range of tit-bits of information in an easy-to-read format, with the emphasis on human interest stories concentrating on drama and sensation. It also featured short stories and full-length fiction, including works by authors such as Rider Haggard and Isaac Asimov , plus three very early stories by Christopher Priest . Virginia Woolf submitted her first article to
1827-732: The Woolfs returned to Bloomsbury, taking out a ten-year lease at 52 Tavistock Square , from where they ran the Hogarth Press from the basement, where Virginia also had her writing room. 1925 saw the publication of Mrs Dalloway in May followed by her collapse while at Charleston in August. In 1927, her next novel, To the Lighthouse , was published, and the following year she lectured on Women & Fiction at Cambridge University and published Orlando in October. Her two Cambridge lectures then became
1890-502: The age of 10, with her sister Vanessa, she began an illustrated family newspaper, the Hyde Park Gate News , chronicling life and events within the Stephen family, and modelled on the popular magazine Tit-Bits . Virginia would run the Hyde Park Gate News until 1895, a few weeks before her mother's death. In 1897 Virginia began her first diary, which she kept for the next twelve years. In the spring of 1882, Leslie rented
1953-648: The area had been populated by artists since the previous century. Duncan Grant lived there, and Roger Fry would move there in 1913. Virginia resented the wealth that Vanessa's marriage had given her; Virginia and Adrian lived more humbly by comparison. The siblings resumed the Thursday Club at their new home, while Gordon Square became the venue for a play-reading society. During this period, the group began to increasingly explore progressive ideas, with open discussions of members' homosexual inclinations, and nude dancing from Vanessa, who in 1910 went so far as to propose
Virginia Woolf - Misplaced Pages Continue
2016-550: The basis for her major essay A Room of One's Own in 1929. Virginia wrote only one drama, Freshwater , based on her great-aunt Julia Margaret Cameron , and produced at her sister's studio on Fitzroy Street in 1935. 1936 saw the publication of The Years , which had its origin in a lecture Woolf gave to the National Society for Women's Service in 1931, an edited version of which would later be published as "Professions for Women". Another collapse of her health followed
2079-460: The beginning of 1973, Tit-Bits lost the hyphen from its masthead. In 1979 Reveille (a weekly tabloid with a virtually identical demographic) was merged into Titbits , and the magazine was briefly rebranded as Titbits incorporating Reveille . This, however, was dropped in July 1981. Following a wage dispute at owner IPC Magazines , publication ceased on 9 June 1984 and its closure was announced at
2142-495: The central subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism . Her works, translated into more than 50 languages, have attracted attention and widespread commentary for inspiring feminism. A large body of writing is dedicated to her life and work. She has been the subject of plays, novels, and films. Woolf is commemorated by statues, societies dedicated to her work, and a building at the University of London . Virginia Woolf
2205-468: The eighteen-year-old Katherine Laird ("Ka") Cox , who was about to attend Newnham College, Cambridge . Cox would become Virginia's intimate friend. These new members brought the Bloomsbury Group into contact with another, slightly younger, group of Cambridge intellectuals who Virginia would refer to as the "Neo-Pagans". The Friday Club continued until 1912 or 1913. In the autumn of 1906 the siblings travelled to Greece and Turkey with Violet Dickinson. During
2268-472: The end of June. At the time, Titbits was selling only 200,000 copies per issue. A final issue was published on 18 July 1984 under its last editor Paul Hopkins. It was taken over by Associated Newspapers ' Weekend . At the time, the Financial Times described Titbits as "the 103-year-old progenitor of Britain's popular press". Weekend itself closed in 1989. The success of Tit-Bits inspired
2331-530: The family socialised with much of the country's literary and artistic circles. Frequent guests included literary figures such as Henry James and George Meredith , as well as James Russell Lowell . The family did not return after 1894; a hotel was constructed in front of the house which blocked the sea view, and Julia Stephen died in May the following year. In the 1939 essay "A Sketch of the Past" Woolf first wrote about experiencing sexual abuse by Gerald Duckworth at
2394-517: The garden of Monk's House , their home in Rodmell , Sussex. In her suicide note, addressed to her husband, she wrote: Birth name#Maiden and married names A birth name is the name given to a person upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname , the given name , or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth register may by that fact alone become
2457-444: The inter-war period, Woolf was an important part of London's literary and artistic society. In 1915, she published her first novel, The Voyage Out , through her half-brother's publishing house, Gerald Duckworth and Company . Her best-known works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928). She is also known for her essays, such as A Room of One's Own (1929). Woolf became one of
2520-480: The literary canon. This resulted in a greater depth of reading than any of her Cambridge contemporaries. Later, Virginia recalled: Even today there may be parents who would doubt the wisdom of allowing a girl of fifteen the free run of a large and quite unexpurgated library. But my father allowed it. There were certain facts – very briefly, very shyly he referred to them. Yet "Read what you like", he said, and all his books...were to be had without asking. Another source
2583-547: The magazine's headquarters moved from Manchester to London where it paved the way for popular journalism – most significantly, the Daily Mail was founded by Alfred Harmsworth , a contributor to Tit-Bits , and the Daily Express was launched by Arthur Pearson , who worked at Tit-Bits for five years after winning a competition to get a job on the magazine. Their first offices were at 12 Burleigh Street, off
Virginia Woolf - Misplaced Pages Continue
2646-526: The nearby River Ouse on 28 March. 1920 saw a postwar reconstitution of the Bloomsbury Group, under the title of the Memoir Club , which as the name suggests focussed on self-writing, in the manner of Proust 's A La Recherche , and inspired some of the more influential books of the 20th century. The Group, which had been scattered by the war, was reconvened by Mary ('Molly') MacCarthy who called them "Bloomsberries", and operated under rules derived from
2709-528: The novel's completion The Years . The Woolf's final residence in London was at 37 Mecklenburgh Square (1939–1940), destroyed during the Blitz in September 1940; a month later their previous home on Tavistock Square was also destroyed. After that, they made Sussex their permanent home. After completing the manuscript of her last novel (posthumously published), Between the Acts (1941), Woolf fell into
2772-571: The owner to leave in 1919. "In despair" they purchased the Round House in Lewes, a converted windmill, for £300. No sooner had they bought the Round House, than Monk's House in nearby Rodmell came up for auction, a weatherboarded house with oak-beamed rooms, said to date from the 15th or 16th century. The Woolfs sold the Round House and purchased Monk's House for £700. Monk's House also lacked running water, but came with an acre of garden, and had
2835-726: The paper in 1890, at the age of eight, but it was turned down. The first humorous article by P. G. Wodehouse , "Men Who Missed Their Own Weddings", appeared in Tit-Bits in November 1900. During the First World War Ivor Novello won a Titbits competition to write a song soldiers could sing at the front: he penned Keep the Home Fires Burning . Pin-ups appeared on the magazine's covers from 1939, and by 1955, circulation peaked at 1,150,000. At
2898-415: The period of 1897–1904 as "the seven unhappy years." As was common at the time, Julia Stephen did not believe in formal education for her daughters. Virginia was educated in a piecemeal fashion by her parents: Julia taught her Latin, French, and history, while Leslie taught her mathematics. She also received piano lessons. She also had unrestricted access to her father's vast library, exposing her to much of
2961-560: The person's legal name . The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (or perhaps from baptism or brit milah ) will persist to adulthood in the normal course of affairs—either throughout life or until marriage. Some reasons for changes of a person's name include middle names , diminutive forms, changes relating to parental status (due to one's parents' divorce or adoption by different parents), and gender transition . The French and English-adopted née
3024-420: The process of reading and correcting the proofs extremely emotionally difficult. This led to one of several breakdowns over the subsequent two years; Woolf attempted suicide on 9 September 1913 with an overdose of Veronal , being saved with the help of Maynard Keynes' surgeon brother Geoffrey Keynes who drove Leonard to St Bartholomew's Hospital to fetch a stomach pump. Woolf's illness led to Duckworth delaying
3087-485: The publication of The Voyage Out until 26 March 1915. In the autumn of 1914 the couple moved to a house on Richmond Green , and in late March 1915 they moved to Hogarth House, also in Richmond , after which they named their publishing house in 1917. The decision to move to London's suburbs was made for the sake of Woolf's health. Many of Woolf's circle of friends were against the war, and Woolf herself opposed it from
3150-402: The sources of my joy". While at Asham, in 1916 Leonard and Virginia found a farmhouse to let about four miles away, which they thought would be ideal for her sister. Eventually, Vanessa came down to inspect it, and took possession in October of that year, as a summer home for her family. The Charleston Farmhouse was to become the summer gathering place for the Bloomsbury Group. Leonard Woolf
3213-460: The south of France and on to Spain and Italy. On their return they moved to Clifford's Inn , and began to divide their time between London and Asham. Virginia Woolf had completed a penultimate draft of her first novel The Voyage Out before her wedding, but undertook large-scale alterations to the manuscript between December 1912 and March 1913. The work was subsequently accepted by her half-brother Gerald Duckworth's publishing house, and she found
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#17327649244783276-536: The term z domu (literally meaning "of the house", de domo in Latin ) may be used, with rare exceptions, meaning the same as née . Tit-Bits Tit-Bits from all the interesting Books and Newspapers of the World , more commonly known as Tit-Bits and from 1973 as Titbits , was a British weekly magazine founded by George Newnes , a founding figure in popular journalism, on 22 October 1881. In 1886,
3339-533: The trip Vanessa fell ill with appendicitis . Both Violet and Thoby contracted typhoid fever ; Thoby died on 20 November. Two days after Thoby's death, Vanessa accepted a previous proposal of marriage from Clive Bell. As a couple, their interest in avant-garde art would have an important influence on Woolf's further development as an author. After Vanessa's marriage, Virginia and Adrian moved into 29 Fitzroy Square , still very close to Gordon Square. The house had previously been occupied by George Bernard Shaw , and
3402-512: The writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West , wife of Harold Nicolson . This period was to prove fruitful for both authors, Woolf producing three novels, To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928), and The Waves (1931) as well as a number of essays, including " Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown " (1924) and " A Letter to a Young Poet " (1932). The two women remained friends until Woolf's death in 1941. Virginia Woolf also remained close to her surviving siblings, Adrian and Vanessa. Between 1924 and 1940
3465-453: Was Clara Pater , and another was Janet Case , with whom she formed a lasting friendship and who involved her in the suffrage movement . Virginia also attended a number of lectures at the King's College Ladies' Department. Although Virginia could not attend Cambridge, she was to be profoundly influenced by her brother Thoby's experiences there. When Thoby went to Trinity in 1899, he befriended
3528-484: Was a much cheaper area—they had not inherited much and were unsure about their finances. The Duckworth brothers did not join the Stephens in their new home; Gerald did not wish to, and George got married during the preparations, leaving to live with his new wife. Virginia lived in the house for brief periods in the autumn – she was sent away to Cambridge and Yorkshire for her health – and settled there permanently in December 1904. From March 1905
3591-437: Was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on 25 January 1882 at 22 Hyde Park Gate in South Kensington , London, to Julia (née Jackson) and Sir Leslie Stephen . Her father was a writer, historian, essayist, biographer, and mountaineer, described by Helena Swanwick as a "gaunt figure with a ragged red brown beard ... a formidable man." Her mother was a noted philanthropist, and her side of the family contained Julia Margaret Cameron ,
3654-453: Was completed there, and much of Night and Day . The house itself inspired the short story "A Haunted House", published in A Haunted House and Other Short Stories . Asham provided Woolf with much-needed relief from the pace of London life, and was where she found a happiness that she expressed in her diary on 5 May 1919: "Oh, but how happy we've been at Asheham! It was a most melodious time. Everything went so freely; – but I can't analyse all
3717-493: Was nervous and agitated, and she wrote very little for the subsequent two years. Stella Duckworth took on a parental role. She married in April 1897, but moved to a house very close to the Stephens to continue to support the family. However, she fell ill on honeymoon and died on 19 July 1897. Subsequently George Duckworth took it upon himself to act as the head of the household, and bring Vanessa and Virginia out into society . This
3780-607: Was not a rite of passage that resonated with either girl; Virginia's view was that "Society in those days was a very competent, perfectly complacent, ruthless machine. A girl had no chance against its fangs. No other desires—say to paint, or to write—could be taken seriously." Her priority was her writing; she began a new diary at the start of 1897 and filled notebooks with fragments and literary sketches. Leslie Stephen died in February 1904, which caused Virginia to suffer another period of mental instability from April to September, and led to at least one suicide attempt. Woolf later described
3843-603: Was not aware of the joke. Horace de Vere Cole , who had been one of the masterminds of the hoax along with Adrian, later leaked the story to the press and informed the Foreign Office, leading to general outrage from the establishment. During the latter Bloomsbury years Virginia travelled frequently with friends and family, to Dorset and Cornwall as well as further afield to Paris, Italy and Bayreuth. These trips were intended to avoid her suffering exhaustion from extended periods in London. The question arose of Virginia needing
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#17327649244783906-699: Was one of Thoby Stephen's friends at Trinity College, Cambridge, and had encountered the Stephen sisters in Thoby's rooms while visiting for May Week between 1899 and 1904. He recalled that in "white dresses and large hats, with parasols in their hands, their beauty literally took one's breath away". In 1904 Leonard Woolf left Britain for a civil service position in Ceylon , but returned for a year's leave in 1911 after letters from Lytton Strachey describing Virginia's beauty enticed him back. He and Virginia attended social engagements together, and he moved into Brunswick Square as
3969-487: Was the conversation of their father's friends, to whom she was exposed. Leslie Stephen described his circle as "most of the literary people of mark...clever young writers and barristers, chiefly of the radical persuasion...we used to meet on Wednesday and Sunday evenings, to smoke and drink and discuss the universe and the reform movement". From 1897 Virginia received private tuition in Latin and Ancient Greek. One of her tutors
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