Virginia Woolf (Adeline Virginia Stephen) was born on January 25, 1882, in London, an English city. She married Leonard Woolf, from whom she inherited her surname and with whom she founded the publishing house Hogarth Press. However, since she was 13 years old, she has had to deal with deep depressions.
The writer, who committed suicide on March 28, 1941, in London, is part of the modernism British. Her texts are characterized by interior monologue and present a feminist character. One of his best-known works is the novel Mrs. Dalloway, in addition to the test A roof of your own.
Know more:William Shakespeare — another important English author
Topics in this article
- 1 - Summary about Virginia Woolf
- 2 - Biography of Virginia Woolf
- 3 - Works by Virginia Woolf
- 4 - Mrs. Dalloway
- 5 - A roof all your own
- 6 - Characteristics of Virginia Woolf's work
- 7 - Legacy and importance of Virginia Woolf
- 8 - Quotes by Virginia Woolf
- 9 - Trivia about Virginia Woolf
Summary about Virginia Woolf
English author Virginia Woolf was born in 1882 and died in 1941.
In addition to being a writer, she has also worked as a volunteer teacher of Hstory and Literature.
Woolf's work is characterized by interior monologue and existential reflections.
The writer is one of the leading names in British modernism.
Mrs. Dalloway is one of Virginia's best-known novels, who also published the feminist essay A roof of your own.
Virginia Woolf biography
Virginia Woolf (Adeline Virginia Stephen) was born on January 25, 1882, in London, England. She was the daughter of Julia Stephen's (1846-1895) second marriage to journalist Leslie Stephen (1832-1904). Like her siblings, she was educated at home by tutors.
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Her house had a library, and her parents were always visited by artists and intellectuals. Thus, the novelist grew up in an environment conducive to arousing her interest in books. She was nine years old when she created a newspaper, which circulated in the family environment: Hyde ParkGateNews.
However, she was sexually abused by a half-brother, according to reports in moments of life. When her mother died in 1895, the writer had her first bout of depression. The author went through another depressive crisis when her father died in 1904. On that occasion, she was supported by Violet Dickinson (1865-1948), with whom she maintained a strong friendship and corresponded since 1902.
Her letters often show a homoerotic content. Through her, Virginia began to publish articles in journals such as The Guardian from 1905. In that year, also she started to work, voluntarily, as a History and Literature teacher at Morley College once a week for three years.
In 1906 Woolf, with her sister and two brothers, traveled to Greece, where Brother Thoby (1880-1906) contracted typhus and died shortly afterwards in London. O marriage to the theorist Leonard Woolf (1880-1969), with whom she maintained a strong friendship, took place in 1912. The couple did not have sexual relations, but had a relationship of companionship and intellectual exchange.
In 1915 Woolf published her first novel: The trip. As early as 1917, Virginia and her husband founded the publishing house Hogarth Press. Later, in 1925, she experienced literary success with the publication of Mrs. Dalloway. That year, she met the poet Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), who became her lover and inspired her to write the novel Orlando.
In the 1930s, Virginia was a highly regarded writer and lecturer. often. However, she was still affected by depression. And she always had the support of her husband. However, the writer committed suicide, on the River Ouse, on March 28, 1941, when the country was suffering from the Second World War.
Works by Virginia Woolf
Romance
The trip (1915)
Night and day (1919)
jaco's room (1922)
Mrs. Dalloway (1925)
to the lighthouse (1927)
Orlando: a biography (1928)
The waves (1931)
Flush: a biography (1933)
The years (1937)
between the acts (1941)
Tales
Monday or Tuesday (1921)
The Haunted House and Other Tales (1944)
Mrs. Dalloway (1973)
The widow and the parrot (1982)
Carlyle's House and Other Sketches (2003)
Biography
Roger Fry: a biography (1940)
Autobiography
Virginia Woolf's Diaries (1897-1941)
moments of life (1976)
See too:
Mrs. Dalloway
The romance Mrs. Dalloway is one of Virginia Woolf's best known. It reports facts and thoughts that occurred in a day in the life of Mrs Clarissa Dalloway, married to Richard Dalloway. The narrator analyzes this character in depth, the fruit of a rich family and created for marriage and home care. As in other works by the author, it is not the facts that matter most, but the inner world of the characters.
Mainly from Mrs Dalloway, whose stream of consciousness reveals her innermost and her concerns. Anyway, The action takes place in London, on a day when Clarissa is busy preparing for a party.. The main action consists of the path that Mrs. Dalloway takes to buy flowers and decorate the atmosphere of the party.
In this way, the thoughts of the protagonist are exposed, but also of another central character, that is, Septimus Warren Smith, a former soldier of the First World War. He faces psychiatric problems caused by war trauma and has the memory and longing for Evans, a friend killed in the war, with whom he was possibly in love.
Upon returning from the flower shop, Clarissa receives a visit from an old boyfriend: Peter Walsh. This reminds Mrs Dalloway of her rebellious friend Sally Seton, with whom she was in love in her youth. But now Clarissa just lives a monotonous life imposed by the social class to which she belongs. and is the mother of the estranged young Elizabeth.
During Clarisa's party, which Peter attends, Lady Bradshaw speaks of the suicide of Septimus, her husband's patient. This touch of reality in the bourgeois party, full of superficial people, is the only connection Mrs. Dalloway has with Septimus, whom she has not met. He was consumed by madness, while she was consumed by normality.
A roof of your own
The text A roof of your own is a feminist essay by Virginia Woolf that exposes the dominant male character and the situation of oppression in which, historically, women are inserted. In this sense, it shows the absence of women in the sociopolitical debate and the importance of their presence in social discussions.
The issue of women's economic independence is also discussed in this article, so that her freedom would depend on it. The woman writer is the main focus of Woolf's reflections, in addition to literature as a whole. For Woolf, a woman needs to have “a roof all her own”, that is, financial independence, to be a writer.
Features of Virginia Woolf's work
Virginia Woolf is a modernist author, and her work has the following characteristics:
female protagonism;
reflection on the social role of women;
autobiographical traits;
social criticism;
fragmentation;
homoeroticism;
ironic and metaphorical character;
gender and identity issues;
analysis of family structure;
everyday elements;
historical review;
psychological analysis;
lyrical language;
interior monologue.
Virginia Woolf's Legacy and Importance
Virginia Woolf, one of the most intelligent women of the 20th century, It has not only literary but also political importance.. In the literary field, the author innovated by creating novels centered on interior monologue and deep existential reflection. Characteristics, in fact, that would later be present in the work of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977).
Politically, she was one of the leading feminists of the 20th century. In addition to her essays, her novels served to reflect on the place occupied by women in society. Currently, she is an important historical character not only for world literature, but also for the feminist movement and LGBTQIA+.
Also know:Clarice Lispector — author whose writing is marked by psychological issues
Virginia Woolf quotes
Next, we are going to read some quotes by Virginia Woolf, taken from her works Orlando, between acts, A roof of your own and to the lighthouse:
“Life is a dream, it is the awakening that kills us.”
“All the secrets of an author's soul, all his experiences, all the qualities of his mind are engraved in his work.”
“There are people who really have gifts, the problem is finding them.”
"It's impossible to think well, love well, sleep well if you haven't eaten."
“Close your libraries with a padlock if you wish, but you will not be able to affix to liberty of conscience neither door nor padlock.”
“A light here requires a shadow there.”
Facts about Virginia Woolf
The book The hours (1998, Pulitzer Prize-winning and also adapted for film), by the American writer Michael Cunningham, performs an intertextual dialogue with the novel Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf.
In 1904, Virginia and her brothers created the Bloomsbury group, which, later, was also made up of artists and intellectuals who frequented the Stephens' house. Interest in the relationship between the members of this group began in the 1960s.
It was through this group, initially located in the Bloomsbury neighborhood, where the Stephens lived, that Virginia met her future husband Leonard Woolf.
The work A roof of your own was considered one of the 100 books of the century by the French newspaper Le Monde.
Virginia Woolf did not appreciate the now classic and famous novel Ulysses, in James Joyce, and refused to publish the work in his publishing house.
By Warley Souza
Literature teacher
