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Virginia Woolf (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) would seem to be the ideal subject for the biographer. Though never completely neglected by the reading public, this novelist and essayist has only gained in stature in the years since her death. While much has already been published on this enigmatic personality, continual discoveries of new material more than justify Hermione Lee’s book.

What Lee’s research reveals is a woman of staggering intellect and energy, but one who resists labels. Long the darling of feminists because of such essays as A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN (1929), she was no mere mouthpiece for the movement. Though she was probably more attracted sexually to women than men, she distinguished herself from lesbians (whom she called “Sapphists”) and was very close to Leonard Woolf, her husband of twenty-eight years. Even her designation as a modernist is somewhat simplistic: she never made the radical innovations in language in structure that were effected by fellow novelist James Joyce.

Lee’s book clarifies these points and, in so doing, brings the reader far closer to the living woman than any previous biographer. Moreover, Lee has clearly succeeded in creating a balanced portrait of this brilliant writer. She documents the probable sexual abuse that her subject received in childhood, but she refrains from portraying Woolf as being only a victim. Lee describes Woolf’s tragic lifelong battle with mental illness (the writer eventually committed suicide), but she also acknowledges the toll this took on her loved ones. Most important of all, Lee’s book shows the complicated relationship between Woolf’s life and her writing. While it is true that the latter repudiated her father (the biographer Leslie Stephen) and Victorian culture, she utilized both in her writing. Lee creates an engrossing portrait of this willful, vulnerable artist.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. XCIII, May 1, 1997, p. 1474.

The Economist. CCCXLI, December 7, 1996, p. 12.

London Review of Books. XIX, January 23, 1997, p. 3.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. August 3, 1997, p. 4.

The New Leader. LXXX, June 30, 1997, p. 15.

The New Republic. CCXVII, September 29, 1997, p. 33.

The New York Times Book Review. CII, June 8, 1997, p. 13.

The Observer. September 15, 1996, p. 16.

Publishers Weekly. CCXLIV, March 24, 1997, p. 65.

The Spectator. CCLXXVII, November 23, 1996, p. 44.

The Times Literary Supplement. September 20, 1996, p. 28.

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