Who's Afraid of Leonard Woolf?: A Case for the Sanity of Virginia Woolf

by Irene Coates

The author reopens the case of Virginia Woolf to expose her first husband, Leonard, as a villain in her life and the reason for her mental breakdown and eventual suicide. Reprint.

Genres: Nonfiction

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Mari · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is no excuse for this trash. Part One; Yup. Virginia was mentally ill. It is as if the writer has no knowledge of mental illness in general, nor or of manic depression in particular. Lets start out by saying that irene is NOT a pioneer. A slew of similar books have been written and debunked with more knowledge of the disease. Then there is the documentation in this book, which is extensive, but doesn't bear any scrutiny. The facts are; That both men and women of Virginia's family suffered from mental illness, mostly manic depression, and several were hospitalized, like half sister Laura Stevens, and brother Thoby. So, its really not going out on a limb that Virginia herself was indeed mentally ill. In view of this the accusations; Like trying to keep Virginia calm when she was in her manic state and getting over excited is prudent and necessary, are a big load. In fact, keeping a manic from being overactive, therby decreasing the chance of severe depressive bout, is the behavioral treatment used today. So could that be why Leonard tried to keep her from talking a hundred miles an hour( which is very typical of the disorder)? Next we have the problem that manic depressives are indeed normal much of the time. This is simply a part of the condition, but it gives people with an agenda the chance to go "see? there is nothing wrong with her!" Uhuh. Not how it works, buddies.
A high proportion of writers, especially in the Romantic era were manic depressives. Lord Byron comes to mind. They likely get their ideas during the unstable periods, and capitalize on them during the stable ones. Irene should at least have read up on the illness. Mania is NOT "uncontrollable rage" as Irene calls it. Not even close. So much for Irene's attempt to prove Virginia was sane. Note: AMONG HER TONS AND TONS OF DOCUMENTATION THERE IS NOT A SINGLE BOOK ON MENTAL ILLNESS OF ANY KIND!!!!
Part two; Attempt to paint Leonard as bad; I think its easy to see that irene has an axe to grind. She perscribes to the school of thought that men are "left brained" rationalists, and women are "right brained" dreamers....why she thinks so is her own BS, all I can say is that its stupid. That gets me to another point; Both Leonard and Virginia are vastly smarter and more subtle then Irene Coats. She is pretty clearly unequal to the task of judging either one. The barrage of opinions like that Leonard was a "strict dsciplinarian" comes from a tongue in cheek letter he wrote about being a captain in his boarding school. Irene clearly takes what is meant to be humorous as serious, and goes on from there to talk about his violent temper, his outbursts, and his misogyny with ZERO justification....except that he had a high turn over of assistants in one job. We have no idea what that even means..."Virginia unlike Leonard was straightforward in all her relationships" HUH? Virginia was mercurial, and anything but straightforward. In fact she was passive aggressive, but never mind..."Virginia became a lesbian with Vita because she was starved of love" Um..became? Virginia never felt attracted to men according to Virginia. Then we have Coates reading FICTION written by Virginia as if it is an autobiography...all adding up to a wishful thinking feminist pile of dung. The last part is especially absurd; Like the idea that Dr. Olivia Wilberforce, a good friend to BOTH of the Woolfs, is cast as a sinister collaborator. The idea that Leonard isolated Virginia, and forced her to scrub floors are all drawn conclusions from sources that are completely out of context, and largely no sources at all.

[Joe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Coates shreds to pieces Leonard Woolf in this work . According to Coates LW was the cause for VW insanity, the reason Virginia eased herself into the Rivier Ouse , that he might have physically helped her. By the time I finished this book I wanted to do the same thing... jump into the River Ouse.

I put this on the shelf to make you aware not all trash is in the dump.

[Therese · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a work of revisionist biography, and suggests that Leonard Woolf's marriage to Virginia Woolf was not the ideal companionship which biographers have claimed. In Irene Coates' view, Leonard Woolf married Virginia for the advantages of her social connections and income, he then ruled her life and always organised everything for his own convenience.

The official view started with early biographies which were based on works by Virginia's own family, and stressed Virginia's great need for Leonard, and the combination of his rational, caring nature with her fragile genius, which thus allowed her to be a great writer. In contrast to this, there has always been some unease about his domineering nature, and the way that he set rules around Virginia - tapping her shoulder and telling her to go to her room, if he thought she was talking too much and might be about to become "ill."

"He often stood guard over Virginia in ways that would have been hard to justify if she had had a more stable personality." John Gross, Commentary, December 2006.

Irene Coates takes on the Leonard hagiography, and one of the aspects which adds value to this book is that it is the pure and undiluted critique. If you want the anti view, then here it is, argued both with documentary references and creative reconstruction.

In support of Irene Coates' view, I wish to comment on one aspect, which is the sad final months of Virginia Woolf's life, when she was living in discomfort at Monk's House in Sussex, their London home having been destroyed in the blitz. What has always disturbed me about the historical account of this time, is the way that Leonard Woolf isolated Virginia - he prevented her from seeing her friends, on the grounds of the expense of travel, and also dismissed the servant who usually cared for her. She was left with only minimal domestic help, and women of Virginia's class did not usually do housework. She was soon tired out by the effort. Virginia also had no expert medical assistance - only a local GP, unfamiliar with her case. This situation is not at all ideal for a person with bipolar disorder. Driving away friends and care givers is typical of a domineering spouse, and Leonard, was at times a man of violent temper. His assistants at the publishing house, Hogarth Press, always left after a short time, unable to stand his outbursts.

At the same time, in 1940-41, Leonard organised suicide drills - he feared a Nazi invasion, and thought that he and Virginia would be better off dead than in a concentration camp. His fears were rational (for himself, she was not Jewish), but, as a reader, I will just say this - I don't like the sound of the suicide drills, he resembles a cult leader, who wants to take everyone with him. He would have done better to move elsewhere, to Scotland or Ireland, and thus put distance between himself and the Germans. Surely, that would have been a better option than encouraging Virginia to take part in a suicide pact.

So, for these and other reasons, I do feel that Irene Coates' work is raising important issues. The story of any marriage is complicated, and there are of course many ways of reading the sources which we have. Her way is a valuable corrective to some of the rose-tinted views we have been given.

Readers who are interested to have another, different, revisionist view might be interested to read, My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf, by Thomas Szasz. True to his libertarian views, Szasz suggests that Virginia's illnesses were her own way of dealing with the world, and that both she and Leonard were playing roles. He describes Leonard, unsparingly, as a very difficult man to live with, and he suggests that if Virginia had more integrity and less dependence on others, she would have divorced him.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting read but often seems to stretch the bounds of credulity especially towards the end where Leonard Woolf virtually writes out Virginia's suicide note for her to sign! Reads more like a fictional imagining of events.

[Donna Kusuda · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who are a fan of Virginia Woolf's life and work and have read other biographies of her life and death like I have, this book is incredibly well documented and very very thought provoking.