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The Platform of Time by Virginia Woolf
Taking family, friends, and servants as her subjects, Virginia Woolf here presents a series of impressions of the people around her. As she describes their lives in this little known collection of sketches—including an in-depth piece on her nephew Julian Bell and works on Bloomsbury figures Lady Ottoline Morrell and Lady Strachey—she also reveals much about her own attitudes—to her writing, the war, and education. The result is a fascinating and revealing work that will significantly expand on what is currently available of her biographical writings. Acclaimed for her innovative style, Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) is one of the most important figures of the Modernist movement.
- GenresNonfictionClassics
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Virginia Woolf
1,775 books28.6k followers(Adeline) Virginia Woolf was an English novelist and essayist regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century.
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929) with its famous dictum, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 6, 2016
I found this small book when I was browsing at Livraria Cultura, and reckoned it a formidable coincidence, considering that I had just finished To The Lighthouse some weeks before. It is a translation to Portuguese of a version of the middle section of Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse (1924), Time Passes, out of a manuscript to be published in a magazine in France. Here the text is different from the version in To The Lighthouse. It does not contain the references to Mrs Ramsay (and her tragic destiny), Carmichael and Lilly, and the role of Mrs McNab is bigger. The last paragraphs are even more poetic than the ones in the book version, and some critics even considered them over the top. But the feel is still the same. Time Passes is a very beautiful text, and it is a preparation to the even more experimental The Waves. The translation is nice, but I think the old one by Luiza Lobo for To The Lighthouse (Nova Fronteira edition) is still superior. There is a roughness in this new version that is a little intractable. Take, for instance, translating Mrs McNab's "help“ for "laborforce" (mão de obra), Loc189.
Two articles on this text follows.
The first article by Michel Serres, Time, Erosion: Lighthouses and Fog Signals, caught my attention when I ran my eyes through the text in the store, because it started with a discussion about Proust and Woolf and their visions about time. The following paragraphs seemed promising too, as Serres seemed to be talking about entropy and thermodynamics, which obviously are intimately related with any serious discussion about time and the arrow of time. Sadly, when I eventually read the text after buying the book, I was profoundly disappointed. Serres is one of those thinkers who attempt to loosely connect Physics, Quantum Mechanics with transcendental, metaphysical questions, not always successfully, as many other French philosophers have failed to do before. I really stopped giving credit to most of these typically over-the-top discussions after Alan Sokal's Fashionable Nonsenses, where, by the way, there is a very interesting critique to Bergson, one of the authors Serres is fond of. It is not that the article does not have merit for some original thoughts, but it loses completely by half of the discussion, when the ideas got all blurred in style and self-references (it is not good for any author to explain his or her own previous work to talk about someone else, imho, which is what Serres does when he talks about his own Natural Contract...)
The other companion to the translation of Time Passes, by James M. Haule, is a more normal discussion about the creation of the text by Virginia Woolf, by comparing and contrasting the several versions prepared by her before reaching the version that is in To The Lighthouse. Apart all the good stuff about all of it, it was rewarding to find Woolf mentioning her friend E.M. Forster, as I could find a lot of similarities between Mrs Dalloway and Howards End, although Woolf was, according to her journal, really into James Joyce's Ulysses, when she was writing that book.
In any event, a good, short trip into V. Woolf is never a bad thing.
Two articles on this text follows.
The first article by Michel Serres, Time, Erosion: Lighthouses and Fog Signals, caught my attention when I ran my eyes through the text in the store, because it started with a discussion about Proust and Woolf and their visions about time. The following paragraphs seemed promising too, as Serres seemed to be talking about entropy and thermodynamics, which obviously are intimately related with any serious discussion about time and the arrow of time. Sadly, when I eventually read the text after buying the book, I was profoundly disappointed. Serres is one of those thinkers who attempt to loosely connect Physics, Quantum Mechanics with transcendental, metaphysical questions, not always successfully, as many other French philosophers have failed to do before. I really stopped giving credit to most of these typically over-the-top discussions after Alan Sokal's Fashionable Nonsenses, where, by the way, there is a very interesting critique to Bergson, one of the authors Serres is fond of. It is not that the article does not have merit for some original thoughts, but it loses completely by half of the discussion, when the ideas got all blurred in style and self-references (it is not good for any author to explain his or her own previous work to talk about someone else, imho, which is what Serres does when he talks about his own Natural Contract...)
The other companion to the translation of Time Passes, by James M. Haule, is a more normal discussion about the creation of the text by Virginia Woolf, by comparing and contrasting the several versions prepared by her before reaching the version that is in To The Lighthouse. Apart all the good stuff about all of it, it was rewarding to find Woolf mentioning her friend E.M. Forster, as I could find a lot of similarities between Mrs Dalloway and Howards End, although Woolf was, according to her journal, really into James Joyce's Ulysses, when she was writing that book.
In any event, a good, short trip into V. Woolf is never a bad thing.
October 8, 2023
le temps passe (post)
(en réalité, je ne lis pas (encore) en français...)
3?
a meditation on nothing much at all but not in a bad way, subtle and descriptive and vibey
smth distinctly british i s'pose? about this, reminiscent of roald dahl's bfg and jk rowling's hp passages re dumbledore on privet drive idk haha
nb read somewhere perfect on the most perfect autumnal day: parc montsouris on a balmy 26th sunday eve
(en réalité, je ne lis pas (encore) en français...)
3?
a meditation on nothing much at all but not in a bad way, subtle and descriptive and vibey
smth distinctly british i s'pose? about this, reminiscent of roald dahl's bfg and jk rowling's hp passages re dumbledore on privet drive idk haha
nb read somewhere perfect on the most perfect autumnal day: parc montsouris on a balmy 26th sunday eve
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2021
Woolf's memories and obituaries contain some of the most beautiful writing I've ever seen.
July 19, 2011
several members of goodreads complimented virginia woolf's memoirs, and because i trust them i was determined to read it. but it is either that memoirs r not my type of books, or that this certain book of woolf's memoirs is not good, or that those members of goodreads were totally wrong. but really, i can't decide the reason that i didn't like it, cause i've never read any other memoirs.
anyway, to me, the story is okay, and touching. but sooooooooo not interesting.
anyway, to me, the story is okay, and touching. but sooooooooo not interesting.
April 8, 2017
J'aime quand tu poétises, Virginia... sont pas nombreux à me faire cet effet, Racine, Baudelaire, Robinson... et peut-être Mary Poppins.
June 20, 2015
For people who are fond of Virginia Wool these memoirs will be of interest.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews