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Virginia Woolf
Since her death in 1941, Virginia Woolf has come to be recognized as one of the supreme prose writers of the twentieth century. In the thirty years between her marriage to Leonard Woolf in 1912 and her death, she wrote fifteen books, including the epoch-making novels To the Lighthouse and The Waves, as well as innumerable critical articles, essays, and stories, and a voluminous an astonishing achievement for a writer who was plagued by mental illness all through her life. Virginia Woolf is honored today not only as a novelist and literary critic of the most varied gifts, but also as the author of A Room of One's Own, with little doubt the most brilliantly argued, witty, and persuasive exposition of the feminist standpoint in modern times.
- GenresBiographyNonfiction
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
2 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
John Lehmann
240 books3 followersJohn Lehmann, the fourth child of journalist Rudolph Lehmann, and brother of Helen Lehmann, novelist Rosamond Lehmann and actress Beatrix Lehmann, was educated at Eton and read English at Trinity College, Cambridge. He considered his time at both as "lost years".
After a period as a journalist in Vienna, he returned to England to found the popular periodical New Writing (1936 - 1940) in book format. This literary magazine sought to break down social barriers and published works by working-class authors as well as educated middle-class writers and poets. It proved a great influence on literature of the period and an outlet for writers such as Christopher Isherwood, W.H. Auden, and miner-author B.L. Coombes. Lehmann included many of these authors in his anthology Poems for Spain which he edited with Stephen Spender.
With the onset of the Second World War and paper rationing, New Writing's future was uncertain and so Lehmann wrote New Writing in Europe for Pelican Books, one of the first critical summaries of the writers of the 1930s in which he championed the authors who had been the stars of New Writing - Auden and Spender - and also his close friend Tom Wintringham and Wintringham's ally, the emerging George Orwell. Wintringham reintroduced Lehmann to Allen Lane of Penguin Books, who secured paper for The Penguin New Writing a monthly book-magazine, this time in paperback. The first issue featured Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant". Occasional hardback editions combined with the magazine Daylight appeared sporadically, but it was as Penguin New Writing that the magazine survived until 1950.
After joining Leonard and Virginia Woolf as managing director of Hogarth Press between 1938 and 1946 he established his own publishing company, John Lehmann Limited, with his novelist sister Rosamond Lehmann (who had a nine-year affair with one of Lehmann's contributing poets, Cecil Day-Lewis). They published new works by authors such as Sartre and Stendhal, and discovered talents like Thom Gunn and Laurie Lee. He also published the first two books by the cookery writer Elizabeth David, A Book of Mediterranean Food and French Country Cooking.
In 1954 he founded The London Magazine, remaining as editor until 1961, following which he was a frequent lecturer and completed his three-volume autobiography, Whispering Gallery (1955), I Am My Brother (1960) and The Ample Proposition (1966). In The Purely Pagan Sense (1976) is an autobiographical record of his homosexual life in England and pre-war Germany, discreetly written in the form of a novel. He also wrote the biographies Edith Sitwell (1952), Virginia Woolf and her World (1975), Thrown to the Woolfs (1978) and Rupert Brooke (1980).
In 1965 he published Christ the Hunter, a spiritual/autobiographical prose poem which had been broadcast in 1964 on the BBC Third Programme, In 1974 Lehmann published a book of poems, The Reader at Night, hand-printed on handmade paper and hand-bound in an edition of 250 signed copies (Toronto, Basilike, 1974). An essay by Paul Davies about the creation of this book is included in Professor A.T. Tolley's collection, John Lehmann: a Tribute (Ottawa, Carleton University Press, 1987), which also includes pieces by Roy Fuller, Thom Gunn, Charles Osborne, Christopher Levenson, Jeremy Reed, George Woodcock, and others.
After a period as a journalist in Vienna, he returned to England to found the popular periodical New Writing (1936 - 1940) in book format. This literary magazine sought to break down social barriers and published works by working-class authors as well as educated middle-class writers and poets. It proved a great influence on literature of the period and an outlet for writers such as Christopher Isherwood, W.H. Auden, and miner-author B.L. Coombes. Lehmann included many of these authors in his anthology Poems for Spain which he edited with Stephen Spender.
With the onset of the Second World War and paper rationing, New Writing's future was uncertain and so Lehmann wrote New Writing in Europe for Pelican Books, one of the first critical summaries of the writers of the 1930s in which he championed the authors who had been the stars of New Writing - Auden and Spender - and also his close friend Tom Wintringham and Wintringham's ally, the emerging George Orwell. Wintringham reintroduced Lehmann to Allen Lane of Penguin Books, who secured paper for The Penguin New Writing a monthly book-magazine, this time in paperback. The first issue featured Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant". Occasional hardback editions combined with the magazine Daylight appeared sporadically, but it was as Penguin New Writing that the magazine survived until 1950.
After joining Leonard and Virginia Woolf as managing director of Hogarth Press between 1938 and 1946 he established his own publishing company, John Lehmann Limited, with his novelist sister Rosamond Lehmann (who had a nine-year affair with one of Lehmann's contributing poets, Cecil Day-Lewis). They published new works by authors such as Sartre and Stendhal, and discovered talents like Thom Gunn and Laurie Lee. He also published the first two books by the cookery writer Elizabeth David, A Book of Mediterranean Food and French Country Cooking.
In 1954 he founded The London Magazine, remaining as editor until 1961, following which he was a frequent lecturer and completed his three-volume autobiography, Whispering Gallery (1955), I Am My Brother (1960) and The Ample Proposition (1966). In The Purely Pagan Sense (1976) is an autobiographical record of his homosexual life in England and pre-war Germany, discreetly written in the form of a novel. He also wrote the biographies Edith Sitwell (1952), Virginia Woolf and her World (1975), Thrown to the Woolfs (1978) and Rupert Brooke (1980).
In 1965 he published Christ the Hunter, a spiritual/autobiographical prose poem which had been broadcast in 1964 on the BBC Third Programme, In 1974 Lehmann published a book of poems, The Reader at Night, hand-printed on handmade paper and hand-bound in an edition of 250 signed copies (Toronto, Basilike, 1974). An essay by Paul Davies about the creation of this book is included in Professor A.T. Tolley's collection, John Lehmann: a Tribute (Ottawa, Carleton University Press, 1987), which also includes pieces by Roy Fuller, Thom Gunn, Charles Osborne, Christopher Levenson, Jeremy Reed, George Woodcock, and others.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 16, 2024
Virginia Woolf van John Lehmann
Dit boek geeft inzicht in het werk en leven van Virginia Woolf. Door middel van foto’s en schetsen wordt het lezen vergemakkelijkt. Het is een aanrader voor iedereen die van plan is om Woolf's werk te gaan lezen. Het fungeert als een soort reader of gids voor haar oeuvre.
Lehmann beschreef Virginia Woolf als een van de meest invloedrijke en vernieuwende schrijvers van de 20e eeuw. Hij bewonderde haar voor haar vermogen om de innerlijke wereld van haar personages te verkennen en hun diepste gedachten en gevoelens bloot te leggen. Woolf’s gebruik van stream-of-consciousness-techniek en haar aandacht voor de subtiele nuances van het dagelijks leven maakte haar werk uniek en baanbrekend.
Lehmann benadrukte ook Woolf’s moed om traditionele literaire vormen te doorbreken en nieuwe manieren van vertellen te verkennen. Haar werken, zoals Mrs. Dalloway en To the Lighthouse, worden geprezen om hun poëtische stijl en psychologische diepgang. Woolf wist complexe thema’s zoals tijd, geheugen, en identiteit op een meeslepende manier te verwoorden, waardoor haar werk zowel intellectueel uitdagend als emotioneel resonant is.
Daarnaast waardeerde Lehmann Woolf’s inzet voor sociale en politieke kwesties, waaronder de rol van vrouwen in de samenleving. Haar essay A Room of One’s Own wordt beschouwd als een fundamenteel werk in de feministische literatuur en benadrukt het belang van economische onafhankelijkheid en creatieve vrijheid voor vrouwen.
Kortom, John Lehmann zag Virginia Woolf als een visionaire auteur die niet alleen de grenzen van de literatuur verlegde, maar ook een blijvende impact had op hoe we denken over de menselijke ervaring en de rol van de kunstenaar in de samenleving.
Dit boek geeft inzicht in het werk en leven van Virginia Woolf. Door middel van foto’s en schetsen wordt het lezen vergemakkelijkt. Het is een aanrader voor iedereen die van plan is om Woolf's werk te gaan lezen. Het fungeert als een soort reader of gids voor haar oeuvre.
Lehmann beschreef Virginia Woolf als een van de meest invloedrijke en vernieuwende schrijvers van de 20e eeuw. Hij bewonderde haar voor haar vermogen om de innerlijke wereld van haar personages te verkennen en hun diepste gedachten en gevoelens bloot te leggen. Woolf’s gebruik van stream-of-consciousness-techniek en haar aandacht voor de subtiele nuances van het dagelijks leven maakte haar werk uniek en baanbrekend.
Lehmann benadrukte ook Woolf’s moed om traditionele literaire vormen te doorbreken en nieuwe manieren van vertellen te verkennen. Haar werken, zoals Mrs. Dalloway en To the Lighthouse, worden geprezen om hun poëtische stijl en psychologische diepgang. Woolf wist complexe thema’s zoals tijd, geheugen, en identiteit op een meeslepende manier te verwoorden, waardoor haar werk zowel intellectueel uitdagend als emotioneel resonant is.
Daarnaast waardeerde Lehmann Woolf’s inzet voor sociale en politieke kwesties, waaronder de rol van vrouwen in de samenleving. Haar essay A Room of One’s Own wordt beschouwd als een fundamenteel werk in de feministische literatuur en benadrukt het belang van economische onafhankelijkheid en creatieve vrijheid voor vrouwen.
Kortom, John Lehmann zag Virginia Woolf als een visionaire auteur die niet alleen de grenzen van de literatuur verlegde, maar ook een blijvende impact had op hoe we denken over de menselijke ervaring en de rol van de kunstenaar in de samenleving.
August 9, 2015
یک کتاب مفید با حجم کم ( 160صفحه) که حاوی اطلاعات مفید و جالبی راجع به ویرجینیا وولف و آثار او است، این کتاب عکس های بسیار قابل توجهی از نویسنده، محل زندگی او و اطرافیانش دارد، خواندن زندگی نامه های این مجموعه را به علاقه مندان توصیه می کنم
February 3, 2017
I read this book in one evening in Hay-On-Wye surrounded by 30 other book purchases - bliss. John Lehmann, the author, of this illustrated biography used to work for the Woolfs at their Hogarth Press so in many cases was speaking first hand on the facts he presented. This is an excellent introduction into the life and work of Virginia Woolf and her family and circle of Bloomsbury friends and associates and a great starting point for further reading. I have already read A Room of One's Own some time ago and was completely in awe - it was a ground-breaking oent for me in fact in my love of reading. I have also read other essays too which are so beautifully observed and erudite yet witty and accessible. Having read this I am less intimidated by Woolf's novels and can make an informed decision on what to choose to read first. This biography really allows the reader to appreciate Woolf's remarkable achievements in literature. Home-schooled ( being female ) and dogged with mental illness her prolific and unique output is remarkable. It is clear that Woolf is Bloomsbury and that all the others amongst her set - Strachey, Grant, Fry et al really are just a supporting cast. The illustrations including many photographs really add to the substance of this work which I felt was both sensitive, respectful and true to Woolf's work and memory.
May 4, 2020
I hated this book. The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 is because it had a ton of cool pictures. I thought it was going to be like a biography of her but it was more a literary critique. It reminded me of an introduction to one of her books, but instead for all of her books. Having only read one of her books (and not particularly enjoying it) made reading this difficult. I don't necessarily think it's a bad book, just wasn't what I was looking for.
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July 17, 2024da igual las veces que lea de su muerte, lo bueno y cuidadoso que fue Leonard, monks house y Virginia en general, que sieeempre se me sale alguna lágrima
May 11, 2025
Rating: 4/5
October 12, 2025
El autor se toma el atrevimiento de hablar libremente de los libros así que si no leíste ningún de Virginia es preferible esperar para arrancar este.
October 8, 2014
به درون بنگر، و زندگی، تو گویی، بههیچوجه، «همینطور» نمیمانَد. لحظهای یک ذهنِ معمولی را در یک روزِ معمولی در نظر بگیر. این ذهن در معرضِ هزاران تأثیر واقع میشود ـ جزئی، شگفت، زودگذر و یا نقشبسته با نیشِ قلمی فولادین. از همهسو میآیند، رگبارِ پایانناپذیرِ اتمهای بیشمار؛ و همچنان که میبارند، و همچنان که خود را به هیئتِ زندگیِ دوشنبه یا سهشنبه درمیآورند، نقطهی تأکید به جای دیگری متفاوت با گذشته منتقل میشود؛ لحظهی خطیر نه اینجا بلکه آنجاست؛ به این ترتیب، اگر نویسنده آزاد باشد نه برده، اگر بتواند آنچه را که خود برمیگزیند بنویسد نه آنچه را که ناگزیر است، اگر بتواند اثرش را براساسِ احساسِ خود بنا کند و نه براساسِ عادت و قرارداد، دیگر هیچ طرحِ داستانی، هیچ کُمدی، هیچ تراژدی، هیچ کششِ عشقی یا فرجامی به سبکِ متعارف در کار نخواهد بود، و شاید دیگر حتّا یک دکمه هم به شیوهی موردِ پسندِ خیّاطهای «باند استریت» دوخته نشود. زندگی رشتهای چراغ رنگی نیست که به شکلی متقارن آراسته شده باشد؛ زندگی هالهای درخشان است، غلافی نیمهشفّاف که ما را از سرچشمهی آگاهی تا انتها در بر گرفته است. آیا وظیفهی نویسنده این نیست که این متغیّر، این روحِ ناشناخته و بیحدّومرز را بیان کند، هرقدر هم که این بیان پیچیده و ناهنجار باشد، با کمترین آمیختگیِ ممکن با امورِ ظاهری و بیگانه؟
July 20, 2014
A refreshing read on Virginia Woolf, brief yet profound. Discusses all her novels in short, Virginia Woolf's manic-depressions connected to the publication of those novels, the people of the Bloomsbury Group and more. Most important are, of course, the many pictures and images supported this short biography.
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March 20, 2008Yet another book about Woolf, like I said, I went through a Woolf phase (quite enjoyable, I might add, because so much to read by her and about her)
April 25, 2011
Very interesting biography. I have not read her works but they can't be any better than her life story.
May 31, 2013
Not written well, but I enjoyed the pictures.
April 7, 2014
Luminous telling of Virginia's life. But I'm biased, of course.
January 30, 2011
A short biography of Virginia written by a man who was a close, personal friend of the family.
April 15, 2019
عزیزترینم، تردیدی ندارم که دوباره دچارِ جنون شدهام. احساس میکنم که نمیتوانیم یکی دیگر از این دورههای وحشتناک را از سر بگذرانیم؛ و این بار بهبودی نخواهم یافت. شروع به شنیدنِ صداهایی کردهام و نمیتوانم تمرکز کنم؛ بنابراین کاری را میکنم که به گمانم بهترین کارِ ممکن است.
بهترین شادیِ ممکن را تو در اختیارم گذاشتهای. هرآنچه میتوان بود، برایم بودهای. میدانم که دارم زندگیات را تباه میکنم، میدانم که بدون من میتوانی کار کنی؛ و میدانم که خواهی کرد. میدانم.. گمان نمیکنم تا پیش از آغازِ این بیماریِ وحشتناک، هیچ دو نفری میتوانستند از این شادتر باشند. بیش از این توانِ مبارزه ندارم. میبینی؟ حتی نمیتوانم این را هم درست بنویسم. نمیتوانم چیزی بخوانم.
میخواهم بگویم همهٔ شادیِ زندگیام را مدیونِ توأم. تو با همهچیزِ من ساختهای و به طرزی باورنکردنی نسبت به من مهربان بودهای. همهچیز جز اطمینان به نیکیِ تو، مرا ترک گفتهاست. دیگر نمیتوانم به تباه کردنِ زندگیات ادامه دهم. گمان نمیکنم هیچ دونفری بتوانند آنقدر که ما شاد بودهایم، شاد باشند.
ویرجینیا
بهترین شادیِ ممکن را تو در اختیارم گذاشتهای. هرآنچه میتوان بود، برایم بودهای. میدانم که دارم زندگیات را تباه میکنم، میدانم که بدون من میتوانی کار کنی؛ و میدانم که خواهی کرد. میدانم.. گمان نمیکنم تا پیش از آغازِ این بیماریِ وحشتناک، هیچ دو نفری میتوانستند از این شادتر باشند. بیش از این توانِ مبارزه ندارم. میبینی؟ حتی نمیتوانم این را هم درست بنویسم. نمیتوانم چیزی بخوانم.
میخواهم بگویم همهٔ شادیِ زندگیام را مدیونِ توأم. تو با همهچیزِ من ساختهای و به طرزی باورنکردنی نسبت به من مهربان بودهای. همهچیز جز اطمینان به نیکیِ تو، مرا ترک گفتهاست. دیگر نمیتوانم به تباه کردنِ زندگیات ادامه دهم. گمان نمیکنم هیچ دونفری بتوانند آنقدر که ما شاد بودهایم، شاد باشند.
ویرجینیا
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews