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Journal d'adolescence 1897 - 1909
"Je m'efforcerai d'être un serviteur honnête, soucieux de rassembler la matière susceptible d'être utile, par la suite, à une main plus experte", note la jeune Virginia Woolf, apprenti écrivain passionné déjà dévoué corps et âme à la genèse d'une œuvre qui comptera parmi les chefs d'œuvres du XXe siècle. Son Journal d'adolescence s'ouvre en 1897, alors qu'elle a quinze ans. L'écriture, d'emblée, s'y révèle salutaire pour la jeune fille au talent précoce. Refuge contre la douleur lorsqu'elle perd ses parents; garde-fou contre la folie qui rôde. Mais ce Journal est avant tout un cahier où Woolf s'applique à faire des phrases comme on fait des gammes, en se moquant d'elle-même. Et des autres, tant elle excelle à épingler d'un trait caustique visiteurs et auteurs lus. Car l'adolescente lit sans se rassasier: Aristote et Hawthorne, James et Hardy. Passant son esprit au tamis de la bibliothèque familiale, elle exerce son jugement critique et affine sa singularité propre. Puis, au fil des années, l'apprentissage livresque se double de séjours à l'étranger. Les cahiers deviennent alors journaux de voyage, en Grèce, en Turquie, en Espagne. Loin d'y céder à la tentation d'un exotisme de convention, l'écrivain en devenir s'interroge sur la manière d'embrasser le vivant sans le figer, se plaçant déjà à rebours des canons en vigueur, des mécanismes romanesques faciles. Au seuil de son entreprise littéraire, la grande Virginia Woolf touche déjà du doigt son génie à venir.
498 pages, Paperback
First published October 11, 1990
About the author
Virginia Woolf
1,834 books29.8k 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 - 28 of 28 reviews
March 4, 2018
PRIKAZ - http://www.optimist.rs/dnevnik-virdzi...
Dnevnik Virdžinije Vulf (I tom) možete naći u knjižarama Vulkan, Delfi, etc, pa i na Kupindu kod mene.
<3
Dnevnik Virdžinije Vulf (I tom) možete naći u knjižarama Vulkan, Delfi, etc, pa i na Kupindu kod mene.
<3
February 9, 2025
Целу рецензију ћу написати када завршим други део дневника, а сада ћу само искористити неколико речи којима бих похвалила одличан превод Марка Гилмора. Пре сам имала проблема са савладавањем Вирџинијиних реченица уколико сам их читала на српском језику, док овде то није био случај. Због тога сматрам да је велики труд уложен у процес превођења и било би бајно да је такав случај и с било којом другом књигом која постоји на свету.
July 17, 2017
Nešto se prevodilo...biće za sajam knjiga 2017. godine na štandu Ukronije :)
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November 7, 2017Nakon smrti svoje majke trinaestogodišnja Virdžinija doživela je svoj prvi nervni slom od kojeg se dugo vremena oporavljala. Kao jedan vid lečenja počela je da vodi dnevnik čiji je srpski prevod prvog (od ukupno šest) toma nedavno objavila pomalo šašava izdavačka kuća „Ukronija“.
Na početku dnevnika upoznajemo gotovo običnu petnaestogodišnju klinku da bi vremenom, kako zapisi odmiču, devojčurak na naše oči sazrevao i intelektualno i duhovno cvetao. I to veoma brzo jer je Virdžinija od terapije pisanje dnevnika pretvorila u vežbanje, da ne kažem treniranje, svojih spisateljskih sposobnosti.
U pitanju su izabrani zapisi, ideja prevodioca i priređivača bila je da nas upozna sa duhovnim svetom jedne od najvećih književnica, tako da su neki svakodnevni događaji propušteni da bi se našlo više mesta za Virdžinijine misli, osećanja, ideje… Ipak, ovo nije samo dnevnik osećaja, već i dnevnik događaja. U njemu su svoje mesto našli opisi Virdžinijih putovanja, isprva samo po Ostrvu, a kasnije i u Grčku, Italiju, Španiju… Tu su takođe i susreti sa kućnim prijateljima njene porodice i, docnije, njenim među kojima se nalaze brojne slavne i manje slavne ličnosti iz kulturnog i društvenog života Velike Britanije na samom koncu vladavine čuvene kraljice Viktorije.
Ovi zapisi će nam pomoći da upoznamo jednu drugačiju Virdžiniju. Ne onu sumornu žgoljavicu koja je jednog dana odlučila da uđe u reku sa kamenjem u džepovima. Ne. Čitajući stranice njenog dnevnika upoznajemo jednu drugačiju, obično-neobičnu, ženu. Ženu koja je bila jedna od najobrazovanijih i najinteligentnijih žena u Velikoj Britaniji. Ženu uvek nasmejanu i raspoloženu za šalu i ironiju. Ženu koja je bila draga sestra i prijateljica, obožavana tetka, supruga i spisatelj…ups… književnica kakvu svet retko viđa.
Na početku dnevnika upoznajemo gotovo običnu petnaestogodišnju klinku da bi vremenom, kako zapisi odmiču, devojčurak na naše oči sazrevao i intelektualno i duhovno cvetao. I to veoma brzo jer je Virdžinija od terapije pisanje dnevnika pretvorila u vežbanje, da ne kažem treniranje, svojih spisateljskih sposobnosti.
U pitanju su izabrani zapisi, ideja prevodioca i priređivača bila je da nas upozna sa duhovnim svetom jedne od najvećih književnica, tako da su neki svakodnevni događaji propušteni da bi se našlo više mesta za Virdžinijine misli, osećanja, ideje… Ipak, ovo nije samo dnevnik osećaja, već i dnevnik događaja. U njemu su svoje mesto našli opisi Virdžinijih putovanja, isprva samo po Ostrvu, a kasnije i u Grčku, Italiju, Španiju… Tu su takođe i susreti sa kućnim prijateljima njene porodice i, docnije, njenim među kojima se nalaze brojne slavne i manje slavne ličnosti iz kulturnog i društvenog života Velike Britanije na samom koncu vladavine čuvene kraljice Viktorije.
Ovi zapisi će nam pomoći da upoznamo jednu drugačiju Virdžiniju. Ne onu sumornu žgoljavicu koja je jednog dana odlučila da uđe u reku sa kamenjem u džepovima. Ne. Čitajući stranice njenog dnevnika upoznajemo jednu drugačiju, obično-neobičnu, ženu. Ženu koja je bila jedna od najobrazovanijih i najinteligentnijih žena u Velikoj Britaniji. Ženu uvek nasmejanu i raspoloženu za šalu i ironiju. Ženu koja je bila draga sestra i prijateljica, obožavana tetka, supruga i spisatelj…ups… književnica kakvu svet retko viđa.
January 6, 2016
Fascinating to read her journal entries starting from when she was fifteen--somewhat brief and boring entries at that time--progressing through somewhat whimsical writing to much stronger descriptive writing as a young adult. I especially love her travel journals and her descriptions of her beloved Cornwall coastline and the more desolate moors.
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November 25, 2018Prikaz možete pogledati na booktube kanalu Knjigoložnica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWSsD...
March 11, 2019
Mnogo volim Virdžiniju Vulf kao ličnost. U prvom tomu dnevnika vidimo začetke pisanja i kritičkog mišljenja uz detalje iz njenog života.
July 15, 2007
Charming to watch Woolf grow up; fascinating and sad to watch her put herself back together as a writer after several breakdowns.
Her accounts of travels in Greece, Italy, and Turkey, as well as in rural England, are especially delightful.
Her accounts of travels in Greece, Italy, and Turkey, as well as in rural England, are especially delightful.
February 27, 2024
3 stars for travel diaries but 5 glimmering, dusty stars for her London / Cornwall diaries — seascapes & tube rides & grassy fields & book lists & bus rides just to feel the wind blow in one’s face.
April 23, 2024
Gubila me je na momente, previše dugo sam čitala. Kroz dnevnik Virdžinija sazreva, tako da mi se dopalo što sam imala priliku da "proživim" zajedno sa njom neke događaje.
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December 31, 2012Having dedicated a shelf to Virginia Woolf makes me into a collector maybe but not a reader. Although I didn't plan to leave my small collection unread I have been a little intimidated by Woolf's writing. Last year I started at the very beginning with her very first diary, written when she was almost fifteen. Now it is as if I am tracing her steps in becoming a writer. The first section in A Passionate Apprentice is a collection of short accounts of her daily life in 1897.
During the summer holidays of 1899 at The Rectory, Warboys, Huntingdonshire, Virginia Woolf kept a journal that was very different from that of 1897. Rather than the accounts of daily life in 1897, she now is wondering how a reader would respond to her words and you can find her practicing the art of essay-writing for the first time. Where will she go from here?
During the summer holidays of 1899 at The Rectory, Warboys, Huntingdonshire, Virginia Woolf kept a journal that was very different from that of 1897. Rather than the accounts of daily life in 1897, she now is wondering how a reader would respond to her words and you can find her practicing the art of essay-writing for the first time. Where will she go from here?
May 16, 2026
“Between this January and the autumn of 1904, she would suffer through the deaths of her half-sister and of her father, and survive a summer of madness and suicidal depression. Behind the loss and confusion, however, always near the surface, there was a constructive force at work, a powerful impulse towards health. It was an urge, through writing, to bring order and continuity out of chaos.”
“an obstinate record of life from day to day provided her once more with a grasp of reality she could find nowhere else”
“What passed through Virginia’s mind, one wonders, as she recorded in her journal one of her own ‘tantrumical’ episodes? What fear descended when she considered her own madness? Did her father think her also ‘perverse’ and ‘mulish’?”
“When I read this book, which I do sometimes on a hot Sunday evening in London, I am struck by the wildness of its statements – the carelessness of its descriptions – the repetition of its adjectives – & in short I pronounce it a very hasty work, but excuse myself by remembering in what circumstances it was written. After a days outing, or when half an hour is vacant, or as a relief from some Greek tragedy – at different times, & in different moods it is written, & I am certain that if I imposed any other conditions upon myself it would never be written at all.”
“The dawn is folding the world in its pure morning kiss of salutation”
“I would be a pagan – if I could.”
“Katie lay stretched on a long couch, in the carelessness of perfect grace. She doesn’t think how she looks – she just flings out her superb limbs – like a child resting after its play”
“she was leading – seeing what ought to be done next – what move would put everybody more at their ease.”
“But the only use of this book is that it shall serve for a sketch book; as an artist fills his pages with scraps & fragments, studies of drapery – legs, arms & noses – useful to him no doubt, but of no meaning to anyone else – so I [ ] take up my pen & trace here whatever shapes I happen to have in my head”
“The villages have all sunk into the hollows between the waves; & the result is a peculiar smoothness & bareness of outline. This is the bare bone of the earth”
“The universal tone of weariness – of hopeless regret which prevails in the babble makes me opine that the sheep themselves are aware why they still remain sheep.”
“Man has done nothing to change Salisbury plain since these stones were set here; they have seen sunrise & moonrise over those identical swells & ridges for – I know not how many thousand years. I like to think of it; imagine those toiling pagans doing honour to the very sun now in the sky above me, & for some perverse reason I find this a more deeply impressive temple of Religion – block laid to block, & half of them tumbled in ruin so long that the earth almost hides them, than that perfect spire whence prayer & praise is at this very moment ascending.”
“If I lived here much longer I should get to understand the wonderful rise & swell & fall of the land. It is like some vast living thing, & all its insects & animals, save man, are exquisitely in time with it. If you lie on the earth somewhere you hear a sound like a vast breath, as though it were the very inspiration of earth herself, & all the living things on her.”
“It is easier to write tonight than to sleep”
“Each blade of grass with a white line of frost on it. The sunset makes all the air as though of melted amethyst; yellow flakes dissolve from the solid body of amethyst which is the west.”
“A peach bloom of silver & plum colour covers the trees at a little distance. Also a pale green lichen, seaweed like in its shape, covers the bark.”
“Read, wrote, cursed, & walked – all as usual”
“an obstinate record of life from day to day provided her once more with a grasp of reality she could find nowhere else”
“What passed through Virginia’s mind, one wonders, as she recorded in her journal one of her own ‘tantrumical’ episodes? What fear descended when she considered her own madness? Did her father think her also ‘perverse’ and ‘mulish’?”
“When I read this book, which I do sometimes on a hot Sunday evening in London, I am struck by the wildness of its statements – the carelessness of its descriptions – the repetition of its adjectives – & in short I pronounce it a very hasty work, but excuse myself by remembering in what circumstances it was written. After a days outing, or when half an hour is vacant, or as a relief from some Greek tragedy – at different times, & in different moods it is written, & I am certain that if I imposed any other conditions upon myself it would never be written at all.”
“The dawn is folding the world in its pure morning kiss of salutation”
“I would be a pagan – if I could.”
“Katie lay stretched on a long couch, in the carelessness of perfect grace. She doesn’t think how she looks – she just flings out her superb limbs – like a child resting after its play”
“she was leading – seeing what ought to be done next – what move would put everybody more at their ease.”
“But the only use of this book is that it shall serve for a sketch book; as an artist fills his pages with scraps & fragments, studies of drapery – legs, arms & noses – useful to him no doubt, but of no meaning to anyone else – so I [ ] take up my pen & trace here whatever shapes I happen to have in my head”
“The villages have all sunk into the hollows between the waves; & the result is a peculiar smoothness & bareness of outline. This is the bare bone of the earth”
“The universal tone of weariness – of hopeless regret which prevails in the babble makes me opine that the sheep themselves are aware why they still remain sheep.”
“Man has done nothing to change Salisbury plain since these stones were set here; they have seen sunrise & moonrise over those identical swells & ridges for – I know not how many thousand years. I like to think of it; imagine those toiling pagans doing honour to the very sun now in the sky above me, & for some perverse reason I find this a more deeply impressive temple of Religion – block laid to block, & half of them tumbled in ruin so long that the earth almost hides them, than that perfect spire whence prayer & praise is at this very moment ascending.”
“If I lived here much longer I should get to understand the wonderful rise & swell & fall of the land. It is like some vast living thing, & all its insects & animals, save man, are exquisitely in time with it. If you lie on the earth somewhere you hear a sound like a vast breath, as though it were the very inspiration of earth herself, & all the living things on her.”
“It is easier to write tonight than to sleep”
“Each blade of grass with a white line of frost on it. The sunset makes all the air as though of melted amethyst; yellow flakes dissolve from the solid body of amethyst which is the west.”
“A peach bloom of silver & plum colour covers the trees at a little distance. Also a pale green lichen, seaweed like in its shape, covers the bark.”
“Read, wrote, cursed, & walked – all as usual”
July 23, 2025
In 1899, the 17-year-old Virginia Stephens (as she then was) enjoyed a holiday with other members of her family in Huntingdonshire. Even in those teenage years, writing was to her a compulsion. She kept a diary as many people do; but not simply a record of events. Her extraordinary gifts for observation and description are evident on almost every page of this wonderful book. Here she marks the end of summer (and the end of the holiday) in vivid prose - a little purple occasionally, but gloriously evocative:
A change has come over the country since I last wrote. Then it was summer; now it is autumn. I drove back alone from St Ives on Monday, & felt the change each step of the five miles. Where the corn stood yellow & luxuriant, there are now fields of brown clods, which leave a decided impression on ones eyes when one sees the country spread beneath one. The still days of haze & blue distance are over; a sharp wind comes racing over the plain, & brown coveys of partridges rise from the stubble that yet stands. The summer wealth of cultivation is over; & the earth is preparing for her time of sleep & slow reproduction. The hedges all along the road are laden with scarlet berries, which if nature shows in this liberality her intention of inflicting on bird & man a hard winter foretell months of ice & snow. The little brown birds rise in a cloud & go twittering high up in the air over the brown fields. There is that mellow clearness in the air, which softens & matures the land & the mens faces who till it. There is a look & feeling of melancholy in everything – that melancholy which is the sweetest tongue of thought.
A change has come over the country since I last wrote. Then it was summer; now it is autumn. I drove back alone from St Ives on Monday, & felt the change each step of the five miles. Where the corn stood yellow & luxuriant, there are now fields of brown clods, which leave a decided impression on ones eyes when one sees the country spread beneath one. The still days of haze & blue distance are over; a sharp wind comes racing over the plain, & brown coveys of partridges rise from the stubble that yet stands. The summer wealth of cultivation is over; & the earth is preparing for her time of sleep & slow reproduction. The hedges all along the road are laden with scarlet berries, which if nature shows in this liberality her intention of inflicting on bird & man a hard winter foretell months of ice & snow. The little brown birds rise in a cloud & go twittering high up in the air over the brown fields. There is that mellow clearness in the air, which softens & matures the land & the mens faces who till it. There is a look & feeling of melancholy in everything – that melancholy which is the sweetest tongue of thought.
September 7, 2019
Invaluable insight into the blossoming of Virginia (then) Stephen. From avid reader and determined writer, these journals collect her private writings ages 15 to 27 and by reading them, not only does one become familiar with her priorities in her work and writing goals, but one can start to see the world through her eyes. Far from sentimentalist, these journals evidence Virginia's life, from aristocratic doings and views to a life soaked in culture encounters. The entries encompass the time when Virginia started to be able to claim that she was a writer for a living. Full of essayistic gems, this book invited you to regard Virginia as a friend and sheds a different, more personal light on her life's work.
October 8, 2018
I was impressed by the precision of her words at such young age. Reading this book gave me a clear blueprint on what I need to do. All published books act as guides in some way. This one shows writing apprentices how to strengthen writing muscles, and tighten up their writing skills. She reads people, interactions, and documents activities. She writes about what she’s going to write, and cents about writing struggles. Her progress is slow, but evident from beginning to end. If I hadn’t learned anything from all the other brilliant writers, this book shows years of free-writing for herself. Showing your work (journals and exercises) is an honest way to come up in the literary field.
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November 3, 2019Spoiler within text - don't read on...
Interesting but couldn't finish someone's diary, so I will be putting it down as not finished. Maybe I will pick up at another date but for now I wander away from Virginia Woolf, enchanted to of met her although sad to learn she takes her life from____, before I got there on my own. Why lingers and maybe another book of hers will be easier reading. Such a high class life but even that holds despair. Who would of thought that.
Interesting but couldn't finish someone's diary, so I will be putting it down as not finished. Maybe I will pick up at another date but for now I wander away from Virginia Woolf, enchanted to of met her although sad to learn she takes her life from____, before I got there on my own. Why lingers and maybe another book of hers will be easier reading. Such a high class life but even that holds despair. Who would of thought that.
March 7, 2026
These diaries are indispensable resources for Woolf scholars, but they make for very dull reading, except perhaps for those who revel in the minutiae of the artist’s everyday life. The Preface and Introduction provide helpful biographical information and interpretive insights to understand the growth and development of Woolf as one of the most important writers in English literature and trailblazer of the Modernist Literary Movement.
October 8, 2020
A very well documented edition of Virginia Woolf (more properly Virginia Stephens) diaries. Hermione Lee provides a detailed and lengthy introduction that prepares the reader for the details of the diaries. The young years are also years of trauma and illness and discovery. A superbly done history of the formative years of on of Modernism best writers.
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June 22, 2023"This one night we will be mad - dance lightly - raise our hearts as the beat strengthens, grows buoyant - careless, defiant. What matters anything so long as ones step is in time - so long as one's whole body & mind are dancing too - what shall end it?"
January 22, 2024
Disfruté la manera detallada en la que describe su mundo interior. Pero y esto es inevitable en la escritura de una mujer británica acomodada de inicios de s. XX, su prejuicio racial y cultural que se nota en sus relatos de viajes por Grecia y Turquía es francamente detestable
November 13, 2018
Ova ocena jedino i samo zbog užasbog prevoda i lekture.
January 16, 2019
Insightful diary writings of the young Virginia Woolf.
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July 24, 2025Dear Goodreads community,
Please consider how meaningful it is to rate diaries and give them stars.
Thank you.
Please consider how meaningful it is to rate diaries and give them stars.
Thank you.
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June 20, 2012I hesitate to "star" a journal, because the writer didn't compose his or her diary for the benefit, enjoyment or enrichment of others, however self-conscious said author might be. However, I would say while this journal had some lovely passages, it wasn't illuminating on the whole. It was actually quite depressing. Written during the most difficult period of Virginia Woolf's life, it shows more about her psyche but why she doesn't say than what she does. It's very methodical and routine in the first few years. You could tell she was trying to rebuild her mind after her first nervous breakdown. The diary just stops before difficult periods and resumes after she recovers. The travel sections are actually less interesting despite being more than just an account of her daily tasks, because they feel more straightforward in a way. You infer less about her life at this point, because she's merely outlining travel. It was clear, however, that she was deeply devoted to becoming a writer and did all she could to make that happen. I was hoping this set of journals would shed some light on the difficult events that characterized the rest of her life, but it shows how even in the seemingly open and free world of journal writing, we lie to ourselves or merely examine what we choose to examine. The memoirs she did that comprise Moments of Being are much more illuminating, open and honest.
One small section does provide some chilling backdoor insight, and it was hard to read. While vacationing in the country with her family (shortly before her father became ill), Virginia learned of a local woman's recent suicide by drowning in the Serpentine River. While shaken by this story, she writes about it in detail, speculating about the woman's motives for committing this act. Her writing about this incident has a fascinated feel to it, and it is an eerie sign of things to come for her. Like I said, this journal was an unpleasant read in many cases...
One small section does provide some chilling backdoor insight, and it was hard to read. While vacationing in the country with her family (shortly before her father became ill), Virginia learned of a local woman's recent suicide by drowning in the Serpentine River. While shaken by this story, she writes about it in detail, speculating about the woman's motives for committing this act. Her writing about this incident has a fascinated feel to it, and it is an eerie sign of things to come for her. Like I said, this journal was an unpleasant read in many cases...
October 28, 2015
I'd read all of her later journal and most of her other books before reading this one. If you are deeply interested in her work, or in the development of a great writer, this is well worthwhile. Woolf overcame a lot of emotional and psychological instability with sheer doggedness and a fine work ethic, and started early. She is consciously practicing in most of these entries, writing descriptions, working out ideas, and she improves steadily of course. She begins to publish book reviews and essays and starts writing her first novel. By the end she is questioning what kind of artist she wants to be, what is possible for her, and has begun to develop an identity as an artist.
November 15, 2015
Onverwacht vond ik de beschrijvende essays (maar niet de buitenlandse) wonderlijk mooi. Citaat uit 'The Lands End', 14 Sept. 1905 (p. 295):
Lovely are these autumn days on the heath; the gorse is still as smooth as silk, & the air fragrant. I had almost said, regretful, as though there were some tinge of melancholy in its sweetness. All the months are crude experiments out of which the perfect September is made.
Lovely are these autumn days on the heath; the gorse is still as smooth as silk, & the air fragrant. I had almost said, regretful, as though there were some tinge of melancholy in its sweetness. All the months are crude experiments out of which the perfect September is made.
March 7, 2016
Two stars for its lack of rivetingness, but worth reading for anyone who is interested in Virginia Woolf, her work, or even in writing--for its buried gems. I only remember a few, but a couple of these gems were stunning. One piece of description, of the stones of a cathedral wall "fairly piled," and a couple of pieces of insight into writing itself.
July 29, 2025
read till the end of the 1903 hyde park gate diary
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