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The Letters of Virginia Woolf #3
A Change of Perspective: The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Volume 3, 1923-1928
These years were dominated by one woman and one book. The woman was Ethel Smyth; the book was The Waves. This volume's "unerringly human and confessional tone makes Woolf, at last, a real person" (San Francisco Chronicle).
624 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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About the author
Virginia Woolf
1,942 books28.3k 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 6, 2013
I own this book and am constantly browsing through it. I have a kind of mental block against saying I've "read" a book that I haven't read every last sentence of, but I think I can claim to have read at least 75% of this, so what the heck. Feel free to ignore this review on that grounds.
This is Virginia Woolf at the height of her powers, writing most of the books she is famous for, and as far as I can tell, completely incapable of writing a clumsy word. I have a peculiar confession: I do not like the letters to Vita Sackville-West very much. They are the great gossipy interest of this volume: the lesbian affair of one of the greatest writers of all time! The love of her life! But in her letters to Vita I find the Virginia Woolf I like least, snarky and bitchy, putting down everybody (brilliantly), showing off, or so it seems to me. She seems to have loved Vita more than Vita loved her, not to mention a class element--Vita of course was every inch an aristocrat--which is just present enough that this ignorant American could catch a whiff of it, and I get a constant sense of Virginia straining to please, just the slightest bit, but enough to put me off. It is of course the last thing I associate with her writing elsewhere, which is written as though there was not even an audience to please.
That said, the rest is pure delight: her letters to Vanessa Bell, which are everything the Vita letters are, minus the annoying parts; her letters to Bloomsbury friends, which sparkle and flash like the flower petals in her story "Kew Gardens"; her miscellaneous business letters and invitations to dine (I always find these kind of quotidian letters fascinating), and especially her letters to the dying Jacques Raverat, and briefly after his death, to his wife Gwen. With Raverat, unlike Vita, Vanessa, or anyone else that I can find, she had a correspondent with whom she felt completely equal, and could discuss art and her work completely seriously and earnestly without any jocularity or false modesty. I have no real idea who Raverat was, outside of these letters, but he brought out the best in her, somehow--perhaps his absence from her daily life, or his foreignness, helped, but it also seems that he had a great mind that she was really stimulated by. Her letter to Gwen after his death is to me one of the most moving things she ever wrote--and as she is probably my favorite author, that is saying an enormous amount.
There are other points of interest--Katherine Mansfield dies at the beginning of the volume, and as I'm always fascinated by their relationship, it's interesting to see Woolf's attitude toward her change, deepen, when her threatening competition is gone. There are letters to Leonard Woolf which are unexpected insights into their relationship. And of course there are discussions (generally hidden under jokes) of her great novels written during this period. But as always with Woolf, these more 'indirect', if that is the word, pleasures are secondary to the simple joy of reading her writing, which in is never lighter and more charming, more quick and funny, than in her letters.
This is Virginia Woolf at the height of her powers, writing most of the books she is famous for, and as far as I can tell, completely incapable of writing a clumsy word. I have a peculiar confession: I do not like the letters to Vita Sackville-West very much. They are the great gossipy interest of this volume: the lesbian affair of one of the greatest writers of all time! The love of her life! But in her letters to Vita I find the Virginia Woolf I like least, snarky and bitchy, putting down everybody (brilliantly), showing off, or so it seems to me. She seems to have loved Vita more than Vita loved her, not to mention a class element--Vita of course was every inch an aristocrat--which is just present enough that this ignorant American could catch a whiff of it, and I get a constant sense of Virginia straining to please, just the slightest bit, but enough to put me off. It is of course the last thing I associate with her writing elsewhere, which is written as though there was not even an audience to please.
That said, the rest is pure delight: her letters to Vanessa Bell, which are everything the Vita letters are, minus the annoying parts; her letters to Bloomsbury friends, which sparkle and flash like the flower petals in her story "Kew Gardens"; her miscellaneous business letters and invitations to dine (I always find these kind of quotidian letters fascinating), and especially her letters to the dying Jacques Raverat, and briefly after his death, to his wife Gwen. With Raverat, unlike Vita, Vanessa, or anyone else that I can find, she had a correspondent with whom she felt completely equal, and could discuss art and her work completely seriously and earnestly without any jocularity or false modesty. I have no real idea who Raverat was, outside of these letters, but he brought out the best in her, somehow--perhaps his absence from her daily life, or his foreignness, helped, but it also seems that he had a great mind that she was really stimulated by. Her letter to Gwen after his death is to me one of the most moving things she ever wrote--and as she is probably my favorite author, that is saying an enormous amount.
There are other points of interest--Katherine Mansfield dies at the beginning of the volume, and as I'm always fascinated by their relationship, it's interesting to see Woolf's attitude toward her change, deepen, when her threatening competition is gone. There are letters to Leonard Woolf which are unexpected insights into their relationship. And of course there are discussions (generally hidden under jokes) of her great novels written during this period. But as always with Woolf, these more 'indirect', if that is the word, pleasures are secondary to the simple joy of reading her writing, which in is never lighter and more charming, more quick and funny, than in her letters.
May 24, 2021
There is going to come a time when I'm not hopelessly infatuated with Virginia Woolf's ghost (and Vita's to be honest), but today is not that day.
This collection of letters covers the publication of Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and several essays, and bearing witness to her thoughts as she writes and publishes those is just nothing short of amazing, if you're into that kind of thing. WHICH I AM.
Reading her very astute, funny, wry, and crystal clear observations on her visitors and fellow writers - from Hemingway to TS Eliot, to EM Forster to Gertrude Stein - is like, I don't know, this all happened so long ago but they way they live their lives is more modern and progressive than most 21st century lifestyles. The way she writes! Oh my god. Even when she's writing letters (which I classify as art) "in haste" - it is more beautiful and observant than most. She is endlessly inspiring, and endlessly thought provoking.
She meets Vita during the years of this collection, and those letters stand out the most to me. A Virginia Woolf in love is a thing to behold, because she knows, almost from the beginning, that Vita's nature is not like hers, that although Vita will love her, Virgina accepts that she will have to share her affection with many (so many) other women. So after the initial meetings, Virginia's letters include a bit of melancholy amidst the madness of love, and that minor key of - i don't know, wistfulness? that runs throughout their remarkable relationship is gorgeous to read.
This collection of letters covers the publication of Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and several essays, and bearing witness to her thoughts as she writes and publishes those is just nothing short of amazing, if you're into that kind of thing. WHICH I AM.
Reading her very astute, funny, wry, and crystal clear observations on her visitors and fellow writers - from Hemingway to TS Eliot, to EM Forster to Gertrude Stein - is like, I don't know, this all happened so long ago but they way they live their lives is more modern and progressive than most 21st century lifestyles. The way she writes! Oh my god. Even when she's writing letters (which I classify as art) "in haste" - it is more beautiful and observant than most. She is endlessly inspiring, and endlessly thought provoking.
She meets Vita during the years of this collection, and those letters stand out the most to me. A Virginia Woolf in love is a thing to behold, because she knows, almost from the beginning, that Vita's nature is not like hers, that although Vita will love her, Virgina accepts that she will have to share her affection with many (so many) other women. So after the initial meetings, Virginia's letters include a bit of melancholy amidst the madness of love, and that minor key of - i don't know, wistfulness? that runs throughout their remarkable relationship is gorgeous to read.
March 20, 2011
I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed reading these letters. Woolf's wit and humor comes through clearly, and her quirkiness is further revealed in the letters. Wonderful!
September 23, 2021
It's the Bloomsbury gossip column delivered with the trenchant sensibilities of the genius herself. What's not to like? I looked forward to my small read everyday for the last 6 months.
I did have reservations about the Vita romance here. It's hard to understand the forgiveness of the husbands (Leonard the Saint, and Harold Nicholson I suppose leading his own sexual life). Mostly, reading Orlando at the same time, I couldn't see the great delight and huge acclaim of that totally ridiculous (IMO) book about the wonders of Vita, the grand aristocrat. These people really are anomalies - or perhaps the British upper class will always be unknowable to us commoners.
I am sure I will eventually feel a need to go on to the 4th, 5th and 6th, but will be taking a (deserved) rest for a long time.
I did have reservations about the Vita romance here. It's hard to understand the forgiveness of the husbands (Leonard the Saint, and Harold Nicholson I suppose leading his own sexual life). Mostly, reading Orlando at the same time, I couldn't see the great delight and huge acclaim of that totally ridiculous (IMO) book about the wonders of Vita, the grand aristocrat. These people really are anomalies - or perhaps the British upper class will always be unknowable to us commoners.
I am sure I will eventually feel a need to go on to the 4th, 5th and 6th, but will be taking a (deserved) rest for a long time.
May 29, 2023
This volume is dominated by Virginia's relationship with Vita Sackville West. The main books are To the Lighthouse and Orlando and where Virginia's writing success really finds traction. For me, some of the best letters are those where she critiques her nephew Julian's poems. Her comments on rhythm and sound are illuminating.
January 8, 2020
Entertaining, interesting, a bit surprising in places as the letters show us a side to Virginia Woolf which is rather different to the one her diaries for the same period show. I am guessing perhaps that more people would be circumspect in letters and save the cattiness and unkindness for the diary, but she seems to do it the other way around. She gets caught out in fibs and says some quite rude things directly to her correspondents as well as about them in letters to others. To be fair a lot of her friends seem to have been doing the same thing so perhaps this was just the norm for this group. Her letters to Vita Sackville-West are very whimsical and full of jokes which are not always easy for an outsider to grasp, but illuminating and interesting nevertheless.
March 23, 2014
Amazing!
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April 8, 2013Da consultazione
May 4, 2019
I have to applaud Nigel Nicolson for editing the letters of his mother’s lover, I just have to applaud him.
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October 30, 2009A change of perspective (The Letters of Virginia Woolf) by Virginia Woolf (1977)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews