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Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World – A Biography of the Bloomsbury Group, Maternal Legacies, and Creative Voice
An insightful, witty look at Virginia Woolf through the lens of the extraordinary women closest to her .
How did Adeline Virginia Stephen become the great writer Virginia Woolf? Acclaimed biographer Gillian Gill tells the stories of the women whose legacies—of strength, style, and creativity—shaped Woolf’s path to the radical writing that inspires so many today.
Gill casts back to Woolf’s French-Anglo-Indian maternal great-grandmother Thérèse de L’Etang, an outsider to English culture whose beauty passed powerfully down the female line; and to Woolf’s aunt Anne Thackeray Ritchie, who gave Woolf her first vision of a successful female writer. Yet it was the women in her own family circle who had the most complex and lasting effect on Woolf. Her mother, Julia, and sisters Stella, Laura, and Vanessa were all, like Woolf herself, but in markedly different ways, warped by the male-dominated household they lived in. Finally, Gill shifts the lens onto the famous Bloomsbury group. This, Gill convinces, is where Woolf called upon the legacy of the women who shaped her to transform a group of men--united in their love for one another and their disregard for women--into a society in which Woolf ultimately found her freedom and her voice.
How did Adeline Virginia Stephen become the great writer Virginia Woolf? Acclaimed biographer Gillian Gill tells the stories of the women whose legacies—of strength, style, and creativity—shaped Woolf’s path to the radical writing that inspires so many today.
Gill casts back to Woolf’s French-Anglo-Indian maternal great-grandmother Thérèse de L’Etang, an outsider to English culture whose beauty passed powerfully down the female line; and to Woolf’s aunt Anne Thackeray Ritchie, who gave Woolf her first vision of a successful female writer. Yet it was the women in her own family circle who had the most complex and lasting effect on Woolf. Her mother, Julia, and sisters Stella, Laura, and Vanessa were all, like Woolf herself, but in markedly different ways, warped by the male-dominated household they lived in. Finally, Gill shifts the lens onto the famous Bloomsbury group. This, Gill convinces, is where Woolf called upon the legacy of the women who shaped her to transform a group of men--united in their love for one another and their disregard for women--into a society in which Woolf ultimately found her freedom and her voice.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published December 3, 2019
62 people are currently reading
773 people want to read
About the author
Gillian Gill
15 books53 followersGillian Gill, who holds a PhD in modern French literature from Cambridge University, has taught at Northeastern, Wellesley, Yale, and Harvard. She is the author of Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale, Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries, and Mary Baker Eddy. She lives in suburban Boston.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
December 21, 2019
An uneasy mixture of gossip and fact-finding, insufficiently scholarly to stand as a contribution to Woolf Studies but more detailed than the common reader is likely to want or need. While it is useful to have all this info on the various women in Woolf's life collected in one place, there is not much new here, especially in terms of Woolf's late relationships with Vanessa, Vita, and Ethyl Smythe. Book is best on Pattledom and the women who influenced the young Virginia Stephen, but I felt there was a chapter missing on Violet Dickinson. Chief problem was the sureness with which the author asserted deductions and conclusions about complex, ambiguous matters, like the idea that Woolf disliked and distrusted Clive Bell or that Vita was in anyway responsible for the surge of genius that produced To the Lighthouse. This appearance of certainty is accompanied by small carelessness that undercut such judgements. For instance, the statement that Vita was "furious" at how Woolf portrayed her in Orlando is not supported, and the somewhat contradictory additional comment that Vita knew the book was one "supreme love letter," puts the words of Vita's son Nigel into Vita's mouth without attribution. Trekki Parson's was NOT Leonard's "second wife"; she remained married to Ian Parsons until the end of her life. Some biographies of Woolf (such as Hermione Lee's masterwork and Alexandra Harris's more recent and shorter overview) strike one as having done justice to the available evidence and taken the most reasonable stance. This one seems in turn both opinionated and careless.
November 4, 2022
Superb!
October 14, 2019
Gillian Gill presents an extensively researched life of Virginia Woolf, including her ancestors and early influences in addition to the Bloomsbury Group. There was a fair amount of unpleasantness discussed; the Bloomsbury members were a rather licentious lot. Virginia and Leonard Woolf weren’t sleeping around, but apparently everyone else was. Virginia, Vanessa, and their mentally disabled half-sister were said to have been sexually abused by a creepy older half-brother, and a man who admired Vanessa’s baby daughter decided he’d marry her when she grew up. He did, and unsurprisingly was a terrible husband. Recommended for anyone who has read and enjoyed Woolf’s writing.
January 13, 2023
I was looking for a biography of Virginia Woolf when a friend recommended Gillian Gill’s Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World to me. This book is not as comprehensive as Hermione Lee’s 900 page biography published in 1996 or Quentin Bell’s 600 page book published in 1974. It is not exactly a biography of Virginia Woolf. It is part family history, especially female members of the family, part biography of Virginia and her sister Vannesa. Gillian Gill, a second-wave feminist, writes from a modern feminist POV. She examines how female members of Virginia and Vannesa’s family bonded with each other, the various mother-daughter dynamics, the women in the family who inspired Virginia and Vannesa, as well as the dynamics between the two sisters.
Some impressions:
Virginia’s French great-great-grandmother was half-Indian blood, a fact her offsprings either did not know or did not care.
The family history took up half of the book. Especially interesting: the “Pattleton'', home of Virginia’s maternal family the Pattle sisters, a Victorian era upper-middle class gathering for artists and writers; Julia Margaret Cameron, the revolutionary woman photographer and Virginia’s great-aunt; Ann Thackeray, William Thackeray’s daughter and Virginia’s step-aunt; Julian Prinsep Stephen and Leslie Stephen’s marriage; the mad half-sister Laura; the relationship between the mother Julia Stephen and the half-sister Stella.
Compared to her contemporary women writers, Virginia Woolf had, by today’s definition, feminism views, and she clearly, loudly, expressed her views in A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. And she felt safe to confine to her friends and doctor about the sexual abuse she suffered, first as a little girl then as a teen, from her half-brothers.
Bloomsbury group as a rebellion against rigid Victorian morality; Sexual freedom advocated and enjoyed by the men and in a more complex way, by women around them; The dark side of some Bloomsbury members, where sexual freedom for them sometimes included exploiting women and children. The open-marriage between Vannessa and Clive Bell was not rosy as one might think, but Vannessa managed to get the most out of it
The women in Bloomsbury, Virginia and Vannesa, had different “ways”. The author writes: “Vannesa’s Bloomsbury was small, well-defined, male-oriented, self-absorbed, financed largely by unearned income, hostile to the world outside, very gay in both senses of that word, the epitome of what people admired and loathed of the group. ” , while “Virginia Woolf’s Bloomsbury was larger, fuzzier, busier, more porous, more integrated, more down to earth. After WWI, unlike her sisters, it blossomed into stimulating and supportive friendships with women, while remaining rooted in love of one man, her husband and partner, Leonard Woolf. ”
The sexuality of Virginia Woolf is complex. The childhood abuse must have had a profound influence on her adult sex life. According to the author, Virginia was no more homosexual (compared to Vita Sackville-west) than hetrosexual (compared to Vannesa), and she was attracted to mind more than body. I am surprised by this assessment. If the close bond between Virginia and Leonard was not sexual, Virginia enjoyed an intimate relationship with Vita. Woolf once told Sackville-West that she was the first person who had caused her to orgasm.
I find the story of Angelica Bell very sad. Outspoken in intimate matters like Vannasa Bell, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her daughter the truth.
Some impressions:
Virginia’s French great-great-grandmother was half-Indian blood, a fact her offsprings either did not know or did not care.
The family history took up half of the book. Especially interesting: the “Pattleton'', home of Virginia’s maternal family the Pattle sisters, a Victorian era upper-middle class gathering for artists and writers; Julia Margaret Cameron, the revolutionary woman photographer and Virginia’s great-aunt; Ann Thackeray, William Thackeray’s daughter and Virginia’s step-aunt; Julian Prinsep Stephen and Leslie Stephen’s marriage; the mad half-sister Laura; the relationship between the mother Julia Stephen and the half-sister Stella.
Compared to her contemporary women writers, Virginia Woolf had, by today’s definition, feminism views, and she clearly, loudly, expressed her views in A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. And she felt safe to confine to her friends and doctor about the sexual abuse she suffered, first as a little girl then as a teen, from her half-brothers.
Bloomsbury group as a rebellion against rigid Victorian morality; Sexual freedom advocated and enjoyed by the men and in a more complex way, by women around them; The dark side of some Bloomsbury members, where sexual freedom for them sometimes included exploiting women and children. The open-marriage between Vannessa and Clive Bell was not rosy as one might think, but Vannessa managed to get the most out of it
The women in Bloomsbury, Virginia and Vannesa, had different “ways”. The author writes: “Vannesa’s Bloomsbury was small, well-defined, male-oriented, self-absorbed, financed largely by unearned income, hostile to the world outside, very gay in both senses of that word, the epitome of what people admired and loathed of the group. ” , while “Virginia Woolf’s Bloomsbury was larger, fuzzier, busier, more porous, more integrated, more down to earth. After WWI, unlike her sisters, it blossomed into stimulating and supportive friendships with women, while remaining rooted in love of one man, her husband and partner, Leonard Woolf. ”
The sexuality of Virginia Woolf is complex. The childhood abuse must have had a profound influence on her adult sex life. According to the author, Virginia was no more homosexual (compared to Vita Sackville-west) than hetrosexual (compared to Vannesa), and she was attracted to mind more than body. I am surprised by this assessment. If the close bond between Virginia and Leonard was not sexual, Virginia enjoyed an intimate relationship with Vita. Woolf once told Sackville-West that she was the first person who had caused her to orgasm.
I find the story of Angelica Bell very sad. Outspoken in intimate matters like Vannasa Bell, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her daughter the truth.
April 23, 2022
Who knew that Virginia Woolf had such an illustrious and diverse family tree, with roots wrapped round the world?
Powerful women who wrote, without restraint and who didn't suffer fools at all. . . they did what they did and showed all the little girls around them that at least that was possible, that there WAS a way around the seemingly impermeable social barriers that encased the female member of humanity. You just had to look for it and demand it. At a cost, of course, that had some of its value in crazy v non-crazy. Sane v not-sane-not-today.
She hung with a wild crowd, and if this book did anything for me it was to let me know, that VW is an iceberg, and there is a lot more below the surface!
Powerful women who wrote, without restraint and who didn't suffer fools at all. . . they did what they did and showed all the little girls around them that at least that was possible, that there WAS a way around the seemingly impermeable social barriers that encased the female member of humanity. You just had to look for it and demand it. At a cost, of course, that had some of its value in crazy v non-crazy. Sane v not-sane-not-today.
She hung with a wild crowd, and if this book did anything for me it was to let me know, that VW is an iceberg, and there is a lot more below the surface!
January 23, 2020
I'm not sure that biography is quite the right way to categorize this book, at least not in the strictest sense of the term. Nor, in my opinion, does the title convey the full scope of what this volume is trying to achieve. I have just finished it, and so these are my first impressions:
I agree with other reviews that the book too often strays into conjecture, which, in fairness, Gill often acknowledges, but other times you are left wondering if what she is describing actually occurred or if Gill is giving the reader a bit of her own literary flair. My preference for biographies (and non-fiction books in general) are those which are loaded with quotations and footnotes, and in which moments of factual ambiguity are presented as such, and the author presents the possibilities and the supporting evidence for each and leaves the reader to come to their own conclusions. This is not that book. I think it was the New York Times review that described Gill's voice as "conspiratorial" and I think that is an accurate description. In reading you feel you are privy to the famous Bloomsbury gossip wheel that Gill brings to our attention more than once. It makes for enjoyable reading, but at the same time you feel you are not always being given the full picture.
The book is at its strongest when discussing Woolf's forebears; the Thackeray family, Pattledom, etc. The most moving section, though itself full of conjecture, was the section on Virginia Woolf's mentally ill half-sister Laura, who was generally poorly treated by her family and institutionalized at a relatively young age, thereafter mostly ignored by her extended family, Woolf included. In the sections about Bloomsbury proper the book is at its most salacious, as Gill seems to revel in the sex lives of Woolf's bohemian compatriots. Though enjoyable reading, how this supports the book's supposed thesis of women who were influential on Woolf is never made quite clear, other than in contrasting her sister Vanessa's robust sexuality with Woolf's apparently frigid nature.
Childhood sexual abuse and its effects seem to be one of the hearts of this book, and much of it is spent discussing the alleged sexual abuse suffered by Virginia and Vanessa at the hands of their half-brothers (who, Gill posits, could have possibly abused the aforementioned Laura as well). The infamous marriage of Angelica Bell, Woolf's niece, to her father's one-time lover Bunny Garnett, over twenty years her senior, also gets an extended exploration. Abuses of this nature, though certainly an important topic of discussion, particularly in the age of #MeToo, seemed an odd locus of inquiry for, again, a book ostensibly about how certain women shaped Woolf's world. For much of the book these matters are presented as they relate to certain women close to Woolf, but at the very end of the book, in the epilogue, Gill concludes her work by trying to posit Virginia Woolf as some sort of champion and protector of children against potential abuse, particularly her niece and nephews. This is a lovely thought, but the evidence Gill presents is scant, and Gill even tells us earlier that in the saga of the Angelia Bell/Bunny Garnett affair Woolf wasn't particularly present, working, as she was at the time, on Roger Fry's biography and a new novel (Between the Acts).
Overall, I found Gill's book to be an enjoyable but odd beast. As a long-time admirer of Virginia Woolf's writing and of her world, learning more about the forebears that almost certainly shaped her life, both in word and action, was enlightening, while the rehashing of Bloomsbury gossip was less so. Those new to Virginia Woolf and her social context may find the book somewhat confusing, as it assumes the reader has at least a passing biographical knowledge of its subject.
I agree with other reviews that the book too often strays into conjecture, which, in fairness, Gill often acknowledges, but other times you are left wondering if what she is describing actually occurred or if Gill is giving the reader a bit of her own literary flair. My preference for biographies (and non-fiction books in general) are those which are loaded with quotations and footnotes, and in which moments of factual ambiguity are presented as such, and the author presents the possibilities and the supporting evidence for each and leaves the reader to come to their own conclusions. This is not that book. I think it was the New York Times review that described Gill's voice as "conspiratorial" and I think that is an accurate description. In reading you feel you are privy to the famous Bloomsbury gossip wheel that Gill brings to our attention more than once. It makes for enjoyable reading, but at the same time you feel you are not always being given the full picture.
The book is at its strongest when discussing Woolf's forebears; the Thackeray family, Pattledom, etc. The most moving section, though itself full of conjecture, was the section on Virginia Woolf's mentally ill half-sister Laura, who was generally poorly treated by her family and institutionalized at a relatively young age, thereafter mostly ignored by her extended family, Woolf included. In the sections about Bloomsbury proper the book is at its most salacious, as Gill seems to revel in the sex lives of Woolf's bohemian compatriots. Though enjoyable reading, how this supports the book's supposed thesis of women who were influential on Woolf is never made quite clear, other than in contrasting her sister Vanessa's robust sexuality with Woolf's apparently frigid nature.
Childhood sexual abuse and its effects seem to be one of the hearts of this book, and much of it is spent discussing the alleged sexual abuse suffered by Virginia and Vanessa at the hands of their half-brothers (who, Gill posits, could have possibly abused the aforementioned Laura as well). The infamous marriage of Angelica Bell, Woolf's niece, to her father's one-time lover Bunny Garnett, over twenty years her senior, also gets an extended exploration. Abuses of this nature, though certainly an important topic of discussion, particularly in the age of #MeToo, seemed an odd locus of inquiry for, again, a book ostensibly about how certain women shaped Woolf's world. For much of the book these matters are presented as they relate to certain women close to Woolf, but at the very end of the book, in the epilogue, Gill concludes her work by trying to posit Virginia Woolf as some sort of champion and protector of children against potential abuse, particularly her niece and nephews. This is a lovely thought, but the evidence Gill presents is scant, and Gill even tells us earlier that in the saga of the Angelia Bell/Bunny Garnett affair Woolf wasn't particularly present, working, as she was at the time, on Roger Fry's biography and a new novel (Between the Acts).
Overall, I found Gill's book to be an enjoyable but odd beast. As a long-time admirer of Virginia Woolf's writing and of her world, learning more about the forebears that almost certainly shaped her life, both in word and action, was enlightening, while the rehashing of Bloomsbury gossip was less so. Those new to Virginia Woolf and her social context may find the book somewhat confusing, as it assumes the reader has at least a passing biographical knowledge of its subject.
October 3, 2020
A wonderful way of reading the biography of one of the most influential feminist writers of all time : through the impact the women in her life had in her and her work.
A nice and enlightening reading.
A nice and enlightening reading.
June 20, 2023
As good as I thought it would be
February 13, 2020
4.5 stars
I can count on one hand the number of biographies I’ve read in my lifetime so I’m certainly not an expert but I really enjoyed Gillian Gill’s study of the women in Virginia Woolf’s life. Gill begins with Woolf’s great great grand-mother who was born in India and probably half-Bengali and then moves through the generations to the beautiful and intelligent Pattle sisters and her own mother Julia. These chapters were all fascinating and although Virginia herself didn’t spend much time with most of these women it was still interesting to see the interactions and personalities of these close relations.
The middle sections focus primarily on the wonderful Anne Thackeray Ritchie and Leslie Stephens’ first marriage to her sister and then Julia Stephen, Virginia's mother and Virginia’s brothers and sisters. Again this was detailed and eye opening, I had no idea for example that Woolf had a step sister who spent thirty years in an asylum despite probably not being ‘mad’. The final sections, and the one reviewers seem to have focused on, are about Bloomsbury and Virginia’s sister Vanessa. Although the book is about the women who shaped her world, Gill shows that many of the Bloomsbury set and indeed Virginia's husband Leslie had a great influence on her but that the relationship between Virginia and Vanessa was integral to her life.
There are a few instances where I felt Gillian Gill might be inferring a little too much as to how people felt or what they thought, although most of the time there are copious notes to support her suppositions and having written several books on figures of this era she has certainly done her research. The epilogue too ends on a slightly strange note with an emphasis that perhaps goes beyond the remit of the book. However, this book had me enthralled the entire way through and sent me down copious rabbit holes; figures such as Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Ethel Smyth, Lytton Strachey the Bloomsbury set as a whole, Leonard Woolf, these are all people I would like to know more about. Gill also shows how family members feature in most of Woolf’s novels and writes about her work just enough to intrigue without spoiling. She has made me want to read those Woolf novels I haven’t got to yet and reread those I have which I would say is part of the success of this fascinating book.
I can count on one hand the number of biographies I’ve read in my lifetime so I’m certainly not an expert but I really enjoyed Gillian Gill’s study of the women in Virginia Woolf’s life. Gill begins with Woolf’s great great grand-mother who was born in India and probably half-Bengali and then moves through the generations to the beautiful and intelligent Pattle sisters and her own mother Julia. These chapters were all fascinating and although Virginia herself didn’t spend much time with most of these women it was still interesting to see the interactions and personalities of these close relations.
The middle sections focus primarily on the wonderful Anne Thackeray Ritchie and Leslie Stephens’ first marriage to her sister and then Julia Stephen, Virginia's mother and Virginia’s brothers and sisters. Again this was detailed and eye opening, I had no idea for example that Woolf had a step sister who spent thirty years in an asylum despite probably not being ‘mad’. The final sections, and the one reviewers seem to have focused on, are about Bloomsbury and Virginia’s sister Vanessa. Although the book is about the women who shaped her world, Gill shows that many of the Bloomsbury set and indeed Virginia's husband Leslie had a great influence on her but that the relationship between Virginia and Vanessa was integral to her life.
There are a few instances where I felt Gillian Gill might be inferring a little too much as to how people felt or what they thought, although most of the time there are copious notes to support her suppositions and having written several books on figures of this era she has certainly done her research. The epilogue too ends on a slightly strange note with an emphasis that perhaps goes beyond the remit of the book. However, this book had me enthralled the entire way through and sent me down copious rabbit holes; figures such as Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Ethel Smyth, Lytton Strachey the Bloomsbury set as a whole, Leonard Woolf, these are all people I would like to know more about. Gill also shows how family members feature in most of Woolf’s novels and writes about her work just enough to intrigue without spoiling. She has made me want to read those Woolf novels I haven’t got to yet and reread those I have which I would say is part of the success of this fascinating book.
September 7, 2020
I have complicated feelings about this one! This is a gossipy, fun, frustrating, engaging, and readable book that doesn't entirely live up to the promise of its title. Gill tells us she is going to explore the life of Virginia Woolf by looking at the women in her life -- her ancestors, her immediate family, her friends, and her contemporaries -- but the women we hear the most about are the most flamboyant and racy, we end up hearing nearly as much about the men in Woolf's life, and there are big holes in exploring influences that seem more germane to Woolf's life in preference for a good anecdote or sensational story.
Gill starts way back in Woolf's family tree with her great-great grandparents, a French aristocrat living in colonial northern India and his beautiful Franco-Indian wife. Gill gets a lot of mileage out of the inherited beauty of the de L'etang / Pattle / Jackson / Stephen family, and dwells a little too much on racially-based dissection of family portraits for evidence of Indian ancestry. She dips a little into the French and English colonial oppression of India but, for the most part, appears to be pretty wowed by anyone who has an aristocratic background. Still, there are some great stories here and a pattern of extremely strong women and weak, flawed, and forgettable husbands, at least the way Gill tells it. There is a lot of living India for France and England, starting over, and (not unusual for the time) working to secure upwardly mobile marriages for all these beautiful daughters.
A great deal of time is given to "Pattledom" -- the artistic and literary home of Virginia Woolf's great aunts, particularly Julia Cameron, who is well known for her artistic photographic portraits of friends and family, including Woolf's mother, Julia Jackson and her children. Julia Cameron's sister, Maria Jackson, however, is hardly delved into at all, despite her living for years in the home with Virginia Woolf and her having probably a great deal to do with the psychology of Woolf's mother. Julia Jackson Duckworth Stephen is a fascinating character and she is given a lot of book time, although she is difficult to pin down. She marries for love, loses her husband to a sudden illness when she has three small children, takes care of business as a single mother, known for her philanthropy and self-sacrifice, and then, to the surprise of everyone, marries the grumpy, old, and pretty poor (but very devoted) Leslie Stephen and starts a new family, including Virginia, her sister Vanessa, and her two brothers.
And, of course, there is Bloomsbury. After the untimely death of their mother and the long-awaited/feared death of their father, the Stephen siblings drew a non-conforming, artistic, gay, literary, sexual, snobby, and ever-growing crowd of (mostly male) friends and lovers. Virginia Woolf, however, was always a little outside of this group -- because of her mental health, her caustic wit, her Jewish husband, and, probably most of all, the dramatic and overwhelming orbit of beloved older sister, Vanessa Bell. I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of Bloomsbury, but it is fascinating and covered here in great detail, but with much more of an emphasis on Vanessa than Virginia.
Gill's delight in anecdotes, armchair psychology, speculation, and cutesy phrasing means that she frequently appears to mock or belittle issues of mental health, sexual abuse, and familial dysfunction. She then tries to right that boat by overcompensating with preachy judgment on the topics that she had earlier rolled into a delightful turn of phrase. This gets a little old. I also don't see how you can have a subject like Woolf, who is such a beautiful, prolific, and revealing writer, and quote so little from her books, letters, and diaries. The final slim chapter and epilogue, which talk about Virginia Woolf's marriage and her relationship with her niece and nephews, shows a hard-working, brilliant woman in a love-filled marriage of two flawed but well-matched people, who has a playful, insightful, and close relationship with her family members. You would not think this was the case from the flippant discussions of "madness" and intimate speculation on Woolf's sexuality. Gill also shoehorns in references to her own other biographies willy nilly, regardless of their relationship to Woolf (get ready for a lot of references to Agatha Christie, Queen Victoria, and Florence Nightengale). And she cites movies like they are academic works!
I will admit, I still loved reading this book. I am not above enjoying some sexy gossip, family skeletons, and hidden affairs. This is super readable and gives a very specific and flawed, but engaging, view on Woolf's world. Honestly, even if you don't like Virginia Woolf, lovers of British history, Bloomsbury in general, or popular biography may get a thrill from this one.
Gill starts way back in Woolf's family tree with her great-great grandparents, a French aristocrat living in colonial northern India and his beautiful Franco-Indian wife. Gill gets a lot of mileage out of the inherited beauty of the de L'etang / Pattle / Jackson / Stephen family, and dwells a little too much on racially-based dissection of family portraits for evidence of Indian ancestry. She dips a little into the French and English colonial oppression of India but, for the most part, appears to be pretty wowed by anyone who has an aristocratic background. Still, there are some great stories here and a pattern of extremely strong women and weak, flawed, and forgettable husbands, at least the way Gill tells it. There is a lot of living India for France and England, starting over, and (not unusual for the time) working to secure upwardly mobile marriages for all these beautiful daughters.
A great deal of time is given to "Pattledom" -- the artistic and literary home of Virginia Woolf's great aunts, particularly Julia Cameron, who is well known for her artistic photographic portraits of friends and family, including Woolf's mother, Julia Jackson and her children. Julia Cameron's sister, Maria Jackson, however, is hardly delved into at all, despite her living for years in the home with Virginia Woolf and her having probably a great deal to do with the psychology of Woolf's mother. Julia Jackson Duckworth Stephen is a fascinating character and she is given a lot of book time, although she is difficult to pin down. She marries for love, loses her husband to a sudden illness when she has three small children, takes care of business as a single mother, known for her philanthropy and self-sacrifice, and then, to the surprise of everyone, marries the grumpy, old, and pretty poor (but very devoted) Leslie Stephen and starts a new family, including Virginia, her sister Vanessa, and her two brothers.
And, of course, there is Bloomsbury. After the untimely death of their mother and the long-awaited/feared death of their father, the Stephen siblings drew a non-conforming, artistic, gay, literary, sexual, snobby, and ever-growing crowd of (mostly male) friends and lovers. Virginia Woolf, however, was always a little outside of this group -- because of her mental health, her caustic wit, her Jewish husband, and, probably most of all, the dramatic and overwhelming orbit of beloved older sister, Vanessa Bell. I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of Bloomsbury, but it is fascinating and covered here in great detail, but with much more of an emphasis on Vanessa than Virginia.
Gill's delight in anecdotes, armchair psychology, speculation, and cutesy phrasing means that she frequently appears to mock or belittle issues of mental health, sexual abuse, and familial dysfunction. She then tries to right that boat by overcompensating with preachy judgment on the topics that she had earlier rolled into a delightful turn of phrase. This gets a little old. I also don't see how you can have a subject like Woolf, who is such a beautiful, prolific, and revealing writer, and quote so little from her books, letters, and diaries. The final slim chapter and epilogue, which talk about Virginia Woolf's marriage and her relationship with her niece and nephews, shows a hard-working, brilliant woman in a love-filled marriage of two flawed but well-matched people, who has a playful, insightful, and close relationship with her family members. You would not think this was the case from the flippant discussions of "madness" and intimate speculation on Woolf's sexuality. Gill also shoehorns in references to her own other biographies willy nilly, regardless of their relationship to Woolf (get ready for a lot of references to Agatha Christie, Queen Victoria, and Florence Nightengale). And she cites movies like they are academic works!
I will admit, I still loved reading this book. I am not above enjoying some sexy gossip, family skeletons, and hidden affairs. This is super readable and gives a very specific and flawed, but engaging, view on Woolf's world. Honestly, even if you don't like Virginia Woolf, lovers of British history, Bloomsbury in general, or popular biography may get a thrill from this one.
May 11, 2020
Cette biographie couvre très largement la famille élargie et les ami·es de Virginia Woolf. J'avoue que le sous-titre n'a pas particulièrement ressorti à me lecture au point où, en refermant le livre après l'avoir fini, je trouvais qu'on parlait pas mal plus de la famille de Woolf (ainsi que du groupe Bloomsbury) que d'autres choses ; j'ai relu le sous-titre et été un peu surpris· que c'était apparemment autour de femmes que l'essai s'articulait.
Honnêtement, ce n'est pas le genre de biographie qui m'intéresse, ça parle en long et en large de la vie privée de la famille, de Vanessa Bell surtout, de Woolf, des gens qu'elle côtoyait, on parle à peine de ses livres (probablement une cinquantaine de page max.) sinon qu'à part quelques clef de lecture sous la forme de personnages inspirés par tel ou telle personne ou encore des inspirations ça et là.
Je ne pense pas que ça parle tant que ça des femmes qui ont inspiré son monde pour être honnête, on parle certainement de sa maladie mentale (en refusant de la définir exactement ce qui ne m'a pas déplu), des événements de jeunesse qui auront influencé le restant de sa vie, ses cercles artistiques (bien que juste vers la fin et plutôt brièvement). Le tout est basé sur une large lecture de ses correspondances ainsi que des correspondances d'autres personnes autour de la vie de Woolf, ce n'est donc pas une analyse littéraire ou des thèmes de son oeuvre. On parle vraiment de la personne privée qu'était Virginia Woolf et des affaires privées qui la prenait.
L'autrice tente aussi de mettre de l'avant des faits moins connus (comme son arrière grand-mère indienne), des histoires d'agressions et de trucs assez limite incestueux, du groupe Bloomsbury et de l'homosexualité masculine. À peine évoque-t-on rapidement à la fin les lesbiennes qui l'ont influencé, presque de manière anecdotique alors qu'on parle très longuement de l'homosexualité masculine.
Bref, pour les fans absolus de VW, ça peut être intéressant, pour les gens qui s'intéressent plus à son oeuvre et à ses thèmes, je pense que ce n'est pas un passage obligé.
Honnêtement, ce n'est pas le genre de biographie qui m'intéresse, ça parle en long et en large de la vie privée de la famille, de Vanessa Bell surtout, de Woolf, des gens qu'elle côtoyait, on parle à peine de ses livres (probablement une cinquantaine de page max.) sinon qu'à part quelques clef de lecture sous la forme de personnages inspirés par tel ou telle personne ou encore des inspirations ça et là.
Je ne pense pas que ça parle tant que ça des femmes qui ont inspiré son monde pour être honnête, on parle certainement de sa maladie mentale (en refusant de la définir exactement ce qui ne m'a pas déplu), des événements de jeunesse qui auront influencé le restant de sa vie, ses cercles artistiques (bien que juste vers la fin et plutôt brièvement). Le tout est basé sur une large lecture de ses correspondances ainsi que des correspondances d'autres personnes autour de la vie de Woolf, ce n'est donc pas une analyse littéraire ou des thèmes de son oeuvre. On parle vraiment de la personne privée qu'était Virginia Woolf et des affaires privées qui la prenait.
L'autrice tente aussi de mettre de l'avant des faits moins connus (comme son arrière grand-mère indienne), des histoires d'agressions et de trucs assez limite incestueux, du groupe Bloomsbury et de l'homosexualité masculine. À peine évoque-t-on rapidement à la fin les lesbiennes qui l'ont influencé, presque de manière anecdotique alors qu'on parle très longuement de l'homosexualité masculine.
Bref, pour les fans absolus de VW, ça peut être intéressant, pour les gens qui s'intéressent plus à son oeuvre et à ses thèmes, je pense que ce n'est pas un passage obligé.
November 13, 2022
One of the best books I have read on Virginia Woolf and masterful how she brings all this important and thought provoking history into this narrative. My description is not entirely accurate because most of it isn't about VW and takes places in the generations before her birth. But that is part of what makes it so original, stimulating and readable. I am not sure why this book never got the attention it deserved - I did go back and read the NYT review which was so clueless, I can't imagine the reviewer even read the book. IN any case, it should have won prizes and is groundbreaking in its feminist take on history, lineage, women, the literary families of great britain and much more. I bought Gillian Gill
's other books and look forward to reading them.
's other books and look forward to reading them.
May 21, 2023
Informative and entertaining.
October 8, 2020
Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World by Gillian Gill is a biography of Virginia Woolf and her forebearers. Gill, who holds a Ph.D. in modern French literature from Cambridge University, has taught at Northeastern, Wellesley, Yale, and Harvard. She is the author of We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals; Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale; Agatha Christie: The Woman and Her Mysteries; and Mary Baker Eddy.
There are plenty of biographies of Virginia (née Stephen)Woolf as well as her collected letters and diaries. Her life still does hold a few mysteries, one very large aspect of her life, is covered in detail by Gill but not universally agreed on by Woolf scholars. Gill's work, however, is almost a prequel of Woolf. She goes back several generations to explore her French and Indian family background.
In digging deeper into Woolf's past, Gill explores the topic of mental illness in the Stephens lineage which affected many of Virginia's generation. Her Sister Vanessa was susceptible to breakdowns, another sister was institutionalized, and both her brothers showed signs of Cyclothymia. Although most of us would consider the middle of the 20th century as modern times, it is surprising how little was known about mental illness and its treatment.
Another aspect that is covered in this book is sexuality especially among those of the Bloomsbury Group and the upper levels of society. Homosexuality was more common than one would expect and there were more than a few show marriages meant to hide the crime of homosexuality. Although well known in the upper circles, it remained a secret from the public. Private matters were deemed to remain private. Gill ties in another term that was prevalent in England at the time and expands on it: homosocially. Segregation by sex was very common and began in early schooling and lasted through the university experience. The use of Jacob's Room is used to explain some of the concepts when Jacob decides to go swimming (skinny dipping) and to sun-dry afterward -- nudity among men was commonplace and although did not mean homosexuality, it may have encouraged it in some.
Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World is a well researched and very well documented work of the Stephens and Jackson (maternal) families. It examines the society that Virginia Woolf was raised in and lived as well as her personal conflicts. The Victorian society that shaped her early years. Her lack of formal education, but reading from a large family library. Her promiscuous friends and her abstinence. It is also one of the few biographies where Woolf's mental illness is not sensationalized and her relationship with Vita Sackville-West is not made a center point of her life. Virginia Woolf's life in many ways has strong ties to her ancestry and to the historical setting in which she lived. Gill does an outstanding job of providing a more complete picture of one of England's greatest 20th-century writers.
There are plenty of biographies of Virginia (née Stephen)Woolf as well as her collected letters and diaries. Her life still does hold a few mysteries, one very large aspect of her life, is covered in detail by Gill but not universally agreed on by Woolf scholars. Gill's work, however, is almost a prequel of Woolf. She goes back several generations to explore her French and Indian family background.
In digging deeper into Woolf's past, Gill explores the topic of mental illness in the Stephens lineage which affected many of Virginia's generation. Her Sister Vanessa was susceptible to breakdowns, another sister was institutionalized, and both her brothers showed signs of Cyclothymia. Although most of us would consider the middle of the 20th century as modern times, it is surprising how little was known about mental illness and its treatment.
Another aspect that is covered in this book is sexuality especially among those of the Bloomsbury Group and the upper levels of society. Homosexuality was more common than one would expect and there were more than a few show marriages meant to hide the crime of homosexuality. Although well known in the upper circles, it remained a secret from the public. Private matters were deemed to remain private. Gill ties in another term that was prevalent in England at the time and expands on it: homosocially. Segregation by sex was very common and began in early schooling and lasted through the university experience. The use of Jacob's Room is used to explain some of the concepts when Jacob decides to go swimming (skinny dipping) and to sun-dry afterward -- nudity among men was commonplace and although did not mean homosexuality, it may have encouraged it in some.
Virginia Woolf: And the Women Who Shaped Her World is a well researched and very well documented work of the Stephens and Jackson (maternal) families. It examines the society that Virginia Woolf was raised in and lived as well as her personal conflicts. The Victorian society that shaped her early years. Her lack of formal education, but reading from a large family library. Her promiscuous friends and her abstinence. It is also one of the few biographies where Woolf's mental illness is not sensationalized and her relationship with Vita Sackville-West is not made a center point of her life. Virginia Woolf's life in many ways has strong ties to her ancestry and to the historical setting in which she lived. Gill does an outstanding job of providing a more complete picture of one of England's greatest 20th-century writers.
December 20, 2019
Virginia Woolf is one of those names people know even if they wonder why they should be afraid of her. I admit that I haven't read any of Virginia Woolf's works yet, but this book now makes me want to do this. This book, primarily about the women who shaped her world as titled, also includes a lot about the men who were just as influential. For example, she wouldn't have that catchy last name of Woolf if she had not married Leonard Woolf who I find equally as interesting. I was delighted to learn more about the 19th century photographer, Julia Cameron, whose work I admire without knowing her connection to Virginia Woolf. For me, this book is a fascinating look at Victorian and Edwardian England among an affluent segment of society who still felt, as affluent people do today, that they are struggling while still actively pursuing social climbing. The women portrayed in this book are shown as an amazing group of women, doing the best they could often under challenging circumstances. I found this book very engaging and found myself choosing to read this over other activities. This book shows a lot of the societal restrictions for women, and actually everybody in Victorian times, as well as the deplorable state of health care of the era. This book made me a lot more sympathetic to Virginia Woolf's essentially life-long suffering from serious bouts of mental illness. It made how her life ended more understandable. As I read this in Dec. 2019, The Hours is currently on Amazon Prime. I started watching it as soon as I finished the book for reading this makes The Hours so much more meaningful and brings Virginia Woolf and her family to life for me. (I watched The Hours many years ago when it came out but it just seemed a sad movie - now I understand it so much more.)
August 7, 2022
I loved Gillan's Gill writing style, and her insight into the family dynamics was captivating. It was my first reading of a full-length biography of Virginia Woolf and I do feel like it was thorough/ helped me understand her better. This was basically a detailed overview of her background. More than a biography, it felt like a literary anthology as well as an explanation of the cultural context of the time. I was engaged by the discussion of the link between India and England and to read more about some of the extent in which they shaped each other. It's not often a conversation topic (at least here in Canada), but it seems like there is much to say about it. I loved the style/it was easy to read,interesting and felt more like a novel than an academic portrayal. (Which I see was criticized by others, but personally I feel like the research behind the facts was obvious. Some insights perhaps could have been considered subjective, but I think it just adds to the conversation) I want to know more about Pattledom!
As I started reading ''the Lighthouse'', I could distinguish Virginia's mother and some patterns of her own life. It made me so happy that I can understand and admire better her work thanks to this book. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a better understanding of that time period or of Virginia's life. Pattledom was so interesting! As well as the women in her life. There were many questions I had about the end of her life; her relationship with her sister, how did Leonard react to her affair with Vita? did he know she would commit suicide?
This was a great introduction though and I fully intend to read Gillian Gill's other works.
As I started reading ''the Lighthouse'', I could distinguish Virginia's mother and some patterns of her own life. It made me so happy that I can understand and admire better her work thanks to this book. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a better understanding of that time period or of Virginia's life. Pattledom was so interesting! As well as the women in her life. There were many questions I had about the end of her life; her relationship with her sister, how did Leonard react to her affair with Vita? did he know she would commit suicide?
This was a great introduction though and I fully intend to read Gillian Gill's other works.
July 6, 2024
It would have been quite the shock if I _hadn't_ loved this book, given my fondness for Bloomsbury in general and Virginia Woolf in particular. The first half of it feels a bit like that famous Emily Dickinson bio in which the poet is not born until the second volume, but that's more of a compliment than a criticism.
April 15, 2020
I was surprised how much I really enjoyed this book. Gill handles the women's lives adroitly and with insightful analysis, with sympathy to Virginia Woolf's trajectory, her social privileges and insight into how those victorian expectations shaped Bloomsbury and her writing.
Read
January 1, 2022I know that scholars have had their quibbles with this book, but I loved it. It gave me such a different view of Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, and the Bloomsbury group, and it covers a ton of ground, from the 18th century to mid-20th century.
March 31, 2024
This was a very odd biography. It was not very academically rigorous like Hermione Lee's biography or as psychologically motivated and thesis driven as de Salvo's. It was really all over the place focusing on influential women in Woolf's life...but barely covered Vita Sackville West one of the most significant romantic relationships in her life, in addition to Violet Dickinson or Ethyl Smith. These women should have had their own chapters. Instead we get like half a book focusing on distant relatives from her mother's family, the L'Entangs and Pattles, who Woolf didn't even know during her lifetime; Gill does little to make a case for why they would significantly influence her life and work, which it seems like they did not. Sadly, this book, published in 2019!, really seemed to downplay Woolf's romantic and sexual attraction to women. Woolf's sex life has been subjected to a lot of speculation during her life and after her death, with little sensitivity and often involving broad speculation and conjectures. While Gill does a better job revealing the atmosphere of SA and abuse of her childhood and the Bloomsbury group (Lee's biography has at times insensitive language and a somewhat ambiguous portrayal that minimizes this impact on her trauma on her life and work), Gill, really emphasized Woolf's "flirtation" with her brother-in-law Clive Bell (Gill never really defined this well--they never had an affair or any type of intimacy outside of a few letters) and implies that her relationship with Bell was a central influence in her adult life. She also suggests that Woolf's issues with heterosexual sex were related to her husband's poor lovemaking skills, rather than the fact that she was romantically attracted to women, a victim of sexual trauma, and probably on the asexual spectrum. This condescending statement from Gill completely erases asexuality, and SA trauma: "Virginia, as we have seen, had always felt more desire for women than men, one would expect her affair to be a glorious revelation to her. As it turned out, however, Virginia was no more homosexual than heterosexual, and Vita was no more able to make her relax and and feel comfortable in her body than awkward inexperienced Leonard had been" p340. Though Gill in half a sentence acknowledges the "LGBTQIA" spectrum, there is no real discussion of this. Unfortunately, there are few sensitive perspectives on Woolf's intimate relationships out there. Sadly, most material related to Woolf's relationships are done from the point of view of literary scholars, not psychologists. These scholars always fail to make the connection to suicide risk and LGBTQIA identity. Woolf's "madness" and suicide attempts are "infamous" but are rarely connect to factors in her life, except in the case of SA, which was has been downplayed and minimized for decades by most Woolf biographers except for de Salvo. There has also been little consideration of Woolf's obvious neurodiversity (she seems to display classic executive functioning issues) and no mention of some clinical psychological diagnoses which have been advanced in recent decades (bipolar disorder -Manuela V Boeira et al 2017). Obviously, Woolf was romantically attracted to women, suffered trauma that made physically intimate acts difficult, and was probably on the ace spectrum which is why she and Leonard basically had no physical relationship. Instead, of even discussing these things, Gill makes many speculative, gossipy comments, even implying that Leonard was a closeted homosexual with little evidence. Gill's book also does little to connect these "women" to Woolf's professional career to writing (particularity Orlando!), which is a missed opportunity and unworthy of a Woolf Scholar.
May 31, 2020
I’ve read two or three biographies of Virginia Woolf, but this one went at telling her story from a very different angle than usual. Gill goes back in time, and tells us about Woolf’s female predecessors. The women aren’t just her foremothers; Gill includes Anne Thackeray Ritchie, who while not well known now showed Woolf that a woman could be a successful writer, her siblings including half –sister Laura, who got called an ‘idiot’ and was put away in an asylum when she was in her 20s. Of course, her family also included men. Most were good, but her two half-brothers were nasty characters who sexually abused both Virginia and her sister Vanessa- and possibly Laura and Stella. It’s odd that Gill stresses that it was the women who shaped Woolf’s life, when she and her siblings (and her mother, Julia) were shaped very strongly by the male-dominated times in general and their family in particular. Later, Woolf became part of the influential (in intellectual terms) Bloomsbury group. This group was composed of mainly gay and bi men who had little use for women, but changed their minds when it came to Virginia, and her sister Vanessa, who both married into the group. Woolf and her sister transformed the group; the group transformed the women. It was here that Woolf found her literary voice.
Gill has a great enthusiasm for her subject. She sometimes writes in a breathless manner, as if she were a teenager writing about her heartthrob. It’s a somewhat odd choice of style, given how much scholarly research she put into the book, but it works. At times it’s like listening in on gossip; the Bloomsbury group seems to have put as much energy into their sex lives as they did into their art; a discussion of the grooming and marriage of Woolf’s niece to the former lover of the girl’s father is had. The only thing I found annoying was the author’s habit of jumping around in time- it made it even more difficult to sort out the large cast of characters. Four stars.
Gill has a great enthusiasm for her subject. She sometimes writes in a breathless manner, as if she were a teenager writing about her heartthrob. It’s a somewhat odd choice of style, given how much scholarly research she put into the book, but it works. At times it’s like listening in on gossip; the Bloomsbury group seems to have put as much energy into their sex lives as they did into their art; a discussion of the grooming and marriage of Woolf’s niece to the former lover of the girl’s father is had. The only thing I found annoying was the author’s habit of jumping around in time- it made it even more difficult to sort out the large cast of characters. Four stars.
February 7, 2020
This was really sort of two books mashed together. Gill starts out with chapters on the female ancestors of Woolf's mother Julia Jackson, which were full of information that was new to me and helped put all those cousins into context. I did not know that France had a toehold in India in the 18th and 19th centuries. (Apparently Woolf's great-great-great-grandmother was half French and half Bengali - I wish Gill had spent a page explaining how that is known instead of just citing a source and leaving it alone.) Then we get a very moving chapter on her mother, shedding surprising light on who in the Stephen household was the merciless one, and another on her half sister Stella Duckworth. This part of the book ends with section about Virginia's relationship with her sister Vanessa.
At that point the second book begins, a sort of compare-and-contrast of the adult lives of the two sisters. Gill gives Woolf her due and takes some of the shine off of Vanessa Bell, and this was of course all interesting. However, I feel like the premise of the title was somewhat lost here. The names of very important friends of Woolf are tossed about in passing, but we already know so much about Vanessa, in this book I would have liked more about other women who helped form Virginia's life. And you could almost believe that there were no women at all in her father's family as they do not figure here.
Altogether, many fresh takes and new angles here, and I want to go back to the letters and journals I haven't read in 30 years.
At that point the second book begins, a sort of compare-and-contrast of the adult lives of the two sisters. Gill gives Woolf her due and takes some of the shine off of Vanessa Bell, and this was of course all interesting. However, I feel like the premise of the title was somewhat lost here. The names of very important friends of Woolf are tossed about in passing, but we already know so much about Vanessa, in this book I would have liked more about other women who helped form Virginia's life. And you could almost believe that there were no women at all in her father's family as they do not figure here.
Altogether, many fresh takes and new angles here, and I want to go back to the letters and journals I haven't read in 30 years.
April 20, 2021
I'll admit, I expected more from the reviews and from this author. I had read Gillian Gill's biography of Florence Nightingale and it was fascinating. Well-researched and lively. Her book about Albert and Victoria "We Two: Victoria and Albert" is especially good.
This attempt at looking at Virginia Woolf through the women in her life never really gets off the ground. Gill does good work with the early figures in Woolf's life: her mother, Julia Stephens, of whom much has been written, but also cousins, aunts and step-sisters who may have made an impression on her.
But when Gill explores Virginia Woolf's relationship with her sister, Vanessa, her writing loses focus, gets too casual, presumptive and sloppy. Things really go off the rails when the Bloomsbury group is under discussion. Why so much focus on who is sleeping with who? Duncan Grant or Keynes or Bunny Garnett or Strachey....I thought this was about Virginia Woolf. I also would have liked deeper connections to the fictional woman Woolf created and the women in her life.
This attempt at looking at Virginia Woolf through the women in her life never really gets off the ground. Gill does good work with the early figures in Woolf's life: her mother, Julia Stephens, of whom much has been written, but also cousins, aunts and step-sisters who may have made an impression on her.
But when Gill explores Virginia Woolf's relationship with her sister, Vanessa, her writing loses focus, gets too casual, presumptive and sloppy. Things really go off the rails when the Bloomsbury group is under discussion. Why so much focus on who is sleeping with who? Duncan Grant or Keynes or Bunny Garnett or Strachey....I thought this was about Virginia Woolf. I also would have liked deeper connections to the fictional woman Woolf created and the women in her life.
October 26, 2020
Technically haven't finished yet, and not really planning to read the whole thing, word for word.
I am planning to return this book to the library tomorrow, and whatever I've finished, I'm good to part with this book.
I am taking notes on the parts I'd like to keep, but skimming a lot. I personally haven't read any of her books, but I'd like to.
The only biographies about literary people I feel compelled to buy are those about Jane Austen, but this one is written really well. Still, I don't think I will buy this book.
Virginia Woolf was a voracious reader and a copious writer. She is kind of how I imagine Jo March was. I had no idea that she was part-Bengali - on her mother's side, her great-great grandmother was Indian.
I am planning to return this book to the library tomorrow, and whatever I've finished, I'm good to part with this book.
I am taking notes on the parts I'd like to keep, but skimming a lot. I personally haven't read any of her books, but I'd like to.
The only biographies about literary people I feel compelled to buy are those about Jane Austen, but this one is written really well. Still, I don't think I will buy this book.
Virginia Woolf was a voracious reader and a copious writer. She is kind of how I imagine Jo March was. I had no idea that she was part-Bengali - on her mother's side, her great-great grandmother was Indian.
January 8, 2023
Recently bought this one on sale at Indigo. I have read a lot of biographies about Virginia and the other denziens of Bloomsbury. It seems that everyone has their own drum to beat when parsing the friendships, sex lives, and art of this group. In this case, I was gratified to see that Gill delves into some characters that are often missing from the context for Virginia's work, Julia Duckworth, and Laura Makepeace Thackery. I don't agree with all the conclusions that Gill draws, and I don't think that Virgina and Leonard were quite the pussycat sweethearts she makes them out to be, but I enjoyed the different lens. I am interested in reading her book on Colette, who is one of my obsessions, to see what she makes of her.
March 5, 2020
To be honest, the only thing I ever knew or heard about the name "Virginia Woolf" was a movie that came out when I was a child called "Who's Afraid o Virginia Woolf" with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. It was quite an intense motion picture, to say the least. After reading Gillian Gill's recount about the actual woman's life, I know have a better understanding and point of reference of things. It was an interesting read that kept me interested, appalled at her life, and left me somewhat sad for all she'd gone through. It was a great biography that filled in blanks I didn't realize I had.
September 3, 2020
Gill wrote a very readable biography about Woolf. She organized a great deal of information to give the reader a picture of Woolf, her family, and the time in which she lived. The section on the Bloomsbury group could have been better edited. The connections between persons in Woolf's life to those in her novels are informative and well done. Gill's wit and clearly identified commentary makes this an interesting biography of an intelligent woman.
December 12, 2020
The extensive research of Gillian Gill has be reconsidering the writing of Virginia Woolf, who suddenly seems a kindred spirit after all. Gill examines the events of Woolf's life, right up to her suicide by drowning.
June 30, 2025
interesting! much more about The Men Who Shaped Virginia Woolf’s World than advertised and i’m not sure how it stands up on a scholarly level compared to some other Woolf biographies, but i learned a lot and enjoyed reading about the lives of these people
May 16, 2020
Someone else here wrote the perfect review of this book. Very disappointing overall.
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