4. A Brief Biography
Adeline Virginia Woolf was born
January 25, 1882, into a large family,
in London, England. She grew up in
an atmosphere conducive to her
future career as a writer since her
father, Leslie Stephen, was a
respected and well-known
intellectual and writer. Although she
was not sent to a university as were
her brothers, she was able to educate
herself thoroughly by delving into the
volumes of her father's vast library.
5. Woolf grew up during a period of
intense feminist activity in London and
was an active member of various
women's organizations. By the time
she came into her own as a writer,
significant advances had been made in
women's rights. By 1918, a limited
franchise (vote) had been granted to
women in England. Also, since World
War I (1914-18) had thinned the ranks of
working men, women had begun to
enter the professions in large numbers.
Woolf began her career by writing
literary criticism, published her first
novel in 1915, and published both
fiction and nonfiction copiously until
her suicide in 1941.
6. She is well known internationally for her
many superb novels and collections of
essays. A Room of One's Own (1929)
and Three Guineas (1938) are important
feminist tracts written by Woolf.
Woolf and the man who would become
her husband, Leonard Woolf, were part
of a group of artists, writers, and
intellectuals known as the Bloomsbury
Group.
This group met regularly at Woolf and her brother's house
in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London before Woolf
married, when she was still known as Virginia Stephen.
After their marriage, the Woolfs began a small publishing
house, Hogarth Press, in 1917.
7. After Virginia Woolf met fellow
writer Vita Sackville-West in the
early 1920s, the two women had a
romantic affair that lasted for a
number of years.
Virginia and Vita first met at a dinner
party in 1922. After learning that Vita
was a writer, Virginia invited her to
publish a novel with her small press,
Hogarth Press.
Vita was from an aristocratic family,
the Sackville-West’s of Sevenoaks in
Kent where they lived in their
ancestral home called Knole house.
Vita and her husband, who were
both bisexual and both writers, had
an open marriage.
10. Woolf suffered bouts of mental disequilibrium throughout her life.
After each bout, especially as her life advanced, she worried that
the next time she might not return to full sanity. It was this fear,
combined with her sense of horror at the events of World War II
(1939-1944), that led her to take her own life. She drowned in
Sussex, England, on March 28, 1941.
14. o Woolf imagines the career of of
Shakespeare's fictional sister, Judith. What
happens to Judith, and why?
o How does Judith's fate show that "genius"
is not above history and material
circumstance?
o Why, according to Woolf, is Shakespeare so
little known as a person? What was granted
to him that would not have been granted
to a sister with equal potential?
15. o Why were men so prosperous and women so poor?
o What conditions are necessary for the creation of
works of art?
o Are the obstacles in the way of women’s success
also in the way of the Working Classes?
o Woolf has sometimes been criticized for being elitist:
how does Woolf’s class position affect her views?
o Are her theories about writing and poverty—for
both men and women—valid today?
17. • How did • Why does Woolf
Elizabethan begin by referring
gender roles limit to an eminent
opportunities in historian?
literature?
18. • Why does history • What is Woolf’s
treat sixteenth- point regarding
and seventeenth- the behavior of
century women Oscar Browning?
with so little
notice?
19. Questions
•Why does
Woolf worry
over the
relation of
opinions to
facts?
20. What is the Why does Woolf
difference have Judith
between the way Shakespeare
women are become pregnant?
represented in
history and the
way they are
depicted in fiction?
21. OPtions: Essay # 4: Suggestions for Writing
pages 454-55 1-6 or
pages 776-77, 1-6 and 9.
22. Happy
Thanksgiving!
Post #33 Essay #4
(1-2 pages)
Choose your topic
from "Suggestions
for Writing" pages
454-55, prompts 1-
6 or pages 776-77,
prompts 1-6 and 9.
