Virginia Woolf was a prominent English writer and central figure of the Bloomsbury Group. She was born in London in 1882 to Leslie Stephen, a man of letters, and Julia Duckworth Stephen. Woolf had a sketchy education but was allowed access to her father's library, determining from a young age to become a writer. She suffered from mental illness throughout her life and died by suicide in 1941. Woolf wrote many novels and essays that explored modernist themes through stream-of-consciousness narrative, including Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, and A Room of One's Own.

1. Prominent English writer, central figure
of Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals

2.  Born Adeline Virginia Stephen on January 25,
1882 in London
 Her father, Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), was a
man of letters who came from a family
distinguished for public service
 Her mother, Julia (1846-95), from whom
Virginia inherited her looks, was the
daughter and niece of the six beautiful Pattle
sisters (Julia Margaret Cameron was the
seventh: not beautiful but the only one
remembered today)

3. Henry Thoby
Prinsep of London.
Photograph by Julia
Margaret Cameron,
1866.
"Annie, my first
success", 29 January
1864. Cameron's first
print with which she
was satisfied.
Ellen
Terry photographed in
1864 by Julia Margaret
Cameron.

4.  She was also the niece of the
photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and
first cousin of the temperance leader Lady
Henry Somerset. Julia moved to England with
her mother, where she served as a model
for Pre-Raphaelite painters such as Edward
Burne-Jones.

5.  Both parents had been married before: her
father to the daughter of the novelist, William
Thackeray (Harriet Marian (Minny)), by whom he
had a daughter Laura (1870-1945) who was
intellectually backward; and her mother to a
barrister, Herbert Duckworth (1833-70), by whom
she had three children, George (1868-1934),
Stella (1869-97), and Gerald (1870-1937). Julia
and Leslie Stephen had four children: Vanessa
(1879-1961), Thoby (1880-1906), Virginia (1882-
1941), and Adrian (1883-1948). All eight children
lived with the parents and a number of servants
at 22 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington.

6.  Sir Leslie Stephen's eminence as an editor,
critic, and biographer, and his connection
to William Thackeray, meant that his children
were raised in an environment filled with the
influences of Victorian literary society

7.  Long summer holidays were spent at Talland
House in St Ives, Cornwall, and St Ives played
a large part in Virginia’s imagination. It was
the setting for her novel To the Lighthouse,
despite its ostensibly being placed on the Isle
of Skye. London and/or St Ives provided the
principal settings of most of her novels.

8.  Virginia was allowed uncensored access to
her father’s extensive library, and from an
early age determined to be a writer
 Her education was sketchy and she never
went to school.
 Vanessa trained to become a painter.
 Their two brothers were sent to preparatory
and public schools, and then to Cambridge.
There, Thoby made friends with Leonard
Woolf, Clive Bell, Saxon Sydney-Turner,
Lytton Strachey and Maynard Keynes.

9.  In 1895 her mother died unexpectedly, and
Virginia suffered her first mental breakdown.
Her half-sister Stella took over the running of
the household as well as coping with Leslie’s
demands for sympathy and emotional
support. Stella married Jack Hills in 1897,
but she too died suddenly on her return from
her honeymoon. The household burden then
fell upon Vanessa.

10.  Leslie Stephen died in 1904, and Virginia had
a second breakdown.
 It provoked her most alarming collapse and
she was briefly institutionalized
 Modern scholars have suggested her
breakdowns and subsequent
recurring depressive periods were also
influenced by the sexual abuse to which she
and her sister Vanessa were subjected by
their half-brothers George and Gerald
Duckworth (which Woolf recalls in her
autobiographical essays A Sketch of the
Past and 22 Hyde Park Gate).

11.  Following a trip to Greece in 1906, Thoby
died of typhoid and in 1907 Vanessa married
Clive Bell. Thoby had started ‘Thursday
evenings' for his friends to visit, and this kind
of arrangement was continued after his
death by Vanessa and then by Virginia and
Adrian when they moved to 29 Fitzroy Square

12.  Leonard Woolf had joined the Ceylon Civil
Service in 1904 and returned in 1911 on
leave. He soon decided that he wanted to
marry Virginia, and she eventually agreed.
They were married in St Pancras Registry
Office on 10 August 1912. They decided to
earn money by writing and journalism.

13.  Virginia Woolf died on March 28, 1941 near
Rodmell, Sussex, England. She left a note for
her husband, Leonard, and for her sister,
Vanessa. Then, Virginia walked to the River
Ouse, put a large stone in her pocket, and
drowned herself. Children found her body 18
days later.

14.  Voyage Out (Novel--1915)
 Night and Day (Novel--1919)
 Monday or Tuesday (Short Stories--1921)
 Jacob's Room (Novel--1922)
 Mrs Dalloway (Novel--1925)
 The Common Reader (Essays--1925)
 To the Lighthouse (Novel--1927)
 Orlando: A Biography (Novel--1928)
 A Room of One's Own (Essay--1929)
 The Waves (Novel--1931)
 Flush: A Biography (1933)
 The Common Reader Second Series (Essays--1935)
 The Years (Novel 1937)
 Three Guineas (Essay--1938)
 Between the Acts (Novel 1941)
 Collected Essays
 Collected Short Stories

15.  A1 THE VOYAGE OUT 1915
Novel.
• A2 THE MARK ON THE WALL 1917
This short story was included in the first publication of the Hogarth Press
entitled Two Stories (the other was by her husband Leonard). Reprinted in The
Complete Shorter Fiction (A60).
• A3 KEW GARDENS 1919
This short story was reprinted in The Complete Shorter Fiction (A60).
• A4 NIGHT AND DAY 1919
Novel.
• A5 MONDAY OR TUESDAY 1921
This collection of short stories was reprinted in The Complete Shorter
Fiction (A60).
• A6 JACOB'S ROOM 1922
Novel.
• A7 MR. BENNETT AND MRS. BROWN 1924
This essay was reprinted in The Essays, Vol. III (A65).
• A8 THE COMMON READER 1925
This collection of essays was reprinted in The Essays, Vol. IV (A74).
• A9 MRS. DALLOWAY 1925
Novel.

16.  • A11 ORLANDO: A BIOGRAPHY 1928
Novel.
• A12 A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN 1929
Extended essay: a woman must have £500 a year and
a room of her own if she is to write fiction.
• A16 THE WAVES 1931
Novel.
• A18 THE COMMON READER: SECOND SERIES 1932
Essays.
• A19 FLUSH: A BIOGRAPHY 1933
A fictional biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s
dog.
• A22 THE YEARS 1937
Novel.
• A23 THREE GUINEAS 1938
Extended essay on the interrelationship between war,
masculinity, and women’s education and
employment.
• A25 ROGER FRY: A BIOGRAPHY 1940

17.  • A26 BETWEEN THE ACTS 1941
(ed. by Leonard Woolf) Novel.
• A27 THE DEATH OF THE MOTH AND OTHER ESSAYS 1942
(ed. by Leonard Woolf)
• A28 A HAUNTED HOUSE AND OTHER SHORT STORIES 1943
[i.e. 1944]
(ed. by Leonard Woolf) This collection of short stories was
reprinted in The Complete Shorter Fiction (A60).
• A29 THE MOMENT AND OTHER ESSAYS 1947
(ed. by Leonard Woolf)
• A30 THE CAPTAIN'S DEATH BED AND OTHER ESSAYS [1950]
(ed. by Leonard Woolf)
• A31 A WRITER'S DIARY 1953
(ed. by Leonard Woolf) Extracts from the complete diary.
• A34 GRANITE AND RAINBOW 1958
(ed. by Leonard Woolf) Essays.
• A35 CONTEMPORARY WRITERS 1965
(ed. by Jean Guiguet) Essays.

18.  • A37, A39 COLLECTED ESSAYS: VOLUMES 1-4 1966-1967
(ed. by Leonard Woolf) A reprinting and re-ordering of the essays in A8,
A18, A27, A29, A30, and A34.
• A41 A COCKNEY'S FARMING EXPERIENCES 1972 [i.e. 1973]
(ed. by Suzanne Henig) Juvenilia. Reprinted in 1994.
• A42 MRS DALLOWAY'S PARTY 1973
(ed. by Stella McNichol) This collection of short stories was reprinted
in The Complete Shorter Fiction (A60).
• A44 THE FLIGHT OF THE MIND 1975
(ed. by Nigel Nicolson with Joanne Trautmann) Collected letters, Vol. I,
1888-1912.
• A45 MOMENTS OF BEING 1976
(ed. by Jeanne Schulkind) Autobiography.
* A46 FRESHWATER [1976]
(ed. by Lucio P. Ruotolo) Play.
• A47 THE QUESTION OF THINGS HAPPENING 1976
(ed. by Nigel Nicolson with Joanne Trautmann) Collected letters, Vol. II,
1912-1922.
• A48 THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF: VOLUME I 1977
(ed. by Anne Olivier Bell) 1915-1919
• A49 BOOKS AND PORTRAITS 1977
(ed. by Mary Lyon) Essays.

19.  • A51 A CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE 1977
(ed. by Nigel Nicolson with Joanne Trautmann) Collected
letters, Vol. III, 1923-1928.
• A52 THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF: VOLUME II 1978
(ed. by Anne Olivier Bell with Andrew McNeillie) 1920-1924.
• A53 A REFLECTION OF THE OTHER PERSON 1978
(ed. by Nigel Nicolson with Joanne Trautmann) Collected
letters, Vol. IV, 1929-1931.
• A53.1 WOMEN AND WRITING [1979]
(ed. by Michèle Barrett) Selected essays.
• A54 THE SICKLE SIDE OF THE MOON 1979
(ed. by Nigel Nicolson with Joanne Trautmann) Collected
letters, Vol. V, 1932-1935.
• A55 THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF: VOLUME III 1980
(ed. by Anne Olivier Bell with Andrew McNeillie) 1925-1930.
• A56 LEAVE THE LETTERS TILL WE'RE DEAD 1980
(ed. by Nigel Nicolson with Joanne Trautmann) Collected
letters, Vol. VI, 1936-1941.

20.  • A57 THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF: VOLUME IV 1982
(ed. by Anne Olivier Bell with Andrew McNeillie) 1931-
1935.
• A59 THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF: VOLUME V 1984
(ed. by Anne Olivier Bell with Andrew McNeillie) 1936-
1941.
• A60 THE COMPLETE SHORTER FICTION [1985]
(ed. by Susan Dick)
• A62 THE ESSAYS: VOLUME 1 [1986]
(ed. by Andrew McNeillie) 1904-1912.
• A63 THE ESSAYS: VOLUME 2 [1987]
(ed. by Andrew McNeillie) 1912-1918.
• A65 THE ESSAYS: VOLUME 3 [1988]
(ed. by Andrew McNeillie) 1919-1924.
• A66 CONGENIAL SPIRITS [1989]
(ed. by Joanne Trautmann Banks) One-volume selection
from the collected letters.

21.  • A67 A MOMENT'S LIBERTY 1990
(ed. by Anne Olivier Bell) One-volume selection from the
complete diary
• A68 A PASSIONATE APPRENTICE [1990]
(ed. by Mitchell A. Leaska) The early journals, 1897-1909.
• A69 PAPER DARTS [1991]
(ed. by Frances Spalding) Selected letters with many
illustrations.
• A70 A WOMAN'S ESSAYS [1992]
(ed. by Rachel Bowlby) Selected essays.
• A71 SELECTED SHORT STORIES [1993]
(ed. by Sandra Kemp)
• A72 THE CROWDED DANCE OF MODERN LIFE [1993]
(ed. by Rachel Bowlby) Selected essays.
• A73 TRAVELS WITH VIRGINIA WOOLF [1993]
(ed. by Jan Morris) Travel writings.
• A74 THE ESSAYS: VOLUME 4 [1994]
(ed. by Andrew McNeillie) 1925-1928.
• THE ESSAYS: VOLUME 5 [2009]
(ed. by Stuart N. Clarke) 1929-1932.
• THE ESSAYS: VOLUME 6 [2011]
(ed. by Stuart N. Clarke) 1933-1941.