Wolfe, Virginia

Early years

Virginia Woolf was born on January 25, 1882, on 22 Hyde Park Gate Street in Kensington , London ^[2] . Her father was a biographer Leslie Stephen (1832-1904) ^[2] ; her mother, philanthropist and model, Julia Princessepia Duckworth, Stephen (1846-1895). Julia Stephen was born in British India in the family of John and Mary Pettle Jackson. She was the great-granddaughter of photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and a cousin of the women's rights activist, Lady Henry Somerset . Julia moved to England with her mother, where she posed for artists such as Edward Burne-Jones ^[3] . Julia named her daughters in honor of the Jackson family: Adeline in honor of Lady Henry Somerset's sister, Adeline Marie Russell , Duchess of Bedford, and Virginia, in honor of her other sister, who died in her youth ^[4] .

Wolfe was raised by her parents in socially acceptable living conditions. Her parents were both previously married and widowed, therefore, the family contained children from three marriages. Julia gave birth to three children from her first husband, Herbert Duckworth: George , Stella and Gerald Duckworth . Leslie was previously married to Harriet Marian Thackeray (1840–1875), the daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray , they had one daughter in marriage - Laura Stefan Makepeace, who was later found to be insane and lived with her family, and then in a mental hospital since 1891 ^{[5 ]} . Julia and Leslie had four children together: Vanessa Stephen (later known as Vanessa Bell ) (born 1879), Toby Stephen (b. 1880), Virginia (b. 1882) and Adrian Stephen (b. 1883).

Leslie Stephen - highly educated as an editor, critic, and biographer - his connection with William Thackeray meant that his children were raised in an environment filled with the influence of a Victorian literary society. Henry James , George Henry Lewis, and Virginia's godfather, James Russell Lowell , were among the visitors to the house. Relatives of Julia also influenced their children. Her aunt Julia Margaret Cameron was a photographer who also visited the Stephen family. The literary influence was also exerted by the huge libraries in the house of the Stephen family, of which Virginia and Vanessa were trained in classics and English literature. Their brothers Adrian and Julian (Toby) were formally educated and sent to Cambridge University. Virginia noted this manifestation of inequality and later condemned it in its works. However, the advantage of studying young people in Cambridge for sisters was the fact that later their intellectual friends were invited to the house ^[6] . Virginia studied Greek with two home teachers ( Klara Pater and Janet Case ), and in 1925 reflected this experience in the essay “On ignorance of Greek”. ^[7]

According to Wolfe's memoirs, her most vivid childhood memories were not from London, but from St. Ives , Cornwall , where the family spent every summer until 1895. The Stephen family had a summer house there, overlooking Portminster Bay, he still stands there, although somewhat modified. The memories of these family holidays and the impressions of the landscape, especially the Godrevi lighthouse , left their mark in later years, especially in the novel Lighthouse . She described why she felt so good there, in a diary entry dated March 22, 1921: “Why am I thinking of Cornwall so incredibly, incurably and romantically? Because of the past, I suppose. I see children running in the garden ... the sound of the sea at night ... almost forty years of life, everything is built on this, saturated with this: so much that I can’t explain ” ^[8] .

The sudden death of her mother in 1895, and two years later the death of her half-sister Stella, when Virginia turned thirteen, led to the first of several of Virginia's nervous breakdowns . After her mother and sister died, she lost her brother Toby at the beginning of the 20th century ^[9] . However, she had the strength to attend training courses at the Royal College of London women's department between 1897 and 1901. There she met highly educated women of reformist views, such as Liliane Faithfull , Clara Pater and Georgina Warr ^[10] . Her sister Vanessa also studied Latin, Italian, art and architecture at this college. In 2013, one of the buildings in this college was named after Virginia Woolf ^[11] .

The death of her father in 1904 provoked her most severe attack of depression , and she was briefly hospitalized ^[5] . The writer recovered after treatment with her friend Violet Dickinson and her aunt Caroline in Cambridge ^[12] . Modern scholars, including her nephew and biographer, Quentin Bell , believe that her attacks and subsequent recurring depressive periods were also triggered by the sexual abuse that she and her sister Vanessa suffered from their stepbrothers George and Gerald Duckworth ^[13] , as well as the condemnation of her gay sexual orientation, Woolf wrote about this in his autobiographical essays ^[14] .

Throughout his subsequent life, Wolfe was tormented by periodic mood swings and concomitant diseases. She spent three short periods in 1910, 1912, and 1913 at Burley House , London, described as a private home for women with nervous disorders ^[15] . Although this instability often influenced her social life and adaptation in society, she continued her literary activities intermittently throughout her life.

Bloomsbury

After the death of their father and the second nervous breakdown of Virginia, Vanessa and Adrian sold their old house and bought house 46 in Gordon Square in the Bloomsbury area. Wolfe soon met Lytton Streychi , Clive Bell , Rupert Brook , E.M. Forster , Saxon Sydney-Turner , Duncan Grant , Leonard Wolf , John Maynard Keynes , David Garnett and Roger Fry , together with whom she founded the intellectual circle of writers and artists, known as the Bloomsbury Circle . Several members of the group achieved fame in 1910 with Dreadnought hoax "In which Virginia took part. Her full talk of hoaxes was discovered and published in her memoirs collected in the expanded edition of The Platform of Time (2008). In 1907, Vanessa married Clive Bell, and a couple of percent of the art they invested in Vanguard had an important impact on Wolfe and her development as an author ^[16] .

Virginia soon married writer Leonard Woolf on August 10, 1912. ^[17] Despite his low material status, Wolfe fell in love with Leonard and the couple shared a close relationship. In 1937, Wolfe wrote in her diary: "After 25 years of love, we could not be apart from each other ... I saw this as a great pleasure." The couple also collaborated professionally, in 1917 they founded the publishing house Hogart Press ”, Which subsequently published several Virginia novels, together with the works of Thomas Sterns Eliot , Lawrence Van der Post and others ^[18] . Hogarth Press has also released several works by contemporary artists, including Dora Carrington and Vanessa Bell . Wolfe believed that in a patriarchal society, women writers needed support to work and often dreamed of an outsider society, where women writers create a virtual personal space for themselves and through their work, feminist criticism of society develops. Although such a society was not created, the Hogart Press publishing house was as close as possible to writers who had unconventional points of view and formed their own readership. Until 1930, Wolfe often helped her husband print books at the publishing house, as there was no money for employees. Virginia and Leonard were internationalists and pacifists who believed that strengthening mutual understanding between nations was the best way to avoid a new world war and decided to consciously publish works by foreign authors that the British reading public was not aware of. The first foreign author to publish them was the Soviet writer Maxim Gorky .

Virginia Woolf invited the Bloomsbury group to take a liberal approach to human sexuality, so in 1922 she met writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West , wife of Harold Nicholson . Soon after they met, they began a romantic relationship, which according to Vita in a letter to her husband on August 17, 1926 was just a small sexual relationship ^[19] . However, the proximity of Virginia with Vita continued in the early 1930s ^[20] .

Vita Sackville-West worked tirelessly to raise Wolfe's self-esteem, telling her not to look at herself as a recluse prone to illness, who should hide from the world, she also praised Virginia for her liveliness, wit, intellect and achievements as a writer ^[21] . Vita insisted that Wolfe overestimate her human qualities, developing a more positive image of herself, this created the impression that the works of Virginia were the products of her strengths, not weaknesses ^[22] . Starting at the age of 15, Wolfe's father and doctor believed that reading and writing were harmful to her mental state, requiring a physical labor regime such as gardening to prevent a nervous breakdown. In this regard, Virginia spent a lot of time obsessed with such physical labor. Vita Sackville-West was the first to tell Wolfe that she was diagnosed incorrectly and that she would benefit from reading and writing that would calm her psyche ^[23] . Under the influence of Vita, Sackville-West Wolf learned to cope with her illness by switching between various forms of intellectual activity, such as reading, writing and book reviews, instead of wasting her time on physical activities that took her strength and worsened her psyche ^{[ 24]} . Vita Sackville-West decided to publish at the Hogarth Press to help Wolf financially. Seducers in Ecuador, the first of Vita’s novels published by Hogarth Press, was not successful, only 1,500 copies were sold in the first year, but Vita Sackville-West’s next novel, published by this publishing house, became a bestseller, 30 were sold 000 thousand copies in the first six months.

In 1928, Virginia Woolf introduced Vita Sackville West in her novel Orlando , which was a fantastic biography in which the hero of the same name covers three centuries of life, half of them living as a man and the other half as a woman. Nigel Nicholson , Vita’s son Sackville West wrote: “Vita’s influence on Virginia is contained in the novel Orlando, which is the longest and most charming love letter in literature, in it she explores Vita, weaves it into centuries, throws it from one gender to another, plays with her, dresses her in furs, lace and emeralds, teases her, flirts with her and creates droplets of fog around her ” ^[25] . After their romance ended, both women remained friends until the death of Virginia Woolf in 1941.

Death

With the outbreak of World War II, fear for a husband who was Jewish led to the return of seizures and headaches. Their London house was destroyed during an air raid. After completing work on the manuscript of the last (posthumously published) novel, Between the Acts, Wolfe fell into a deep depression , she could no longer work ^[26] . After the end of World War II, Wolfe's diary indicates that she was obsessed with death and her mood was darkened more and more ^[27] . Considering that he could no longer torment Leonard and that it would be easier for him, Virginia Woolf, leaving a letter to her husband and sister, put on her coat on March 28, 1941, filled pockets with stones and drowned herself in the River , not far from their house in Sussex ^[28] . The body was found by the children two weeks after the tragedy, on April 18, 1941, the writer’s husband buried her cremated remains under an elm tree in the garden of a house in Sussex ^[29] . In a suicide note, Virginia wrote to her husband:

Psychiatrists have suggested that Wolfe suffered from a mental illness, described as manic-depressive psychosis . In 1992, Thomas Camaggio 's book “The Flight of the Mind: Virginia Woolf's Art and Manic-Depressive Illness” describes various views on her mental illness so that she could understand how she was able to create so many unique works ^[32] . The book by Stephen Tromblein describes Wolfe’s conflict with her doctors, it also says that Wolfe may have been a victim of “male medicine” , bearing in mind the then lack of understanding about her mental illness ^[33] .

In Irene Coates ’s book, “Who's Afraid of Leonard Woolf: A Case for the Sanity of Virginia Woolf,” it is assumed that Leonard Woolf did not support her during treatment and was ultimately responsible for her death. Although this theory has been extensively studied from a feminist point of view, it has not been accepted by the Leonard family and some critics ^[34] . In Victoria Glendinning’s book, Leonard Woolf: A Biography , she writes that Leonard Wulf not only supported his wife, but also created an atmosphere for her in which she could write. Virginia's own diaries support this view ^[35] .

Despite Wolfe being married to a Jew, she often wrote about Jewish characters in stereotypical archetypes and generalizations, including describing some of her Jewish characters as physically repulsive and dirty ^[36] . For example, while traveling on a cruise in Portugal, she protested due to the presence of many Portuguese Jews on board and shunned them ^[37] .

In addition, she wrote in her diary: "I do not like the Jewish voice, I do not like the Jewish laughter." In 1930, in a letter to composer Ethel Smith , quoted by Nigel Nicholson in Virginia Woolf’s biography, she recalls her dislike of Leonard’s Jewishness, confirming her snobbish tendencies: “How I hated marriage with a Jew - that I had a snob because they have great stamina " ^[38] .

In another letter to Smith, Wolfe sharply condemns Christianity, seeing in it self-confident egoism and saying that her husband, a Jew, has more religion in one nail and more human love in one hair ^[39] . Wolfe claimed in her private letters that she considered herself an atheist. ^[40]

In the 1930s, Virginia and her husband Leonard came to a negative attitude towards fascism and anti-Semitism . For example, in her book , published in 1938, Virginia condemned fascism and the tendency of patriarchal societies to enforce traditions by violence ^[41] .

Virginia's novels were published not only in England but also in the United States, translated into 50 languages, including translations of writers such as Jorge Luis Borges and Marguerite Jursenar . She is considered one of the best novelists of the 20th century and an advanced modernist writer. Wolfe is considered the main innovator of the English language . In her works, she experimented with a stream of consciousness and highlighted not only the psychological, but also the emotional component in the behavior of the main characters.

Her popularity declined after World War II, but interest in her works returned after feminist movements in the 1970s. Her novels carry a large share of experimentalism : the narrative often does not have a clear plot and place of events. Deep lyricism and stylistic virtuosity are combined, filling the novels with auditory and visual images.

Wolfe began writing professionally in 1900, first in a literary supplement for The Times . Her first novel, “ Off the Sea, ” was published in 1915 with the active assistance of her brother. She edited the novel several times.

The deep poetry of the images fills the habit of life in her novels. So, for example, the novel “ Mrs. Dalloway ” (1925) shows the attempt of Clarissa Dalloway, a middle class, to organize an evening, despite the fact that through her life there is a parallel with the life of Septimus Warren Smith, a World War I veteran from the working class.

The novel “ At the Lighthouse ” (1927) has a plot that takes place over two days. The plot tells about a family who is going to visit the lighthouse and about family disagreements that occur at this time. One of the main themes of the novel is the struggle in the creative process. The heroine is trying to draw while a family drama is being played. The novel also contains discussions about the life of the people during the war and the rights of women in marriage.

The novel Orlando (1928) is a parody biography of a young aristocrat who has lived for three centuries without aging, but at the same time suddenly turns into a woman. This book is a partial biography of Wolfe's mistress, Vita Sackville West. In this novel, the style of historical biographies is brought to the point of absurdity. At the same time, critic N. Melnikov notes: “The Virginia Woolf novel-drawing is not only a fun literary skit, a light-hearted exercise in stylistic mimicry, a parody of biographical compositions and a travesty transposition of the chronicles of the aristocratic Sequille family. It is also an interesting excursion into the history of culture and morals of England, and a philosophical, in the spirit of Henri Bergson and Proust , study of the dual nature of time, and comprehension of questions that are of vital importance for the writer herself - about the meaning of literary creativity, the artist’s place in society and his complex relationship with the spirit of the time. " The image of Orlando itself, to some extent, is the lyrical “I” of Virginia Woolf, expressing her innermost thoughts and feelings. By his dual nature, Orlando expresses the writer’s cherished idea (picked up from Coleridge and developed in the essay “Own Room”) about the androgyny of truly creative consciousness, in which the rational (masculine) and intuitive-sensual (feminine) principles harmoniously coexist ” ^[42] .

The novel " Waves " (1931) is a soloquia of six friends, whose images create an atmosphere of the wave, and which is more like poetry in prose than a novel with a plot.

Flash (1933) is partly a literary work, and partly a biography of a cocker spaniel, whose hostess is Victorian poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The book is written on behalf of the dog.

Her latest work, Between Acts (1941), focuses on the main theme of the writer: the transformation of life through art, the transience of time and life. This is the most lyrical book among the works of the writer, not only in terms of feelings, but also of style.

The novel “ Clock A 1998 Pulitzer Prize by Michael Cunningham describes three generations of women who were influenced by Wolfe's Mrs. Dalloway novel. In 2002, in the film adaptation of the novel, the role of Wolfe was played by Nicole Kidman , for which she received the Oscar in 2003, for " Best Actress ". Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep also starred in the film.

Susan Celers in Vanessa and Virginia (2008) explores the close relationship between Wolfe and her sister, Vanessa Bell. On it in 2010, a play was staged with Elizabeth Wright in the title role. The character of the animated series Rocko's Modern Life, Virginia Woolf, is named after the writer ^[43] . An exhibition dedicated to Virginia Woolf was held at the National Portrait Gallery from July to October 2014 ^[44] .

Edward Albee ’s play “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” ( 1962 ) and the film of the same name ( 1966 )

The writer is dedicated to the play by Edna O'Brien Virginia ( 1981 ), which successfully went on the stages of the world; in London, the lead role was played by Maggie Smith .

The songs “What the Water Gave Me”, “Never Let Me Go”, “Landscape” by the English group Florence + The Machine are associated with the suicide and work of the writer Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf also influenced Margaret Atwood , Michael Cunningham ^[45] , Gabriel Garcia Marquez ^[46] and Tony Morrison ^[47] .

Films

• 1977 - Simple Gifts
• 1982 - The Waves
• 1983 - At the Lighthouse
• 1990 - “ Own room ”
• 1992 - Orlando
• 1997 - Mrs. Dalloway
• 2002 - The Watch
• 2018 - “ Vita and Virginia "

Virginia Wolf Works

Вторичные источники

• Британское общество Вирджинии Вулф (англ.)
• Международное общество Вирджинии Вулф (англ.)
• Works by Virginia Woolf
• Подробная биография Вирджинии Вульф (рус.)