Hermione Lee sees Virginia Woolf afresh, in her historical setting and as a vital figure for our times. Her book moves freely between a richly detailed life-story and new attempts to understand crucial questions - the impact of her childhood, the cause and nature of her madness and suicide, the truth about her marriage, her feelings for women, her prejudies and obsessions. This is a vivid, close-up portrait, returning to primary sources, and showing Woolf as occupying a distinct, even uneasy position with 'Bloomsbury'. It is a writer's life, illustrating how the concerns of her work arise and develop, and a political life, which establishes Woolf as a radically sceptical, subversive, courageous feminist. Incorporating newly discovered sources and illustrated with photos and drawings never used before, this biography is a revelation -informed, intelligent and moving. (19970812)
Virginia Woolf
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"My God, how does one write a biography?" Virginia Woolf once asked. Hermione Lee begins her biography, Virginia Woolf, with the same question. Over the years, many biographers have approached Woolf from various directions: she was mad; she was abused; she was weak; she was a survivor. Quentin Bell, Woolf's nephew, wrote his biography of Woolf from a relative's perspective; now Hermione Lee presents yet another interpretation of the great writer's life. Certainly, she had her work cut out. Virginia Woolf was famous among her contemporaries for exaggeration and invention, making even her private diaries suspect, yet often within the pages of her fiction exist solid strands of autobiography. "The life-writer must explore and understand the gap between the outer self...and the secret self," Lee writes. In compiling her account of Woolf's life, she attempted to encompass both selves by researching letters, diaries, and personal papers, as well as Woolf's published works and previous biographies. Amazingly, she has organised this mass of information to present a clear and forceful picture of a woman who was brave, brilliant, and all too aware of the contradictions that raged within her. Virginia Woolf is a well written, well considered portrait befitting its maddeningly elusive subject.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"An outstanding achievement...superb" (Selena Hastings Sunday Telegraph )
"It is a lasting, and even a great, book. These are not terms one gets to use often, or should ever use lightly" (Michael Cunningham, Author Of The Hours )
"Lee's book is not only very good, but very necessary" (Penelope Fitzgerald )
"One of the most impressive biographies of the decade: moving, eloquent, powerful" (Financial Times )
"It is a lasting, and even a great, book. These are not terms one gets to use often, or should ever use lightly" (Michael Cunningham, Author Of The Hours )
"Lee's book is not only very good, but very necessary" (Penelope Fitzgerald )
"One of the most impressive biographies of the decade: moving, eloquent, powerful" (Financial Times )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 47 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book probably deserves more than 5 crowns.
Although Hermione Lee is an academic, and the work is scholarly, I was intrigued and my interest was caught right until the very end. I am not a scholar, and didn't find the book difficult.
Having read a number of books about Virginia Woolf, I can safely say that this one is outstanding. Hermione Lee is obviously a more than competent biographer, and the attention to detailed research in this work is superlative.
If were to make one tiny criticism, it is that the author tends to assume the reader will come prepared with a little background information, and thus if you are very new to Bloomsbury, may I suggest you read a general overview before embarking on this very extensive study.
I would advise anyone who has a genuine interest in the subject to take the time to read this big volume with the care it deserves - it is well worth any effort you may feel it demands of you. It is a very well written and highly informative study of a writer's life and the context in which she wrote, whilst at the same time exploring 'life-writing'. As such it would appeal to anyone who is interested in an imaginative account of one woman's attempt to meet the tension between autobiographical and fiction writing, head-on.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By booksmart
Format:Paperback
I don't usually read biography as I find it can be dry and poorly written but with the desire to learn more about the always intriguing Woolf and based on the complementary reviews of Lee's writing style I decided to make the change in genre with this book and what a good choice it was.
All that has been said is true; Lee grips the reader and progress through this dense work was quick, I only got it last week. This says a lot for Lee's style as, though interesting, Woolf's life, or the vast majority of it at least, shouldn't really be page-turning stuff. I had been afraid, considering some of the blurbs re the readability of the book that Lee would have simplified Woolf but the opposite is true, VW comes across as a complex, if not always likeable, character and the others of her group are similarly carefully portrayed (do not take this to mean kindly). A well worth while investment as a method of understanding Woolf and as a fine example of biography.
All that has been said is true; Lee grips the reader and progress through this dense work was quick, I only got it last week. This says a lot for Lee's style as, though interesting, Woolf's life, or the vast majority of it at least, shouldn't really be page-turning stuff. I had been afraid, considering some of the blurbs re the readability of the book that Lee would have simplified Woolf but the opposite is true, VW comes across as a complex, if not always likeable, character and the others of her group are similarly carefully portrayed (do not take this to mean kindly). A well worth while investment as a method of understanding Woolf and as a fine example of biography.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
By c westwood
Format:Paperback
One of the finest biographies around (along with Gibson's biography of Dali) - well turned, fascinatingly collated and considered for the inquisitive reader. Hermione Lee creates a template for the perfect biography; grouping thematic matter on Woolf while maintaining a strong chronological thread; filling the book with fasincating literary detail, but balancing this with gossip from the Bloomsbury group and beyond, and detailed historical contextualisation.
A masterpiece, engaging from start to finish, leaving the reader with a strong sense of Woolf, her work and her circle.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent
This is a really great biography, which is also very readable. A book I shall refer to again and again as I read more of Virinia Woolf's writings. Read more
Published 3 months ago by C H Bartlett
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic addition to the Bloomsbury canon
Having read the Quentin Bell biography years ago, I avoided this for many years considering it redundant - fool that I am. Read more
Published 4 months ago by George Massey
4.0 out of 5 stars
I like it
This book came quickly and fitted the description given, it was a used copy. There were no problems with it.
Published 4 months ago by Mrs. Helen S. Graham
5.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting story?
I apologise that this isn't a review of the book in question. But please bear with me - I will try to be brief. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Ann2shoes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful!
Without doubt the best biography of one of the 20th century's most important and most complex writers. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Kate Hopkins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Subtle and deeply intelligent
As other reviewers have mentioned, this isn't a traditional biography (although it does cover all the aspects of a `life') and is deeply theoretically-informed. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Roman Clodia
5.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting biography
I had steered clear of Mrs. Woolf's work due to a perceived effeteness to her aesthetics and apparent lack of a mitigating human touch in her writing. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Pierre C. Ruette
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Biography, Shoddy Publishing
In terms of the content, I can largely only echo the other 5 star reviews here. I have been put off Virginia Woolf's writing for many years and only come to it relatively recently... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Blencathra
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent.
I can't begin to praise this book enough, as an example of Hermione Lee's even handedness; having been a long time admirer of Virginia Wolf, there were certain chapters where I... Read more
Published on 24 April 2010 by D. Shanahan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply sublime.
Hermione Lee's biography of Woolf is terrific, serving not only as a moving and incredibly objective biography, but a fantastic piece of literary criticism. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2010 by Seldom Seen.
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