Who’s Afraid?
Virginia Woolf
Really and truly, I had no idea how to start this. When I first began to read Mrs Dalloway, I
didn’t realise the path the book would actually take and to me, what started
with a nice walk along Bond Street took a downwards spiral to something that
resembled a party plot of ‘Keeping up Appearances.’ To be honest, I couldn’t
wait to finish the book and on this occasion, the author is definitely more
interesting to me than this particular story. Please forgive me if I’ve offended
any of you by saying that and sadly, I wouldn’t be inclined to read any of her
other work.
The troubled life of Adeline Virginia Stephen started on the
25th of January 1882 in London England. But if you read the authors
memoirs, her most vivid memories are of St Ives, Cornwall where the family
spent every summer up to 1895.
Her tragic descent began when she lost her mother in that
very year at the age of 13 and then the loss of her half-sister two years
later, led to the first of Virginia’s many breakdowns. The death of her father in
1904 led to her being institutionalised. Her breakdowns and subsequent mood
swings were also said to be the result of sexual abuse from her half-brothers
which is included in her memoirs.
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| The plaque on the house in Hyde Park Gate |
Educated by her parents in their home in Hyde Park Gate,
Virginia did later attend Kings College and studied several languages in the
ladies department. Woolf began her
writing career in 1900 for the Times and her first novel was published in 1915.
Some might say that a story slightly reflects the personal experience of the
writer. If this is the case, in my opinion,
it seems that her private world made a public debut in much of her work.
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| The picture of Woolf on a window of Kings College |
Woolf was a member of the Bloomsbury group and played a part
in the Dreadnought Hoax dressed as an Abyssinian prince. The six members sent a telegram to HMS
Dreadnought instructing that the ship must be prepared for the group of princes
to visit. The UK foreign office even
arranged a VIP coach for the group. The
group showed their appreciation of the tour with the words ‘Bunga Bunga.’ When
revealed as a hoax, the expedition was an embarrassment to the Navy and the Home
Office and when the official Emperor of Ethiopia requested to view the vessel,
the request was declined.
She married Leonard Woolf in 1912 and although she was
troubled mentally and extremely fond of the same sex, their marriage was in her
words, complete. There were never any children of course, but if you read into
her life, it’s to be expected.
Virginia spent the last years of her life with her husband
in Sussex at Monks House which is now maintained by the National Trust. After completing the manuscript of her last
novel, she slipped once again into a deep depression and on the 28th
of March 1941 after writing her last words in a note to her husband, she filled
her pockets with stones and walked into the River Ouse.
The tragic life of Virginia Woolf is a story that affects
everybody differently and it’s definitely worth telling you that, Once upon a
time in 1941, a woman who loved her work, fell out of love with the world and
left it behind.
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