Anne, did you take Ellen's Woolf Seminar at Purdue? I felt simultaneously awed and intimidated, so much so that--with the exception of A Room of One's Own--I avoided Woolf for years. Now, in my fifties, I'm finally returning to her work. I'm teaching a Subversive Women Writers course next semester and plan to add Orlando or Mrs. Dalloway to the reading list!
One thing I appreciate about Woolf is how I've been able to read her at different ages and find new things in her work as I get older. I first read Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse when I was 19. I loved the language and structure then. Her descriptions in To the Lighthouse were especially astonishing. I mentioned before that I've returned to the Time Passes section of To the Lighthouse often over the past thirty (!) years since I first read it, as I take a lot of comfort in it. The first time I read it, I was first blown away just by the language and description in the section--and that you could actually do that in a novel, that near the beginning.
At that time, reading Virginia Woolf was also something of a status symbol. Indigo Girls had recently recorded their song about her. Reading her diaries was a kind of intellectual Girl Scout badge. My mother's new husband gave me a copy of Quentin Bell's biography of her as a gift then, attempting to bond with me.
Over the years, I've most often re-read Mrs. Dalloway--the older I get, the more I see in Mrs. Dalloway's perspective, what seeing an old beau suddenly can do to you, what it's like to try to make sense of one's own past and identity. I read a lot of Woolf the fall of 2005--that summer, my beloved aunt died and then we had to evacuate our home in New Orleans because of Katrina. As my husband and I tried to figure out our next step while staying with family in Tennessee, we got library cards, and I read a lot of Woolf. The quiet tone of her books was a balm.
Thank you for the beautiful letter. I am so glad I've joined for real (=paid subscription). I've tried to teach a course in Woolf but did not succeed in one place (lost too many people) and in the other am not sure I reached them _about Woolf_. Conveyed her text or meaning. You did that in this letter -- well you did a part of what one needs to do to reach Woolf. This is very good for me to start my day with.
Yes I'm a Woolf fan -- I've been reading her for years, tried a couple of times to write an essay for publication on her biographical art -- its links to earlier biographical art that is socially and psychologically intelligent. There is a strain or vein (or books as early as George Cavendish that do this). I love literary biography especially. I love her literary essays as much as the novels -- better than some of them. I forget the other questions you asked.
I will be trying to read your letters on the morning they come in. Not wait so as to be sure and do it. I have read your book on Constance Fennimore Woolson, on the 4 19th century American women writers, and on Little Women. I have not read these diary newsletter as well or frequently as I ought to have but will try now to make up for that. I love your courage for breaking away entirely from your moorings to find and to build a new life. I will say more as I continue to comment.
Anne, I love that reading Virginia Woolf is inspiring you "to write literature itself rather than only about literature." Discovering writers who gobsmack you into wanting to do more with your own writing, discover more about yourself, go out into the world and conquer: that's what literature can do in those rare and wonderful moments when you connect deeply with what you are reading.
I have never been able to connect with Virginia Woolf. I feel like I SHOULD like Virigina Woolf, and I've tried reading To the Lighthouse on several occasions during the past three or four decades. Either the time is never right or Virginia and I simply are not simpatico. Perhaps I should give her yet another try. Can you recommend any other Woolf books you like, since I am hesitant to try To the Lighthouse again? Many thanks!
Anne, did you take Ellen's Woolf Seminar at Purdue? I felt simultaneously awed and intimidated, so much so that--with the exception of A Room of One's Own--I avoided Woolf for years. Now, in my fifties, I'm finally returning to her work. I'm teaching a Subversive Women Writers course next semester and plan to add Orlando or Mrs. Dalloway to the reading list!
Thanks so much. More please.
One thing I appreciate about Woolf is how I've been able to read her at different ages and find new things in her work as I get older. I first read Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse when I was 19. I loved the language and structure then. Her descriptions in To the Lighthouse were especially astonishing. I mentioned before that I've returned to the Time Passes section of To the Lighthouse often over the past thirty (!) years since I first read it, as I take a lot of comfort in it. The first time I read it, I was first blown away just by the language and description in the section--and that you could actually do that in a novel, that near the beginning.
At that time, reading Virginia Woolf was also something of a status symbol. Indigo Girls had recently recorded their song about her. Reading her diaries was a kind of intellectual Girl Scout badge. My mother's new husband gave me a copy of Quentin Bell's biography of her as a gift then, attempting to bond with me.
Over the years, I've most often re-read Mrs. Dalloway--the older I get, the more I see in Mrs. Dalloway's perspective, what seeing an old beau suddenly can do to you, what it's like to try to make sense of one's own past and identity. I read a lot of Woolf the fall of 2005--that summer, my beloved aunt died and then we had to evacuate our home in New Orleans because of Katrina. As my husband and I tried to figure out our next step while staying with family in Tennessee, we got library cards, and I read a lot of Woolf. The quiet tone of her books was a balm.
Thank you for the beautiful letter. I am so glad I've joined for real (=paid subscription). I've tried to teach a course in Woolf but did not succeed in one place (lost too many people) and in the other am not sure I reached them _about Woolf_. Conveyed her text or meaning. You did that in this letter -- well you did a part of what one needs to do to reach Woolf. This is very good for me to start my day with.
Yes I'm a Woolf fan -- I've been reading her for years, tried a couple of times to write an essay for publication on her biographical art -- its links to earlier biographical art that is socially and psychologically intelligent. There is a strain or vein (or books as early as George Cavendish that do this). I love literary biography especially. I love her literary essays as much as the novels -- better than some of them. I forget the other questions you asked.
I will be trying to read your letters on the morning they come in. Not wait so as to be sure and do it. I have read your book on Constance Fennimore Woolson, on the 4 19th century American women writers, and on Little Women. I have not read these diary newsletter as well or frequently as I ought to have but will try now to make up for that. I love your courage for breaking away entirely from your moorings to find and to build a new life. I will say more as I continue to comment.
Anne, I love that reading Virginia Woolf is inspiring you "to write literature itself rather than only about literature." Discovering writers who gobsmack you into wanting to do more with your own writing, discover more about yourself, go out into the world and conquer: that's what literature can do in those rare and wonderful moments when you connect deeply with what you are reading.
I have never been able to connect with Virginia Woolf. I feel like I SHOULD like Virigina Woolf, and I've tried reading To the Lighthouse on several occasions during the past three or four decades. Either the time is never right or Virginia and I simply are not simpatico. Perhaps I should give her yet another try. Can you recommend any other Woolf books you like, since I am hesitant to try To the Lighthouse again? Many thanks!