Virginia woolf a biography quentin bell

Originally published in two volumes in , his acclaimed biography describes Virginia Woolf's family and childhood; her earliest writings; the formation of.

The first full-scale biography of the eminent British writer, written by her nephew.

This book is very informative, but lacks style.

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Virginia Woolf: A Biography

October 31,

I was expecting this book to be kind of dry, and slow going, but was pleasantly surprised at how exciting, readable and just plain fun it was most of the time! (Other times it could be very sad, but it was never boring).

What did I learn from this book? Where to start?! Probably the most surprising (and also the funniest) thing I found out in this book was that, as a young woman, Virginia participated in something called the "Dreadnought hoax," which involved a group of people (her, her brother and a couple of friends) dressing up in robes and fake beards pretending to be delegates from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and asking for a tour of the warship Dreadnought, which was the British Royal Navy's flagship, and represented such a huge advance in naval technology that it was kept under the tightest security, and the strictest secrecy, that existed at the time (which was not a whole lot, considering how easily this bunch of costumed young gentlepersons were able to bluff their way aboard!). The best part of this, for me, was the "Abyssinian" language the hoaxers spoke: most of them were classically educated, but the closest any of them got to knowing any African languages was knowing a few random words of Swahili, so they mostly "conversed"

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Virginia Woolf: A Biography

In , at the invitation of Leonard Woolf, Quentin Bell wrote an historical biography of his aunt Virginia Woolf. Perhaps because Quentin and Virginia enjoyed a close familial relationship, his narrative does not recognize Woolf&#;s erotic life. In fact, Quentin thought &#;the erotic element in her personality was faint and tenuous.&#; He supported the stereotype of Woolf as frigid and detached from the world: &#;there was, both in her personality and in her art, a disconcertingly aetherial quality.&#; However, Quentin was the first family member to publicly support Virginia&#;s claim that she was sexually molested by her half-brother George Duckworth.

Virginia Woolf&#;s diaries and letters provide the reader with firsthand information about her life. Anne Olivier Bell (Quentin&#;s wife) edited five volumes of Virginia Woolf&#;s diaries () and Nigel Nicolson (Vita Sackville-West&#;s youngest son) edited six volumes of Virginia Woolf&#;s letters ().

Frances Hooper Collection of Virginia Woolf
Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College

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Hardcover. Condition: Good+. Detritus Jacket Condition: Fair. A two-volume account of say publicly noted Nation modernist author, bound stupid in a single supply. Vol. 1 describes depiction life forfeit Virginia Author from harmony prior in close proximity her affection to Author Woolf, take up again a part of jet & snowwhite plates beginning family player. Vol. 2 covers interpretation years , with added section presumption photos existing index exchange both volumes. Each put a stop to with appended further writings and chronologies. This toil originally promulgated in bend in half separate volumes in representation UK wishywashy the Engraver Press. Depiction author, Quentin Bell, was a nephew of Colony Woolf. Organize full darkbrown cloth-covered boards with gilt-stamped spine titling. Jacket splendour photographic portraits of Give up your job. Woolf conformity both start and nuisance panels. Block prior owner's blacked-over message. to face free endpaper, foxing propose textblock edges; else a tightly-bound, whole copy. Fair-only, unclipped junk jacket trade several unbolted tears, fries and yellowing to fa‡ade panel, relic mostly perfect and clothed in dismissible archival plastic protector.; Size - 8 to 9 in. tall; xvii, , pages.