Virginia Woolf – what can you say?
Having just read
Mrs Dalloway, I am in awe. And I haven't felt that kind of awe since 'discovering' Thomas Mann. But there you go – two writers who create 'novels of ideas'. Maybe that's what 'gets me off'.
She was an amazing figure ... like Joyce, she looked to create an idea of the internal dialogue. Arguably, she does it better. Her prose, though not 'easy', is very musical, once you find the ebb and flow – and she has so many themes that, to read her, is like experiencing a literary form of millefeuille.
One of the things that I find intriguing is that she seems to be sidelined into 'feminist' literature so much – yet she was writing for all people, male and female. And her 'feminism' was not of a reactionary variety that excluded men. She doesn't hate men, as
Mrs Dalloway quite clearly shows. Perhaps that's her problem – that reactionary feminism wants to claim her and that the rest of the literary world therefore feel uncomfortable with her?
She was a feminist, without doubt. But perhaps not such a simplistic form of feminist as a strand of feminism would like. Or, to put another point on it – feminism is not a division from the rest of life.
Mrs Dalloway alone is a genuine work of art and, if that were her only novel, her reputation would be assured.
From a very personal perspective – I don't look for 'feminist' literature: arguably, I tend to avoid it. But after my first real experience of her work ... I am in awe. I feel affected by her work in a way that I haven't since reading Mann's
Death in Venice. And from me, that's probably about the biggest compliment that I can give her.
Is she one of the greatest of English writers? Should she be rated more highly and lauded kore highly than she is?
Well there you go: read her and make up your own mind.
But one thing should be clear – don't be afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Her major works:
The Voyage Out (1915)
Night and Day (1919)
Jacob's Room (1922)
Mrs Dalloway (1925)
To the Lighthouse (1927)
Orlando (1928)
The Waves (1931)
The Years (1937)
Between the Acts (1941)
A few links:
Wikipedia article
Guardian piece
The Virginia Woolf Society
The International Virginia Woolf Society
BBC interview from 1937 – audio file (just over seven minutes utterly fascinating)