Description
Woolf's fine character studies of several authors, among them Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who 'seems not a man, but a swarm, a cloud, a buzz of words, darting this way and that, clustering, quivering and hanging suspended'. He is, Woolf adds,so complex, so eccentric, that we 'become dazed in the labyrinth of what we call Coleridge'. He was incapable of adopting requisite social modes, of suppressing his obsessive urge to talk, of pandering to the expectations of others. Woolf tries to capture a 'clear picture' of Coleridge but this metaphor is skewed and what she really reveals is a voice - mad and beautiful - never to be heard again:
About the Author
Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 - 28 March 1941) was an English novelist, critic and publisher. She was born to an affluent and influential London family; her father, Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 - 1904) was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. With other contemporaries, including T. S. Eliot, James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield, Woolf became a key figure within, and partisan advocate of, literary modernism. Her novels include Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928) and Between the Acts (1941), and her campaigning non-fiction includes A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938). She wrote extensive criticism, often for newspapers, and this was collected in works including The Common Reader (1925 and, second series, 1932) and The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942). As co-founder, with her husband Leonard Woolf, of the Hogarth Press, Woolf published many of her contemporaries, including T. S. Eliot. In 1941, Woolf committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Ouse, near her Sussex home. Joanna Kavenna is a British novelist and travel writer. Her works include The Ice Museum, Inglorious and The Birth of Love. Her short stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, Arc, the Guardian and the New York Times, among other publications. She has received the Alistair Horne Fellowship and the Orange Prize for New Writing, and in 2013 was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.
Reviews
"The book explores the idea of the self in a very thought-provoking way and is a real treat for Woolf fans who like to analyze the more complex themes and ideas in her works." -Virginia Woolf Blog
"Underpinning all of the essays is the question of what it means to have a sense of self. A question that, in the age of the selfie, seems utterly topical." -Julia Bell, Writers' Hub, University College London
"The essays...are sublime moments in intellectual history, while also being entertaining and accessible." -Shiny New Books
Book Information
ISBN 9781907903922
Author Virginia Woolf
Format Hardback
Page Count 184
Imprint Notting Hill Editions
Publisher Notting Hill Editions
Weight(grams) 227g
Dimensions(mm) 190mm * 120mm * 15mm
About the Author
Virginia Woolf (25 January 1882 - 28 March 1941) was an English novelist, critic and publisher. She was born to an affluent and influential London family; her father, Sir Leslie Stephen (1832 - 1904) was the founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. With other contemporaries, including T. S. Eliot, James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield, Woolf became a key figure within, and partisan advocate of, literary modernism. Her novels include Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando (1928) and Between the Acts (1941), and her campaigning non-fiction includes A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938). She wrote extensive criticism, often for newspapers, and this was collected in works including The Common Reader (1925 and, second series, 1932) and The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942). As co-founder, with her husband Leonard Woolf, of the Hogarth Press, Woolf published many of her contemporaries, including T. S. Eliot. In 1941, Woolf committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Ouse, near her Sussex home. Joanna Kavenna is a British novelist and travel writer. Her works include The Ice Museum, Inglorious and The Birth of Love. Her short stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, Arc, the Guardian and the New York Times, among other publications. She has received the Alistair Horne Fellowship and the Orange Prize for New Writing, and in 2013 was named as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.
Reviews
"The book explores the idea of the self in a very thought-provoking way and is a real treat for Woolf fans who like to analyze the more complex themes and ideas in her works." -Virginia Woolf Blog
"Underpinning all of the essays is the question of what it means to have a sense of self. A question that, in the age of the selfie, seems utterly topical." -Julia Bell, Writers' Hub, University College London
"The essays...are sublime moments in intellectual history, while also being entertaining and accessible." -Shiny New Books
Book Information
ISBN 9781907903922
Author Virginia Woolf
Format Hardback
Page Count 184
Imprint Notting Hill Editions
Publisher Notting Hill Editions
Weight(grams) 227g
Dimensions(mm) 190mm * 120mm * 15mm
