This prize-winning biography, newly revised, sees Virginia Woolf as she saw herself. The first to set out the private life behind the well-known facts of her public career, A Writer's Life rocks back and forth between memories and art to reveal an explorer of 'the infinite oddity of the human position'. Instead of the doom-and-death often imposed on women of genius, here is the robust walker and seeker for what was fertile in her intimacies, in women's nature, and in resistance to power. This edition brings out her ideas for biography itself: to fall on a life 'like a roll of heavy waters...laying bare the pebbles on the shore of the soul'.
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Editorial Reviews
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'Lyndall Gordon must be one of the most accomplished literary biographers of this generation... Outstanding and stimulating... Excellent treatment of the woman and her art' British Book News 'sensitive and original' Hermione Lee, TES 'At last the most filigree of artists is given the substance that several decades of anecdotage and gossip have trivialised' Roger Lewis, Punch 'a most perceptive book which greatly adds to our knowledge and understanding' London Magazine
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About the Author
Author of the prizewinning biographies ELIOT'S EARLY YEARS, ELIOT'S NEW LIFE and VIRGINIA WOOLF: A WRITER'S LIFE. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Lyndall received her doctorate from Columbia University and is a fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
When A Masterpiece May Need An Advocate,
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This review is from: Virginia Woolf - A Writer's Life (Paper Only) (Paperback)
This paperback-only book is a Masterpiece, and frankly one of the best books written about Virginia Woolf. Certainly, books abound about her - but they were not written by this author and insider with vast connections to both Virginia and Leonard Woolf. Also, aside from the substantive content, the book is truly a labor of love. I've never "advocated" for a book before but Virginia Woolf surely is still "with us" as one of the most masterful and popular authors of all time. If she cannot literally speak for herself (although her own writings do that exceedingly well), I believe it is our responsibility to go-tell-it-on-the-mountain when a gem-of-a-book about one of the greatest female-genius-writers is about to go down for the count. Oh, and the front cover photo of VW alone is worth almost as much as the book itself for VW was never again photographed with her guard down in quite this way. The book tells you why.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Gordon's Best,
By Dr. Elaine O. Chaika "book, movie, tech lover" (Eastern New England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)
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This review is from: Virginia Woolf: A Writer's Life (Paperback)
I bought this because I so loved Lyndall Gordon's biographies of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Bronte sisters, whch are among the best biographies I've ever read. However, this biography of Virginia Woolf, which apparently was a much earlier effort than the other two, is boring. It has none of the life, the flowing prose of the othet two.
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First Sentence:
VIRGINIA WOOLF said that 'if life has a base' it is a memory. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
early typescript, mental isolation, insensitive nature Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Virginia Woolf, Leslie Stephen, Virginia Stephen, Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, Lily Briscoe, Julia Stephen, Hyde Park Gate, Katherine Mansfield, Lytton Strachey, Hampton Court, Miss Willatt, George Eliot, The Wise Virgins, Jacob's Room, Sir William, Joan Martyn, Vanessa Bell, Monks House, Rachel Vinrace, Septimus Warren Smith, Duncan Grant, Quentin Bell, George Duckworth, Henry James New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
VIRGINIA WOOLF said that 'if life has a base' it is a memory. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
early typescript, mental isolation, insensitive nature Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Virginia Woolf, Leslie Stephen, Virginia Stephen, Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, Lily Briscoe, Julia Stephen, Hyde Park Gate, Katherine Mansfield, Lytton Strachey, Hampton Court, Miss Willatt, George Eliot, The Wise Virgins, Jacob's Room, Sir William, Joan Martyn, Vanessa Bell, Monks House, Rachel Vinrace, Septimus Warren Smith, Duncan Grant, Quentin Bell, George Duckworth, Henry James New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf on 41 pages
- Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf on 14 pages
- Mrs Dalloway (Worlds Classics) by Virginia Woolf on 13 pages
- The Voyage Out (Penguin Modern Classics Fiction) by Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Jane Wheare Virginia Woolf on 13 pages
- George Eliot by Leslie Stephen on 8 pages
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