Virginia Woolf is probably my favorite writer of all time, so it was amazing to read these intimate and literary (but still relatively unpolished) memoirs. The writings split their time between Woolf's childhood and family and her adult friendships with the Bloomsbury group. One of the writings on her childhood was written very early in her career (before she had published any novels) and the other late in her life, finished the same year she killed herself. The remaining three pieces were written as part of the Memoir Club, a writing group of Woolf and some of the other Bloomsbury regulars where autobiographical sketches were written and read aloud to the other group members. Rather than arrange the writings by the time period in which they were written, Schulkind arranges them so that the events discussed move forward in chronological order, and includes brief prefaces to each piece that tie the works into the timeline of Woolf's life and make this collection something of a mini-biography.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2009/09...] ( )

Wonderfully moving and insightful memoirs by Virginia Woolf.

The first two essays - one written in 1907, the other in 1939 show how the subject of memory and the past were so vital to her, as the same memory is retold from different ages.

The collection also includes three reminiscences she wrote for The Memoir Club, an informal gathering where the members of the Bloomsbury group would met occasionally to read personal memoirs to the others. ( )

Memoirs of Woolf's early life, written for her nephew. Probably a lot more interesting for Woolf scholars than for the average reader. ( )

Being exposed to the inner and outer worlds of Virginia Woolf shed light on why she picked the themes that she did and possibly why she was such a troubled genius. ( )